Player you're most excited to see in 2021? *

[ChiTownLion]

Here's your chance to go on record and claim credit 3 months from now.

Who is the Penn State football player you will be bragging about and telling everyone that you knew he would be a star?

 

[ChiTownLion]

For me, when I think back to my all-time favorites, Bobby Engram is still engrained in my brain. Jahan Dotson has a chance to be something magical like that and he is the obvious choice that many people won't name because it's almost too obvious.

Parker Washington has a set of hands that might be the best I've ever seen at PSU. After those two, WR is wide open.

Running backs. Noah Cain. He just has that "it" factor (when healthy). Keyvonne Lee did a great job of filling in last year and it sounds like he's worked hard in the off-season. We all see a little Tony Hunt in him and that's a beautiful thing. Not sure what to expect from John Lovett.

Sean Clifford. Great kid. We all want to see him succeed. His coach at St. X said he could go down as the best ever from that program and that's when my antenna went up. Thought he could be one of our best QBs in a while but right now I would gladly settle for a mistake-free game manager like John Shaffer.

Our collection of tight ends, remember Brenton Strange going airborne for the TD? Or Theo Johnson looking like the next freak? Or Tyler Warren crushing small vehicles in space? This is an exciting group.

OL looks about as solid and balanced as we've seen in quite some time. Rasheed Walker and Caedan Wallace give us two absolute studs at OT. Juice Scruggs will be a rock. And we have plenty of other interior guys pushing for first string.

DL. Was so excited to see Adisa Isaac getting full-time snaps and now he's gone for the year. Ebikate is somewhat intriguing but keep expectations in check. DT seems decent-ish.

LB. We all have huge hopes for the outside guys to take over games with Brandon Smith and Curtis Jacobs. Middle leaves a bit to be desired but we'll be playing a lot of nickel. Need Smith and Jacobs to set the tone for our entire defense.

CB. Lots of good ones. TCF has good coverage skills. Joey Porter Jr has the prototype frame and looked very promising but still gave up like 4 TDs last year. Dixon from USCe has a nice resume but Kalen King sounds like he has a chance to be a future day 1 NFL Draft Pick.

Safety. Jaquan Brisker is going to be the bomb. Him and Jahan Dotson and Noah Cain are the ones I'm most looking forward to watching.

My list:
1. Jahan Dotson
2. Jaquan Brisker
3. Noah Cain

 

[CVLion]

I like your top 3… for me personally, I might give Brisker the edge as tops overall

 

[lazydave841]

Offense, 1, expected: Noah Cain. He's going to remain healthy, he's going to be a force out of the backfield. Run, run, run, PA is going to be steady diet.

Offense, 2, less heralded: Juice Scruggs. He's going to be a road grader at RG. Expect him to combo block with Miranda and Wallace then continue down field. Pain for LBs, nightmare for safety's.

Defense, 1, expected: Arnold Eb! I think he'll be stout on the run and up the sack ante back to YGM like productivity.

Defense, 2, less heralded: Curtis Jacobs. Next great member of LBU. This will be his Micah like season. Top 3 in tackles.

Wildcards, pure projection, because no information currently supports it.

W1: Fatora Mulbah. Strong, works his way into DT rotation.

W2: King brothers. With our defensive rotations, they will be solid hands by the time we get to the meat of the schedule.

W3: Lovett/Ford/Holmes. One of these guys probably ends up handling Kickoff return and we will be the better for it.

Don't ya love this time of year?

 

[step.eng69]

SEAN CLIFFORD.....anxious to see the development of the Qb's under Mike Yurcich.
a successful Clifford means a successful season for the team.

 

[Obliviax]

Personally, I like Keyvone Lee. He played really well after being buried on the depth chart last year and appears to be #3 or 4 this year. He may be a kid that just doesn't practice well but performs in games. He led the team in both total yards and YPC last year. (well, led the team with exception of guys named Bruno or Tank).

On D I'll go with PJ...a great story.

 

[SYRCHAZ]

1. John Lovett -legit homerun threat- at least 3 TD runs from 60 yards or more
2. Juice Scruggs - dominating run blocker: Cain and Lee's best friend
3. Curtis Jacobs - excellent against both the pass and the run

 

[bmejnes]

Dvon Ellies
Calling for a breakout season for this young man

 

[HazletonLion]

SEAN CLIFFORD.....anxious to see the development of the Qb's under Mike Yurcich.
a successful Clifford means a successful season for the team.

