The Penn State Football Show

It’s games like the one we saw on Saturday that make me thankful we have this blog. A place I can vent and get all my frustrations out. And trust me, I have plenty.

I don’t know where to begin, so I will just start with the coaching. Penn State’s coaching staff has been a huge liability for years now, and it gets exposed whenever Penn State plays a top ranked opponent. There are a handful of specific areas where they struggle consistently (offensive line, quarterback development, pass defense). But perhaps the biggest one is making in-game adjustments. They simply don’t make any. They have a game plan and they stick to it, regardless of what happens on the field, and they lose games because of it. The most obvious example was the Rose Bowl against USC where Mark Sanchez picked Penn State apart all game long with 10-15 yard passes that Penn State’s defense continued to give them. At no point did they make an adjustment and try to stop it, and USC continued to take advantage of it.

Well the Alabama game was another example of a lack of in-game adjustments when one needed to be made. It’s obvious the coaches came in to this game with a very conservative offensive game-plan. They were expecting/hoping that the defense could hold Alabama and perhaps even force a few turnovers that could lead to points. In turn, they wouldn’t need a whole lot of points out of the offense. So the offensive game-plan stressed not turning the ball over rather than scoring points.

In other words, they were hoping that the game would play out exactly like the Ohio State game in 2005 did, where PSU won 17-10 by shutting down OSU’s offense, and coming up with a key interception that led to an easy 7 points. In that game, once the Lions took a 7 point lead, they were perfectly content with three-and-outs on offense for the rest of the game, just punting it away to OSU and allowing the defense to hold them and win the game. And in the end, that’s exactly what happened. PSU barely moved the football at all on offense for the rest of the game, repeatedly punted to OSU, and the defense did not allow another score, leading PSU to a huge 17-10 upset victory. This is a game many Penn State fans view as a huge victory in the history of the program.

The more I think about it though, the more I think this win was somewhat detrimental to the program, and here is why: Ever since that game, Penn State has approached EVERY big game against a top defense with that same exact game-plan. And it has not worked since. At some point the coaching staff needs to realize that they need to open up the offense, and actually aggressively attempt to score points on offense in order to win these games. Although it worked once in 2005 against Ohio State, this philosophy is not going to work every time.

But anyway, back to the original point I was making about in-game adjustments. Look, the game-plan was a conservative one. And that’s fine. In fact, given this match-up, with two strong defensive teams, and the fact that Alabama had a young, inexperienced quarterback playing in a hostile environment, I would actually go as far as saying it was absolutely the right game-plan to enter the game with. But, with that being said, once you get down by 14 points, you need to abandon the offensive game-plan, and start trying to score points. And they did not do this. Why stick to the runs up the middle that are not getting you anywhere? Alabama was lining up 8 men in the box all day long daring Penn State to throw it, and they still wouldn’t/couldn’t. And that’s unacceptable. Just take some deep shots to Moye! The guy is 6’5”. He has a better chance of coming down with a jump ball on a 40 yard pass than Penn State does of actually putting methodically driving down the field for 40 yards.

Think about this: When was the last time Penn State completed a pass to a wide receiver OVER THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD? Actually, when was the last time they even attempted a pass over the middle of the field? The simply don’t even try it any more because they are so afraid of throwing interceptions. First off, the fact that they still don’t have confidence in their quarterbacks to make these throws is pathetic (more on this later), but second of all, when you get down big and need to score points in order to win the game, you have to start opening up and taking these chances. If you just sit back and do the same stuff that hasn’t been working, how do you expect to come back and win the game? I’ve said this before, if I was a defensive coordinator for another team, I’m certain I could shut out Penn State every time, because I know exactly what is coming, what I need to defend, and what I don’t have to even worry about defending because they are too scared to even try it. (Similarly if I’m an OC at another school, I would put up 50 on PSU every time by pretty much doing what USC did in the Rose Bowl… Assuming I have Mark Sanchez on my team.)

