This season's Penn State squad has been one of the most frustrating to watch in my lifetime, and I have been trying to figure out why. I have characterized this team as being soft, but that isn't quite right. Basically, what it comes down to is that the team has plenty of great athletes, but not too many good football players are on the field. This year's team has won its games by simply being bigger, stronger, and faster than the teams we have beat. But this team makes very few good football plays, and it has very few players who are making those plays.
When you think about some of the iconic plays in Penn State history, I think of Tamba Hali knocking Troy Smith on his head, Michael Robinson running over a Minnesota linebacker, Kenny Jackson's spin move against Pitt, Lavar's leap, Derrick Williams' miracle catch and run against NW, Allen Robinson's catch against Michigan, Saquon's run against USC. Those plays came to mind before I realized that all of those guys ended up playing in the NFL.
Among upperclassmen on this year's team, I see Trace and Miles Sanders making plays, but that is about it. On defense, I see some guys getting penetration, but then taking a bad angle and/or missing a tackle. Or defensive players getting in position for an interception, and then dropping the ball. As many have mentioned here before, the WR position has effectively caused us several turnovers because of tipped and dropped passes. It is really inexcusable at this point.
This team is going nowhere without some near-term contributions from underclassmen. Early in his career, Joe Paterno benched his upperclassmen and played the youngsters in order to save his job. I don't expect Coach Franklin to do that, but he should. The rest of this season, I will be focused on the underclassmen who may turn out to be football players for Penn State towards the end of this season and in the next couple of years. Our upperclassmen are by and large good athletes, but many of them are simply not good football players.
When you think about some of the iconic plays in Penn State history, I think of Tamba Hali knocking Troy Smith on his head, Michael Robinson running over a Minnesota linebacker, Kenny Jackson's spin move against Pitt, Lavar's leap, Derrick Williams' miracle catch and run against NW, Allen Robinson's catch against Michigan, Saquon's run against USC. Those plays came to mind before I realized that all of those guys ended up playing in the NFL.
Among upperclassmen on this year's team, I see Trace and Miles Sanders making plays, but that is about it. On defense, I see some guys getting penetration, but then taking a bad angle and/or missing a tackle. Or defensive players getting in position for an interception, and then dropping the ball. As many have mentioned here before, the WR position has effectively caused us several turnovers because of tipped and dropped passes. It is really inexcusable at this point.
This team is going nowhere without some near-term contributions from underclassmen. Early in his career, Joe Paterno benched his upperclassmen and played the youngsters in order to save his job. I don't expect Coach Franklin to do that, but he should. The rest of this season, I will be focused on the underclassmen who may turn out to be football players for Penn State towards the end of this season and in the next couple of years. Our upperclassmen are by and large good athletes, but many of them are simply not good football players.