I agree he doesn't have to run it up the gut unless he has a 20 yd. freebie, he has at least 2 dynamic receivers, the best TE's in the Big, the best RB's in the Big. The line is better than anything Trace had to work with.

The rpo junk should for the most part be done, and Yurcich is the real deal as an OC.

 

[RickinDayton]

Dvon Ellies
Calling for a breakout season for this young man

That would be excellent and a huge boost for the DL.

 

[royboy]

Gotta go with what @ChiTownLion says -- there are plenty of interesting areas to watch and players that may have a big season.

But when it comes down it, we want to see the real playmaker, both in the passing game and the return game -- Jahan Dotson.

He wants to win, and he wants to be recognized as the best at his position in the B1G and the nation.

 

[91Joe95]

Clifford, but only because he will be the best indicator of how quickly the offense is adapting to their 5th OC in 5 years.

 

[Obliviax]

Clifford, but only because he will be the best indicator of how quickly the offense is adapting to their 5th OC in 5 years.

Agreed. I was going to say Yurcich because, in the end, he has a lot of talent all over the field and needs to get it all moving in the same direction (unlike last year). I don't see SClifford being a super star who can create plays. But he can be a field general. But that takes coordinated contributions from all positions. That means coaching. We can't do a JoeMo and let the best Running Back in college football warp the defenses and exploit gaps. I don't see an individual talent on the team that will warp defenses. But I do see a very balanced offense with good players on OL, WR, TE, and RB. Our strength will be that we don't have a weakness.

 

[ApexLion]

Here's your chance to go on record and claim credit 3 months from now.

Who is the Penn State football player you will be bragging about and telling everyone that you knew he would be a star?

Hopefully Cain in Beast Mode becomes the storyline in the Wisconsin game. Since his first game, I said 'he's a pro' in college and I still feel a healthy Cain is a rare talent. If he and the line can make things happen, the announcers will latch on to that pretty quickly imho since Wisconsin is supposed to be the better run team each year.

 

[KC-KS-Lion]

I agree he doesn't have to run it up the gut unless he has a 20 yd. freebie, he has at least 2 dynamic receivers, the best TE's in the Big, the best RB's in the Big. The line is better than anything Trace had to work with.

The rpo junk should for the most part be done, and Yurcich is the real deal as an OC.

With Clifford, need to de-emphasize the looks to run first or second other than with some planned or those to keep the D off guard. He needs to improve his pocket presence and confidence. Having a capable and deeper set of RBs should help.

 

[Obliviax]

With Clifford, the look to run first or second other than infrequent planned or to keep the D off guard. He needs to improve his pocket presence and confidence. Having a capable and deeper set of RBs should help.

it is a good point...and with two difficult games early and a suspect backup QB, keeping him healthy (limiting his carries) is prudent game planning. While I am not confident that SC is a star QB, I am more concerned about what is behind him.

 

[McCloudersportLion]

If this is a team that over-achieves I think it's BIGLY due to the run game. We Have road graders, knock on plastix, and Cain, Baylor boi, and possibly even Clifford the Extra Medium Blu Boy are going to be scooting. They can all scoot.

 

[Obliviax]

If this is a team that over-achieves I think it's BIGLY due to the run game. We Have road graders, knock on plastix, and Cain, Baylor boi, and possibly even Clifford the Extra Medium Blu Boy are going to be scooting. They can all scoot.

This is a big year for CJF. His record to date:

• 2014 7-6
• 2015 7-6
• 2016 11-3
• 2017 11-2
• 2018 9-4
• 2019 11-2
• 2020 4-5

The early years were tough, understandably, due to sanctions. Then you have the Barkley years. And I don't think that took much "great" coaching when you have that kind of talent on the field. So, given the environment, I have to say CJF's best year has been 2019. But even then, we lost to a Minny team and got stomped against tOSU.

Last year was a nightmare for so many different reasons.

So is CJF an elite coach or one that got lucky with a generational RB? I think 2021 will tell us a lot in that regard. tOSU is breaking in a new QB and is a bit down on talent. The rest of the league is wide open. The opportunity for PSU to move from being a second-place B1G team to a perennial contender is now. We'll see.

 

[LemonEars]

Here's your chance to go on record and claim credit 3 months from now.

Who is the Penn State football player you will be bragging about and telling everyone that you knew he would be a star?

Roberson -- he is our ticket to the playoffs.