Here is what pisses me off the most about the coaching staff. They would rather lose by a respectable amount and not even try for the win, than get blown out. And I don’t understand why. A loss is a loss, whether you lose by 60 or whether you lose by 1 in quadruple overtime. So when it’s fourth and six on the opponents 45 with over 12 minutes to play and you are down by 14, YOU GO FOR IT. YOU DO NOT PUNT. Why would you punt? What is that saying? To me, it’s saying, even though the scoreboard and the clock suggest this game is still within reach, the coaches don’t have any confidence in the team and don’t believe they can legitimately win the game. So since they have already determined they are going to lose the game, why not at least make the loss as respectable as possible rather than getting blown out. And that’s about the most insulting thing a coach can say to a team. Just pathetic. And this isn’t the first time Penn State has done this. They do it all the time, and it’s infuriating.


Now, on to the QB situation…Is there a major college football program out there that is worse than Penn State at developing quarterbacks? I really don’t think so. The last QB to go pro from Penn State is Kerry Collins. That’s pretty bad.

The conservative offensive game plan obviously says that the coaches do not rust the quarterbacks enough to let them air it out. But there is no reason for the QB’s to be such a liability at this point. They each have had multiple starts and enough playing time that the coaches should not have these concerns. But this is the crap that seems to happen all the time at Penn State. But other schools don’t seem to have this problem.

Think about how rare it is to see a Penn State quarterback make a play on his own. When I say make a play, I mean, scramble around, avoid a sack, buy some time to allow a receiver to break open, and complete a pass to him. It seems like no matter who is playing QB for Northwestern or Wisconsin, they always find guys that can make plays like this. Penn State hasn’t really had one since Zach Mills. (Those of you scratching your heads at this go back and watch film of Mills in his freshman and sophomore years, he was great.)

Right now, the way Bolden is playing, he throws the ball to the first option every single time, regardless of whether he is covered or not. He isn’t even going through any progressions. I seem to recall the first touchdown pass of his career, in the opening game last year, he looked off the first man and then found I think it was Brackett over the middle as the second option for a nice touchdown. I’m not sure he’s thrown to the second read since that pass. In other words, he may have actually regressed since last year. And that wouldn’t be the first time. It happened with Mills, it happened with Derrick Williams, it happened with Maurice Evans, it happened with Jimmy Kennedy, Justin King: Too many Penn State players actually get worse later in their careers instead of getting better. Not a good reflection on the coaching.

But it happens most often with quarterbacks. Penn State quarterbacks are just not where they need to be. And you have to put the blame on Jay Paterno. After all, he is the quarterbacks coach. If he’s doing such a lousy job coaching our quarterbacks that our offensive game-plan is to try to not turn the ball over and avoid any potentially dangerous throws, then I think Penn State needs a new quarterbacks coach. I really think Bolden could be a very successful quarterback if he had better coaching.

Oh, here’s another great example of Penn State coaches not getting the most out of the talent that they have: Derek “Cameron” Wake. Out of all of the Penn State alumni in the NFL right now, this guy might very well be the best. I think he finished 2nd or 3rd (right in front of Tamba) in the NFL in sacks last year. He is a very feared pass rusher within the league.

This guy SUCKED at Penn State. But his athletic ability was undeniable. I think he actually still holds the record for highest vertical leap in NFL combine history. But the coaches insisted on making him a linebacker where he was out of position and never had a feel for the position. He was always lost and didn’t have the instincts needed to play linebacker. The coaches never made this realization, left him there, and by his senior year, Dan Connor was starting over him as a freshman.

In the end Wake, was never drafted, and had to prove himself in the CFL, where he finally found the right position, led the league in sacks, and won the defensive player of the year award, before signing with the Dolphins and tearing up the NFL. I’m pretty sure Wake would have been a defensive end, and would have been a top draft pick, had he gone to pretty much any other DI college.

I will try to end on a positive note: Sean Lee had a monster game on Sunday night, and Penn State has more key contributors on NFL rosters now than they have had in a very long time. Posluszny, Bowman, Lee, Connor, Gould, Wake, Hali, Butler, Quarless, Collins, Adams, King, even Jordan Norwood! For a while there was a pretty bad drought of significant Penn Staters making an impact in the NFL. Hopefully that is over for good now.