And just like that, Penn State’s spring practice session is beginning to wind down, concluding with next Saturday afternoon’s Blue-White Game at Beaver Stadium.
The team will commence Saturday for its 11th practice of the spring session, and with it, it’s time for us to check in on some of the larger themes that have emerged through the course of the past few weeks.
We’ll start where we always start, because it’s important and will continue to be important for the foreseeable future, on the offensive line:
1) I’m going to really blow your minds and do something a bit different here and not run through the depth chart, mainly because it just does not matter in the larger context of where this group is now and where it’s going.
By now, you’ve read that Andrew Nelson lined up as the starting left tackle at Wednesday’s practice, which was also the case during Saturday’s scrimmage in the absence of Paris Palmer. Without getting too far off track, bumps and bruises are a team-wide concern, but have definitely had an effect on this group particularly on the interior of the line.
Brendan Mahon has missed time, which has bumped Ryan Bates up to take first team reps, Derek Dowrey has split time at both guard positions, Brian Gaia is holding down the center spot. And most recently with the flip of Nelson to LT, Noah Beh has been repping with the ones at right tackle. Head coach James Franklin addressed this topic directly following practice on Wednesday.
"(Paris Palmer) had missed a practice, our last practice and we had Nelly at left tackle and thought it went well, so we thought, ‘Let’s experiment with Paris at right tackle.’ Sometimes you make those types of moves because of the situation you're in and it ends up being a blessing in disguise,” he told reporters. “It’s still us searching for the best five and get them on the field. Not only getting the right people on the bus, but getting the in there right seats as well. Just experimenting with that.
“To be honest with you more than that we’re kind of looking at, who are the other guys? Is it Noah Beh? Is it Sterling Jenkins? Is he ready yet? Is it Connor McGovern, who we're experimenting a little bit at tackle as well, who is doing a nice job for us for a true freshman."
Those experimentations are more likely than not likely to shift shape as the spring closes out, the summer months begin, and especially by the start of preseason practice when missing ingredients come back into the picture.
No doubt, there have been some challenges at tackle against a budding group of defensive ends (more on this later - and to be fair, Nelson has been pretty good this spring) but the good news for Penn State here is that the interior of the line has at times looked good. It’s just a little too early to get carried away with many impressions on the offensive line in either direction as these guys continue to develop and mature in Matt Limegrover’s new system.
Almost certainly, the ones at tomorrow’s practice will not be identical to the ones when Penn State opens the season in September.
2) That note about the edges being susceptible to leaving the quarterbacks running for their lives…
There are some silver linings to this specific issue this spring, and they are the legs of the quarterbacks who are currently being hunted. The reality here is that, even though the defense isn’t actually dragging these guys to the ground (meaning, it’s a little unfair to praise elusiveness for quarterbacks who aren’t truly at risk of being sacked) the benefits that everyone expected are starting to manifest themselves with these guys.
Not worth spending a ton of time on this, but the mantra of turning a six yard loss into a three yard gain has appeared on the field this spring.
3) There is of course one more element to this trifecta of factors dealing with quarterback pressure among the signal-callers and the offensive line.
Which is to say, Torrence Brown in particular has really started to come on on the outside. He has looked especially quick, and when you consider the amount of football played by Garrett Sickels and Evan Schwan, plus some budding talent in Shareef Miller - this group might not be as far away as some would expect.
There’s a nice mix of depth, experience and talent and, given the opportunity to really get to work this week with blitzes and stunts introduced at practice, the results have been pretty positive.
Additionally, and we’ve been through this before, but Kevin Givens continues to earn praise. He’s obviously not that big comparatively speaking, but we know he’s strong, he’s got a lot of explosive movement and his technique is starting to catch up as he transitions inside.
4) This group of wide receivers continues to get a lot of positive commentary. Chris Godwin is just veteran, there’s no other way to put it. He’s mature, he’s tough, he’s gutsy, and he’s fully grown into the trajectory that seems like has been a given since he broke out at the Pinstripe Bowl a couple of years ago.
That said, I’m going to continue to pound the drum for Saeed Blacknall here. I’ve written stories about him, but I think the main takeaway here is that he’s always seemed to have the talent but maybe couldn’t always find his role or the opportunities to make an impact and his effort/attitude would suffer at times as a result.
Those challenges appear to be of the past. He’s worked very hard since the end of last season and is shaping up to be the burner on the outside.
One other name to mention here is Juwan Johnson, who has really shown some impressive flashes this spring. But, and this is a big but, the expectations need to be in accordance with who he is and what he brings to the table right now. He’s not a fully formed guy, so the inconsistency that often follows young receivers around is very much a factor with Johnson.
