Am I the only one that has "zero" faith the OL ....

[PSUSignore]

"Zero faith" is probably rough, but fair to be skeptical

I think we'll gain a lot from the return of Breneman at TE, he's a better blocker than James was last year. LT is a concern and a lot of riding on the shoulders of Paris Palmer potentially stepping in. The DL converts now have a year under their belt, not unreasonable to expect them to be better.

Am I expecting the best OL in the Big 10? Nope. But we were the worst in the conference last year, only way to go is up. Even a middle of the pack OL should result in a dramatic improvement in offensive numbers. Remember that we were playing behind our own line so often last year. At times it felt like the offense was running for it's life every 5-6 plays. That will get better, the negative plays will reduce.

 

[GulfCoastLion]

At the risk of repeating many of what others have posted

I don't think there are many who expect us to suddenly have one of the better OLines in the B1G, however improving over last years performance is not a big stretch of faith, even some significant improvement. As stated by others, last years OLine had inexperience in many spots, injuries to the 2 guys that had experience and little to no depth. When injuries did occur, we had to shuffle this same inexperience throughout the season, making it even more difficult to gain consistency and production. Experience and reps is a big deal for OL production, as you have noted and we'll be far better on both accounts this year and actually significantly better depth wise.

There's no easy, short cut to forming and producing a top notch OLine. We often struggled in Joe's last decade as well on the OLine, so it's something we have seen before. Think of how much better the unit played against BC in the Bowl Game, based on more reps, practice and some healing of the injuries. I'm expecting much better consistency and performance this year, but likely another 1-2 years from becoming one of the best units in the conference. Remains to be seen of course.

This post was edited on 4/13 2:04 PM by GulfCoastLion

 

[bdgan]

Franklin had good things to say about Chaz Wright

so I assume he'll make an impact this fall. He said that the OL were doing a lot better job communicating with each other than last year at this time. He said that Paris Palmer needs to grow. He's only 290 lbs which is pretty skinny for a guy standing 6'7". Franklin also said that his biggest concern is at LT. That's probably Hackenberg's biggest concern too.

 

[BBrown]

Re: Franklin had good things to say about Chaz Wright

Originally posted by bdgan:
so I assume he'll make an impact this fall. He said that the OL were doing a lot better job communicating with each other than last year at this time. He said that Paris Palmer needs to grow. He's only 290 lbs which is pretty skinny for a guy standing 6'7". Franklin also said that his biggest concern is at LT. That's probably Hackenberg's biggest concern too.

There were some pics of the lineman on here the other week and I thought Paris looked very, very lean, downright thin for an O-lineman.

 

[butchnitt]

OK everyone. Get your guns out and start shooting at me but I do not expect a big difference in the OL. Not targeting the players but the coaches. Most of the OL were 2, 3 & 4 Star performers. The OL did not show much progress through the season. Get out your videos of last years games and you will see that in addition to the running game they could not execute a screen pass if their lives depended on it.

I think the jury is still out on our offensive coaching.

 

[blion72]

for me #5 is pretty big. I realize that there was a lot of chaos last year, but the raw ability of some of the players - especially G-C-G was not up to where we need. I look for some of the new guys to challenge players returning. I prefer that we don't even refer to a term like "returning starters", as some of the new guys may be replacing them. I will be shocked if the Stanford transfer is not starting by first game. I also think a FR or RSFr may take one of the positions.

overall I look for some improvement - moving it to a mid-pack OL.

 

[BBrown]

Originally posted by blion72:
for me #5 is pretty big. I realize that there was a lot of chaos last year, but the raw ability of some of the players - especially G-C-G was not up to where we need. I look for some of the new guys to challenge players returning. I prefer that we don't even refer to a term like "returning starters", as some of the new guys may be replacing them. I will be shocked if the Stanford transfer is not starting by first game. I also think a FR or RSFr may take one of the positions.

overall I look for some improvement - moving it to a mid-pack OL.

>>overall I look for some improvement - moving it to a mid-pack OL.

 

[tboyer]

One word: experience

they have game experience, they have two offseasons of conditioning and coaching, they know the offense better.

it's a no brainer they'll be better than last year. But probably still a ways from being what we would consider a quality B1G O-line.

Remember this is still a recovery year. LT is the most important position on the team and their choices are Nelson who is still very young or Palmer who has some experience but who has never tried to compete at this level. People forget, going from Jr. college to the B1G is like going from a quality HS program to the B1G. It's a huge, huge difference in the quality of athletes.

 

[PSUinCAfan]

No doubt that in-experience showed up in that call outs before the ball snap where not happening. Also how many times did the guard not pickup the LB delay, coaching these guys to look up for that needs to happen. And lastly Mangiro would lift his behind just before the snap and the OL would be out of position for leverage.
With coaching, film study, experience, added guys and a new attitude I really believe we will see improvement.

 

[PSUJim]

BB, I am not saying Smith isn't a team player, however, it was.....

mentioned on numerous occasions, on multiple sites by multiple sources, that Donovan did not work nearly as hard as he could have - especially in the first few years. If the same sentiment is coming out of 2 different coaching staffs, then I am apt to believe what folks were saying.

I am very happy for Donovan, and I hope he has a tremendous NFL career. However, while part of it was injuries, I don't feel like he performed at the level that he had the potential for at PSU. Just my opinion.