Except for a 58-yard punt return by redshirt freshman DeAndre Thompkins at around the 7-minute mark of the second quarter in yesterday's game against Buffalo, it looked like Penn State's offense and special teams play was going to become a mirror image of what took place in the second half of Penn State's opening game against Temple. In the final three quarters against the Owls, Penn State's offense generated just 54 yards of total offense on 39 plays and a meager four first downs.
If it wasn't for the performance of redshirt freshmen like Thompkins and Nick Scott and true freshmen Brandon Polk and Saquon Barkley, Penn State might have produced a duplicate performance on offense and special teams like it did in its opening game against Temple.
It was inconceivable to me that this type of offensive performance could be taking place from Penn State's offense against teams like Temple, a program it had not lost a game too since 1941, and against a middle-of-the-pack MAC team like Buffalo. I would have laughed in the face of anyone who would have predicted to me before the start of the 2015 season that Buffalo would have more yards on offense [168] than Penn State [135] midway through the third quarter.
This was a Penn State offense that supposedly had a future first round NFL draft choice in Christian Hackenberg, maybe the best group of underclassmen wide receivers in the Big Ten led by the BIG's leading receiver in 2014 DaeSean Hamilton [82 catches for 899 yards] and two tight ends rated by at least one recruiting service [Adam Breneman and Mike Gesicki] as one of the top two tight ends in their respective recruiting classes.
I guess more than anything else it proves how true that old football adage really is: "It is what's up front that counts and that is where it begins on offense." That is where this Penn State team has been struggling ever since the NCAA imposed its ridiculous sanctions against Penn State back in July of 2012. It is the number one reason why many Penn State fans have come to the conclusion the program's first chance to become really competitive with Ohio State and Michigan State in the Big Ten East Division at the earliest might not take place until the 2017 season.
Personally for me and many other Penn State fans, that is hard concept to accept. That's why the way some Penn State redshirt freshmen, true freshmen and sophomores like Thompkins, Polk, Chris Godwin, Scott and particularly Barkley played in the final three quarters against Buffalo, gave myself and many other Nittany Lion fans the hope Penn State's future Big Ten East Division title hopes could become a realistic competitive expectation before 2017.
For the past two years Penn State football fans have read here in the Lions Den about the number of true blue-chip skill position football players James Franklin and his staff have been able to recruit on offense. Personally, I believe Penn State has landed the top two wide receiver classes in the Big Ten for the classes of 2013 and 2014. Three 4-star QBs in Tommy Stevens, Jake Zembiec and Sean Clifford and for the first time ever Pennsylvania's top two rated running backs in the same recruiting class, Barkley and Andre Robinson in the class of 2015.
It's the type of recruiting effort I use to report in Blue White Illustrated throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s. Recruiting like the class of 1991 that had among its members five prep All-American [AA] running backs [Mike Archie, Ki-Jana Carter, Brian King J.T. Morris and Stephen Pitts], plus 14 other members that ended up playing in the NFL. I'm not ready to declare Coach Franklin's last two recruiting classes equal to what took place with Penn State's recruiting class of 1991, which was rated the No.1 recruiting class in the country, but against Buffalo it was skill players recruited by Franklin and his staff on offense in the last two classes that had Penn State fans in Beaver Stadium on their feet clamoring for more.The skill position speed and explosiveness Franklin and his staff have recruited on both offense and defense was in full display yesterday afternoon against Buffalo.
If it wasn't for the performance of redshirt freshmen like Thompkins and Nick Scott and true freshmen Brandon Polk and Saquon Barkley, Penn State might have produced a duplicate performance on offense and special teams like it did in its opening game against Temple.
It was inconceivable to me that this type of offensive performance could be taking place from Penn State's offense against teams like Temple, a program it had not lost a game too since 1941, and against a middle-of-the-pack MAC team like Buffalo. I would have laughed in the face of anyone who would have predicted to me before the start of the 2015 season that Buffalo would have more yards on offense [168] than Penn State [135] midway through the third quarter.
This was a Penn State offense that supposedly had a future first round NFL draft choice in Christian Hackenberg, maybe the best group of underclassmen wide receivers in the Big Ten led by the BIG's leading receiver in 2014 DaeSean Hamilton [82 catches for 899 yards] and two tight ends rated by at least one recruiting service [Adam Breneman and Mike Gesicki] as one of the top two tight ends in their respective recruiting classes.
I guess more than anything else it proves how true that old football adage really is: "It is what's up front that counts and that is where it begins on offense." That is where this Penn State team has been struggling ever since the NCAA imposed its ridiculous sanctions against Penn State back in July of 2012. It is the number one reason why many Penn State fans have come to the conclusion the program's first chance to become really competitive with Ohio State and Michigan State in the Big Ten East Division at the earliest might not take place until the 2017 season.
Personally for me and many other Penn State fans, that is hard concept to accept. That's why the way some Penn State redshirt freshmen, true freshmen and sophomores like Thompkins, Polk, Chris Godwin, Scott and particularly Barkley played in the final three quarters against Buffalo, gave myself and many other Nittany Lion fans the hope Penn State's future Big Ten East Division title hopes could become a realistic competitive expectation before 2017.
For the past two years Penn State football fans have read here in the Lions Den about the number of true blue-chip skill position football players James Franklin and his staff have been able to recruit on offense. Personally, I believe Penn State has landed the top two wide receiver classes in the Big Ten for the classes of 2013 and 2014. Three 4-star QBs in Tommy Stevens, Jake Zembiec and Sean Clifford and for the first time ever Pennsylvania's top two rated running backs in the same recruiting class, Barkley and Andre Robinson in the class of 2015.
It's the type of recruiting effort I use to report in Blue White Illustrated throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s. Recruiting like the class of 1991 that had among its members five prep All-American [AA] running backs [Mike Archie, Ki-Jana Carter, Brian King J.T. Morris and Stephen Pitts], plus 14 other members that ended up playing in the NFL. I'm not ready to declare Coach Franklin's last two recruiting classes equal to what took place with Penn State's recruiting class of 1991, which was rated the No.1 recruiting class in the country, but against Buffalo it was skill players recruited by Franklin and his staff on offense in the last two classes that had Penn State fans in Beaver Stadium on their feet clamoring for more.The skill position speed and explosiveness Franklin and his staff have recruited on both offense and defense was in full display yesterday afternoon against Buffalo.
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