Especially encouraging is how BC ranked No. 1 in FBS in blitz down sack rate. Everyone knows BC can run run run the ball, but even when they pass, in obvious passing situations, their OL is No. 1 in picking up the blitz.
It's official: Trautwein to PSU as OL Coach
- Thread starter mn78psu83
- Start date
This is what makes me hopeful, if not optimistic, that we can have the offense clicking before the 4.5 games that it took Joe Moorhead at PSU and Josh Gattis at UM.
We'll have our hands full in Blacksburg for Game 2, but we gotta get the machine fine-tuned at home against San Jose State and Northwestern before the gauntlet begins at Michigan in Week 5:
Kent State
at Virginia Tech
San Jose State
Northwestern
at Michigan
Iowa
Ohio State
at Indiana
at Nebraska
vs Michigan State
Maryland
at Rutgers
Hopefully we can get a win at Virginia Tech... that would set us up for a big show-down in Ann Arbor, and if we can survive that, then we get a bye week to rest up before hosting Iowa and Ohio State in back-to-back weeks. Our season will be decided by then.
From the BWI write-up (link):
According to Football Outsiders, Boston College finished 27th or better in every blocking category this year. Comparatively, Penn State was mid-tier in the majority of statistics. The Lions were also one of the worst teams in sack rate (No. 99) and sack rate on passing downs (No. 122).
Did not realize we were that bad in pass protection last year.
For sure, expensive doesn't guarantee anything. But it's kind of like recruiting stars -- your odds are probably better with a $2 million-a-year coordinator who has been highly successful in the B1G than with, say, a $250,000-a-year head coach's son with little experience and no demonstrated success. Having money certainly gives Franklin more choices than he would have otherwise.
I kept trying to point out that Clifford didn’t have time to play QB. That’s why his numbers regressed. Along with injuries.
It is not wins it is losses. Ten times Paterno lost 0 or 1 game. Twenty times he lost 2 or less games. James is striving to get a 0 or 1 loss season. I am hoping he gets there.
That is a really tough schedule I think. Blacksburg will be tough. Michigan will probably be better next year without Patterson. Iowa loses Epenesa but they start to look like a real threat offensively. Midseason is a physical grind like last year but vs teams that might be better than Iowa, Michigan and MSU were this year.
Didn't realize it was that bad either. Sack rate on passing downs is interesting -- that means they weren't picking up blitzes very well, they didn't have max protect working at all.
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Yeah, trying to figure out why this is six pages long. Must be a bunch of dudes I have on ignore...
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Kent State
at Virginia Tech
San Jose State
Northwestern
at Michigan
*BYE*
Iowa
Ohio State
at Indiana
at Nebraska
vs Michigan State
Maryland
at Rutgers
Did you see how not-want-to-be-in our guys were in the Cotton Bowl? Clearly our guys mailed it in. For all the hype, Parsons just stood around and didn’t break a sweat. It was especially embarrassing in the post-game press conference when Parsons was asked about the significance of the win and just said, “Whatever.”
And I think the coaches had to wake up Journey Brown each time we got the ball back.
I think we'll beat Michigan in Ann Arbor next year, but even if we lose, the season is not over. We'll come home, rest up over the bye, beat Iowa and then welcome Ohio State for a #WHITEOUT in what should be a defacto mid-season Big Ten Conference Championship Football Game at Beaver Stadium. If we beat OSU, then we're setting up for a 3-way tie, but Michigan will drop another game somewhere along the line, so we'll get the nod with a head-to-head win vs OSU.
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He didn't have time for 2nd and 3rd reads. He should flourish with the new staff additions
Although this is before the the OL hire, there's something that stands out to me from guys way more connected than us. Anyone else care to listen and comment?
So joe had 35 seasons with 2 looses or MORE.
It is also who you play.
Maybe psu should go independent and schedule BC, RU, WVU, pitt, penn, temple, nova, syracuse and maryland.
Let me break a few ties: everyone on here is a “fan boy”. The more posts, the bigger the fan boy, no one is exempt.
James Franklin is A+ everything but clock manager. Roll the tape over the years, including end of Cotton Bowl half. This cannot be argued. After all, no one is perfect and JF would admit as much. You’d just like to see him handle it better at this stage of his career, but we see it all the time with other good coaches too. I’ll never understand why they don’t assign a person to it, but I get it. But he stinks at it, it’s known to objective people who don’t care about PSU, be pro gamblers, other fan boy groups etc. With how organized and crazy he is, I’m shocked it still rears it’s head so often. As the team has gotten more talented, it simply doesn’t bite him as much. Still an issue though.
