What Happened to our WRs?

[NittanyIllinois]

It’s not like Penn State has ever been WRU. In good years we have one really good receiver….we never have had the stable that many other teams have. Receivers have never lined up to come to PSU.

True, but the game is changing/has changed. Look at how scouting services rank kids, and look at NFL drafts. Everybody values the WR position more than ever, and WRs typically play a bigger role in success than RBs. Of course there are exceptions -- like last year's Michigan. But the game is becoming a WR-dominated game on offense.

A program of Penn State's caliber has absolutely no excuse to not have stud WRs. It wasn't long ago that we had Godwin, Hamilton, Hamler, and Dotson in a 5-year period. What changed?

 

[tboyer]

KLS - this year: 40 receptions, 8 TD's, average 19 yards a catch, 19 career TD's, 2482 career yards.

Wallace - this year: 31 receptions, 3 TD's, 5 career TD's, 1034 career yards.

Imagine if we had KLS back this year with Allar. A couple years back when we defeated Auburn, their Head Coach fired his WR Coach the next day or so because their WR's were not getting separation. Their 2025 Class has one of the best WR recruiting in the country with a horrible record this year.

What the hell is JF doing putting up with this kind of piss poor production from this WR group? He fires OC but doesn't even address the horrible development of our WR's. We are not going anywhere in the playoffs with this group of WR's, not going to happen.

I gather there were issues with KLS that were not his ability to play football but his ability to be a teammate and a leader. The reason he's no longer at PSU is not because PSU didn't appreciate him as a player. Overall team leadership and morale is important and when a senior isn't contributing to that in a positive way, that's a problem. This team has good chemistry and you saw it in the way they played the week after the crushing loss to tOSU.

 

[tboyer]

True, but the game is changing/has changed. Look at how scouting services rank kids, and look at NFL drafts. Everybody values the WR position more than ever, and WRs typically play a bigger role in success than RBs. Of course there are exceptions -- like last year's Michigan. But the game is becoming a WR-dominated game on offense.

A program of Penn State's caliber has absolutely no excuse to not have stud WRs. It wasn't long ago that we had Godwin, Hamilton, Hamler, and Dotson in a 5-year period. What changed?

Looks to me like the inflection point was when Josh Gattis didn't get the OC job and left. It left a hole in wideout coaching and recruiting that Franklin's been trying to fill ever sense. Gattis was due for a promotion and it wasn't going to be at PSU, and I can't blame Franklin for thinking Gattis wasn't ready to be an OC at that point in his career. He wasn't exactly a hit at OC at Michigan a number of years later.

 

[africamurphy]

A couple things to keep in mind.

1) PSU is really just 1 player (a true No. 1) away from having a solid wideout group. Wallace, Evans, Clifford and Fleming are all good players and have improved a lot this year. I think Wallace especially is better than people give him credit for. Clifford has developed into a very good possession receiver.
2) Statistically the wides look worse than they are because Warren and the running backs are so good in the passing game they consume a lot of targets. And Warren is often schemed as the No. 1 option so he'll get the ball even if Wallace is wide open. A lot of plays Wallace is just a decoy and the other wides are blockers.
3) Allar is ultra-careful with the ball and doesn't risk a throw to the wides if they don't have 2 yards of separation. Against 90% of the teams on PSU's schedule that works fine because PSU has other offensive options. But against top competition it bites them. If you look at an NFL game or a game between top 5 football teams, a lot of times throws are being made to extremely tight windows or back-shoulder throws with minimal separation. PSU doesn't even try -- and that's not really the wideouts' fault. Allar doesn't trust the wides enough and that's partly because they haven't developed the trust on the field.

Yes to 1 and 3. No to 2.

It makes sense as a theory but not in reality. You throw to who’s open. So far only Ohio State has been able to shut down Warren and the backs when giving the minimal attention to WRs.

 

[tboyer]

Yes to 1 and 3. No to 2.

It makes sense as a theory but not in reality. You throw to who’s open. So far only Ohio State has been able to shut down Warren and the backs when giving the minimal attention to WRs.

It's true PSU doesn't have a wideout who can beat an Ohio State corner in single coverage.

But apart from Ohio State, I've seen PSU wideouts wide open plenty of times but Allar is locked in on Warren. It's probably the play design, maybe not Allar's choice, but at least a few times I've seen Wallace lonely in the endzone, his hair turning gray while the throw goes to Warren underneath.

I'm just saying in some ways the wideout production is a chicken-or-the-egg kind of thing. PSU could be targeting the wideouts more against lesser opponents and maybe that would have given them more confidence to target them when they played tOSU and Warren was consistently double covered. You reap what you sow.

I don't know how good Minnesota is but it does appear they have a good secondary. They're going to need to call plays for the wideouts and stretch the secondary or it could be a long day offensively.