5) Penn State’s defense has had a lot of success at practice this week. I’m going to drop Franklin’s words from his post-practice press conference on Wednesday here:
"I thought today was probably the best we’ve played. There was energy there was confidence they made a bunch of plays. The personality is more of just off-season studies that we did in terms of how we want to disguise some of our coverages, try to disguise some of our blitzes. We felt like that was an area that we could improve on,” said Franklin. “Then obviously not having some of the guys this spring that are veteran really good players (Nyeem Wartman-White and Brandon Bell, specifically), other guys have had to step up into those roles, but they've done a nice job. I think it’s a great opportunity for some other guys. Manny (Bowen) is getting a bunch of reps, which is great for him. (Jake) Cooper is getting a bunch of reps. Kevin Givens is getting a bunch of reps, which is really good for those guys. I thought today was the first time that the defense played with a lot of confidence."
"We’re also at a point now where the defense has got everything in and the way we kind of go through spring ball, we kind of make sure we’re doing it it part-part-part-whole. We kind of build. Offensively they’re not going to do a lot of shifting, motioning and things like that and do crazy tempo early on for our defense. Our defense is not going to blitz a lot early in spring ball. We’re going to build."
OK, so that was a long quote, but the point can be boiled down to this:
The defense is very much suffering from some important absences, particularly at linebacker, but it knows what it’s doing. Nothing substantial has changed from what they already know, so when the shackles came off and blitzing and exotic coverages were introduced at practice this week, it gave the defense a pretty substantial advantage.
And this is where things get interesting. As Franklin himself said after practice Wednesday, and I’m building on here, there has been some early success for Penn State’s offense. Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens showing mobility really does make things different and pays dividends.
“There’s an excitement right now offensively,” said Franklin. “The line is playing better. We still have some things we have to get resolved. We’re veteran now at wide receiver, where we’ve been young in the past. We’re veteran at running back and we have some experience at tight end, so we’ve been pleased with that."
But, it’s critical to keep in mind that for the steps that the scheme has taken, not only is it still early, but the competition has been less than operating at full capacity. So for as frequently as the receivers have found pockets to settle in the middle of the field, it can’t be glossed over that the linebackers who would typically be in coverage are not the usual suspects right now.
So the question is two-fold: Did the offense have some early success because the defense's hands were tied and is already missing some critical ingredients? Or, has Joe Moorhead's new unit really taken shape?
As is generally the case, especially at this time of year, the answer is somewhere in the middle, but there have been reasons for optimism/concern on both sides of the ball as a result.
I’m going to go for the understatement of the year award here, but health continues to be an extremely important factor with this program in its current form. Bumps and bruises happen this time of year at every school, but there is just no getting around the fact that on both sides of the ball there are critical components who - if they were to be absent for any extended amount of time - would create serious problems.
6) One last thing. John Reid has had a solid spring.
And with that, enjoy the Masters!
The team will commence Saturday for its 11th practice of the spring session, and with it, it’s time for us to check in on some of the larger themes that have emerged through the course of the past few weeks.
We’ll start where we always start, because it’s important and will continue to be important for the foreseeable future, on the offensive line:
1) I’m going to really blow your minds and do something a bit different here and not run through the depth chart, mainly because it just does not matter in the larger context of where this group is now and where it’s going.
By now, you’ve read that Andrew Nelson lined up as the starting left tackle at Wednesday’s practice, which was also the case during Saturday’s scrimmage in the absence of Paris Palmer. Without getting too far off track, bumps and bruises are a team-wide concern, but have definitely had an effect on this group particularly on the interior of the line.
Brendan Mahon has missed time, which has bumped Ryan Bates up to take first team reps, Derek Dowrey has split time at both guard positions, Brian Gaia is holding down the center spot. And most recently with the flip of Nelson to LT, Noah Beh has been repping with the ones at right tackle. Head coach James Franklin addressed this topic directly following practice on Wednesday.
"(Paris Palmer) had missed a practice, our last practice and we had Nelly at left tackle and thought it went well, so we thought, ‘Let’s experiment with Paris at right tackle.’ Sometimes you make those types of moves because of the situation you're in and it ends up being a blessing in disguise,” he told reporters. “It’s still us searching for the best five and get them on the field. Not only getting the right people on the bus, but getting the in there right seats as well. Just experimenting with that.
“To be honest with you more than that we’re kind of looking at, who are the other guys? Is it Noah Beh? Is it Sterling Jenkins? Is he ready yet? Is it Connor McGovern, who we're experimenting a little bit at tackle as well, who is doing a nice job for us for a true freshman."
Those experimentations are more likely than not likely to shift shape as the spring closes out, the summer months begin, and especially by the start of preseason practice when missing ingredients come back into the picture.
No doubt, there have been some challenges at tackle against a budding group of defensive ends (more on this later - and to be fair, Nelson has been pretty good this spring) but the good news for Penn State here is that the interior of the line has at times looked good. It’s just a little too early to get carried away with many impressions on the offensive line in either direction as these guys continue to develop and mature in Matt Limegrover’s new system.
Almost certainly, the ones at tomorrow’s practice will not be identical to the ones when Penn State opens the season in September.