 

[lazydave841]

This is a big year for CJF. His record to date:

• 2014 7-6
• 2015 7-6
• 2016 11-3
• 2017 11-2
• 2018 9-4
• 2019 11-2
• 2020 4-5

The early years were tough, understandably, due to sanctions. Then you have the Barkley years. And I don't think that took much "great" coaching when you have that kind of talent on the field. So, given the environment, I have to say CJF's best year has been 2019. But even then, we lost to a Minny team and got stomped against tOSU.

Last year was a nightmare for so many different reasons.

So is CJF an elite coach or one that got lucky with a generational RB? I think 2021 will tell us a lot in that regard. tOSU is breaking in a new QB and is a bit down on talent. The rest of the league is wide open. The opportunity for PSU to move from being a second-place B1G team to a perennial contender is now. We'll see.

Agree with you on a good bit here, but having a generation type talent like Barkley is the name of the game. Alabama has won it's slew of National titles because of similar players.

From a conference perspective, who has been winning the Big 10: OSU with Tressell, Meyer, and Day recruiting stud athletes or Iowa/Wisconsin with all their player development?

Franklin at least has the most recent Conference title of the bunch. Buckeyes have just been on an unbelievable run.

We could have made a run at a Ferentz or Chryst, but I don't think the Penn State boost in recruiting helps those guys much. They'd be recruiting just under JFs current level or considerably worse based on the data out there.

I think the 4-5 record looms larger than it is... At least until we take the field and it comes out in the wash. If we were 7-3 last year, a lot of this "is JF great or not" would not exist.

 

[Obliviax]

Agree with you on a good bit here, but having a generation type talent like Barkley is the name of the game. Alabama has won it's slew of National titles because of similar players.

From a conference perspective, who has been winning the Big 10: OSU with Tressell, Meyer, and Day recruiting stud athletes or Iowa/Wisconsin with all their player development?

Franklin at least has the most recent Conference title of the bunch. Buckeyes have just been on an unbelievable run.

We could have made a run at a Ferentz or Chryst, but I don't think the Penn State boost in recruiting helps those guys much. They'd be recruiting just under JFs current level or considerably worse based on the data out there.

I think the 4-5 record looms larger than it is... At least until we take the field and it comes out in the wash. If we were 7-3 last year, a lot of this "is JF great or not" would not exist.

Agreed. Of course, tOSU has had a lot of benefit that PSU has not enjoyed. AL as well. But I'd also argue that Barkley was all luck in having him at PSU. CJF now has the JS thing well in the rear view mirror and had ample time to steer the program. And last year simply sucked and it resulted in CJF firing his Second Offensive Coordinator in the 7 years as HC.

Overall, I have to say the biggest failing of his era has been the failure to recruit and develop at QB. We've had one good one, in Trace, but he lacked the physical talent to be a game changer like Clemson and tOSU have had (AL, not so much). And, aside from Trace, the QB position has not been even "good". I'd say Trace was "good" but not great. The rest have been poor to ok, and not good for a program like PSU.

 

[lazydave841]

But I'd also argue that Barkley was all luck in having him at PSU.

Pretty much spot on with the rest of your post.

As for Barkley, I think he's a crown achievement of player development. He wasn't a 5* with NFL written all over him. He was likely heading to Rutgers before JF flipped him. His body and abilities improved 100% from freshman to sophomore year as well. Galt's program plus work ethic on display. Primary reason Singleton and Allen are committed in the current class I'd have to say.

 

[SLion]

By "see", I interpret that as someone not on field much. Offense is pretty much known with exception of MY's calling and wrinkles. Should be fun. I agree with Arnold Ekibetie, Curtis Jacobs and Kalen King as they will be huge impacts on what we achieve this season. Soft spot for linebacker so probably Jacobs. We really need some support in speed, position and tackling.

 

[McCloudersportLion]

I like the room and air out in Shippensport, you can really leg spread out both and drink lite arnold palmer hahds and watch little Marburies gobble up passing lanes v both Norfvalley Enjians and Mechburg StarBorg SaberDorgs

 

[PSU Mike]

Cain is too easy.

Hope to see Harrison Wallace based on the early recon.

 

[Texas Lion]

1. Fisher
2. Tarburton
3. Mega

 

[gopsu84]

Cliff to Dotson.
I’d want to see some “chunk” plays.
O-line needs to give him some time to throw deep

 

[ChiTownLion]

Add Sean Clifford to the list.

 

[The Spin Meister]

All of the ....with Coach Yurchic using them all very well.