From a discussion I had with a now former player, JF was irate about the loss to Minnesota, namely with Rahne. He was even more irate with the offensive performance against Rutgers. Said player is not convinced that a change wasn’t going to happen, despite the friendship. No players were surprised RR left at first chance and none cared much that he did from a game perspective, just personal. They all had a good idea changes in some capacity were happening. And no player left because it happened, which said player said with a smirk “that’s all you need to know about that”. Was RR going to be fired or demoted, not sure. Discussion I had probably provided more answers than 100 guesses on here. Nobody knows, therefore nobody is right or wrong.
Stay sane fan boys!
James Franklin is A+ everything but clock manager. Roll the tape over the years, including end of Cotton Bowl half. This cannot be argued. After all, no one is perfect and JF would admit as much. You’d just like to see him handle it better at this stage of his career, but we see it all the time with other good coaches too. I’ll never understand why they don’t assign a person to it, but I get it. But he stinks at it, it’s known to objective people who don’t care about PSU, be pro gamblers, other fan boy groups etc. With how organized and crazy he is, I’m shocked it still rears it’s head so often. As the team has gotten more talented, it simply doesn’t bite him as much. Still an issue though.
From a discussion I had with a now former player, JF was irate about the loss to Minnesota, namely with Rahne. He was even more irate with the offensive performance against Rutgers. Said player is not convinced that a change wasn’t going to happen, despite the friendship. No players were surprised RR left at first chance and none cared much that he did from a game perspective, just personal. They all had a good idea changes in some capacity were happening. And no player left because it happened, which said player said with a smirk “that’s all you need to know about that”. Was RR going to be fired or demoted, not sure. Discussion I had probably provided more answers than 100 guesses on here. Nobody knows, therefore nobody is right or wrong.
Stay sane fan boys!
People are fighting about who is a fan boy and who isn’t and whether what and how many coaches should, should have been, should not or should not have been canned or criticized. It’s fascinating stuff!
A very tough schedule and against how these teams performed this past season including bowl game participation (maybe with the exception of Michigan), they will be better.
I'm going to hold back my optimism a bit because of all the questions we have at WR. Lack of performance in the returning players and youth / inexperience. The idea of going into a season not knowing who's going to catch the ball is a problem. Also, depending on freshmen to carry you. At one time we thought the WR class of Dotson, Shorter, and George, with Fleming on the immediate horizon would be special, but now we're left with a huge problem to be solved. Too many unknowns, including the red shirts TJ Jones and John Dunmore, to carry high expectations right out the gate.
The good news is that Franklin is a good problem solver. Let's hope he can be both good and lucky in solving this one.
Why is it always just assumed Michigan will be better?
My goodness dude...Paterno played Bama, Notre Dame, Nebraska, etc - and apt during its hey day...Franklin is awesome...but he still has hills to climb
Michigan and Iowa are going to get better with new QBs? I doubt that
I believe Lewerke graduates so new qb at MSU as well.
I see no way Michigan is better next year. Gattis did a great job in the last half of the season getting Patterson to play a lot more mistake free. Patterson has dual threat skills though. The QBs on the roster do not. That could be overcome with a dominating offensive line but they lose 4/5th of that too with Ruiz going pro. Throw in DPJ leaving early, the loss of Eubanks their TE to graduation and I just don’t see how they could possibly be better on offense. Collins and Bell are good, but can you get the ball to them if you can’t protect the QB?
Their D Line should be good on the edges but lose their starting tackles. They also lose Hudson, Hill and Metellus. There is always talent waiting in the wings but a lot of it is unproven.
They start the year at Washington and the week before they play us they have Wisconsin. Maybe they beat us simply because it’s really difficult to win in AA, but they won’t be better than us next year on paper at least.
We should never fear Iowa outside of Kinnick at night. We simply are too athletic for them. Epenesa was a five star, game wrecker for them. The kind of kid Iowa gets once in 20 years. If they can’t pressure our QB we take them apart in the secondary. Iowa will have a new QB. I haven’t heart if their big time tackle Wirfs is declaring but if he does they are much less formidable up front. People bag on Stanley but when was on, like in their bowl game, he was extremely good. It’s not a given they will upgrade there.
I am very excited for next year. Things line up well for us.
Beat Ohio St, then rest will take care of itself. We aren’t going to Indy if we don’t. It’s a must. Like you said, we can drop one, just can’t be to them or we’re sunk. And Rose is playoff game so we’ll be in a Peach Bowl or something if we don’t go to Indy. Luckily, not the Cotton again at least.
Does your source's name rhyme with PJ Shamler?
Anyway, really good insight, thanks for sharing! It ended up working out for the better for both parties.
I think the offense will get better as the year goes on because of the new offense\coaches. Will take time to gel. Just get past Virginia Tech first as the first hurdle and then worry about michigan. They do that and they'll put themselves in a really good position. I could say take it game by game like James likes to, but that's boring
I think by the end of the year, they will be really good.