2) That note about the edges being susceptible to leaving the quarterbacks running for their lives…
There are some silver linings to this specific issue this spring, and they are the legs of the quarterbacks who are currently being hunted. The reality here is that, even though the defense isn’t actually dragging these guys to the ground (meaning, it’s a little unfair to praise elusiveness for quarterbacks who aren’t truly at risk of being sacked) the benefits that everyone expected are starting to manifest themselves with these guys.
Not worth spending a ton of time on this, but the mantra of turning a six yard loss into a three yard gain has appeared on the field this spring.
3) There is of course one more element to this trifecta of factors dealing with quarterback pressure among the signal-callers and the offensive line.
Which is to say, Torrence Brown in particular has really started to come on on the outside. He has looked especially quick, and when you consider the amount of football played by Garrett Sickels and Evan Schwan, plus some budding talent in Shareef Miller - this group might not be as far away as some would expect.
There’s a nice mix of depth, experience and talent and, given the opportunity to really get to work this week with blitzes and stunts introduced at practice, the results have been pretty positive.
Additionally, and we’ve been through this before, but Kevin Givens continues to earn praise. He’s obviously not that big comparatively speaking, but we know he’s strong, he’s got a lot of explosive movement and his technique is starting to catch up as he transitions inside.
4) This group of wide receivers continues to get a lot of positive commentary. Chris Godwin is just veteran, there’s no other way to put it. He’s mature, he’s tough, he’s gutsy, and he’s fully grown into the trajectory that seems like has been a given since he broke out at the Pinstripe Bowl a couple of years ago.
That said, I’m going to continue to pound the drum for Saeed Blacknall here. I’ve written stories about him, but I think the main takeaway here is that he’s always seemed to have the talent but maybe couldn’t always find his role or the opportunities to make an impact and his effort/attitude would suffer at times as a result.
Those challenges appear to be of the past. He’s worked very hard since the end of last season and is shaping up to be the burner on the outside.
One other name to mention here is Juwan Johnson, who has really shown some impressive flashes this spring. But, and this is a big but, the expectations need to be in accordance with who he is and what he brings to the table right now. He’s not a fully formed guy, so the inconsistency that often follows young receivers around is very much a factor with Johnson.
5) Penn State’s defense has had a lot of success at practice this week. I’m going to drop Franklin’s words from his post-practice press conference on Wednesday here:
"I thought today was probably the best we’ve played. There was energy there was confidence they made a bunch of plays. The personality is more of just off-season studies that we did in terms of how we want to disguise some of our coverages, try to disguise some of our blitzes. We felt like that was an area that we could improve on,” said Franklin. “Then obviously not having some of the guys this spring that are veteran really good players (Nyeem Wartman-White and Brandon Bell, specifically), other guys have had to step up into those roles, but they've done a nice job. I think it’s a great opportunity for some other guys. Manny (Bowen) is getting a bunch of reps, which is great for him. (Jake) Cooper is getting a bunch of reps. Kevin Givens is getting a bunch of reps, which is really good for those guys. I thought today was the first time that the defense played with a lot of confidence."
"We’re also at a point now where the defense has got everything in and the way we kind of go through spring ball, we kind of make sure we’re doing it it part-part-part-whole. We kind of build. Offensively they’re not going to do a lot of shifting, motioning and things like that and do crazy tempo early on for our defense. Our defense is not going to blitz a lot early in spring ball. We’re going to build."
OK, so that was a long quote, but the point can be boiled down to this:
The defense is very much suffering from some important absences, particularly at linebacker, but it knows what it’s doing. Nothing substantial has changed from what they already know, so when the shackles came off and blitzing and exotic coverages were introduced at practice this week, it gave the defense a pretty substantial advantage.
And this is where things get interesting. As Franklin himself said after practice Wednesday, and I’m building on here, there has been some early success for Penn State’s offense. Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens showing mobility really does make things different and pays dividends.
“There’s an excitement right now offensively,” said Franklin. “The line is playing better. We still have some things we have to get resolved. We’re veteran now at wide receiver, where we’ve been young in the past. We’re veteran at running back and we have some experience at tight end, so we’ve been pleased with that."
But, it’s critical to keep in mind that for the steps that the scheme has taken, not only is it still early, but the competition has been less than operating at full capacity. So for as frequently as the receivers have found pockets to settle in the middle of the field, it can’t be glossed over that the linebackers who would typically be in coverage are not the usual suspects right now.
So the question is two-fold: Did the offense have some early success because the defense's hands were tied and is already missing some critical ingredients? Or, has Joe Moorhead's new unit really taken shape?
As is generally the case, especially at this time of year, the answer is somewhere in the middle, but there have been reasons for optimism/concern on both sides of the ball as a result.
I’m going to go for the understatement of the year award here, but health continues to be an extremely important factor with this program in its current form. Bumps and bruises happen this time of year at every school, but there is just no getting around the fact that on both sides of the ball there are critical components who - if they were to be absent for any extended amount of time - would create serious problems.
6) One last thing. John Reid has had a solid spring.
And with that, enjoy the Masters!
