The old king is dead; long live the king Mike Pettigano is the Penn State blogfather; it was he who years ago united much of their internet presence into the now-defunct LinebackerU. Most of those guys, including Mike, have retired from blogging for real-ish jobs. For the last couple of years we've been publishing an HTTV-like book for PSU fans together. So I hit him up for a VEQ/sadface party.
I am bolded, Mike is not.
Before we spend too much time on this, do you have a fully operational football team that can play football? Because if the answer's "Yes," we can stop now and all get a full night's sleep.
No. Let's proceed...
Let's talk about that offensive line. What happened? Did you, like, spend two years firing Rich Rodriguez, then try to install an offense that isn't anything like what the sparse upperclassmen were recruited to run, and is too complicated for the young guys to figure out?
[inhales deeply] When Bill O'Brien arrived in 2012, Penn State had 15 offensive linemen, too many for BO'B's taste, so he recruited only 5 over the next two classes. One of those five guys moved to defense after arriving at PSU. That's four OL's signed in two classes. When the sanctions hit and the free-transfer went into affect, 4 linemen transfered or left the team, another in the 2012 class transferred, and one from the 2013 class left the team. This spring, Anthony Alosi was kicked off the team. That's 7 scholarship linemen gone out of 13 over the last three years.
The biggest blow to this position actually came when Miles Dieffenbach, a 23-game starter at guard, tore his ACL. If you're remembering correctly, it was the guard that blocked his own man vs Northwestern two weeks ago. Dieffenbach could have potentially changed the entire composition of this year's offensive line. This week he won't' be back, but possibly for Ohio State, not that it'll matter. Penn State is now hoping to get through this season with a few more wins, while frantically figuring out which of this year's freshmen could start next year. Herb Hand is an unbelievably talented offensive line coach. But dude, I feel bad for him this year.
Today was ugly...that is MY fault. We WILL get better because we have GREAT young men w/ POSITIVE attitudes that aren't afraid to WORK.
— Herb Hand (@CoachHand) September 27, 2014
[After the jump: this all sounds very familiar]
We know better than most how a QB's effectiveness drops when he can't trust his blocking, though some dudes just battle through it. Hackenberg looked like Chad Henne 2.0 last year, then Tom Brady 2.0 in Ireland. How has he been holding up lately?
Not well. Usually a guy with some mobility like Hack can just deal with spotty protection, but he doesn't even have enough time to do that. Then when he does get the ball away, particularly maddeningly against Northwestern, the ball skips into the receivers' arms. Go watch the swing pass to Bill Belton against Northwestern. It was a sure first down had Hack not skipped the pass. Belton and Hack had words on the sideline after that play. I don't think Hack is regressing, but the fact that he's completely stagnant right now feels like regression from the greatest passing QB Penn State has had since Collins.
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| So you're saying it's not good for his development if you get your quarterback pulverized twice per drive? [Upchurch] |
A-Rob:Braylon Edwards::Geno Lewis: ______? Stats-wise he looks good, but what's his game? Are there other dangerous receivers?
Geno-schmeno... DaeSean Hamilton may not have a TD yet, which is insane, but he's much more dynamic in the open field than Lewis. Hamilton leads the Big Ten in receptions per game (7.2) and is 2nd in yards per game (100.4). Now, I seriously can't remember the last time this far into the season Penn State has had two receivers in the top 3 of both receptions and yards per game. But it's happened this year.
PSU lost Breneman and still has the best group of tight ends in the country. How's Franklin using them, and how does it compare to what BO'B was doing?
Franklin and John Donovan (OC) seem to forget that a tight end over the middle can be deadly to opposing defenses. Even worse for Penn State, they seem to forget that there are three good-to-great tight ends on this depth chart to choose from. It's very frustrating that Penn State has de-emphasized the tight end position in the offense, a markedly different approach to O'Brien's offense.
It doesn't help that the tight ends haven't been reliable when they're thrown to (several drops have been just weird from guys like Jesse James and Kyle Carter). When the offense needs to open up the field and get the defense away from the box, you'd think a tight seam route up the middle would help shake things loose.
It probably won't matter since Michigan's offense has shown it would much rather shoot itself in the face, but our QB can scoot and we've got a mini-Megatron receiver. On the off chance that Michigan has a non-suicidal game plan, what's PSU got to deal with such threats?
You may be surprised a bit by this, but Mike Hull can only do so much. Yes, he's a former safety/linebacker hybrid who can really move well against actual receivers, but he's still just one guy in a defense that has lived off of blitzing the crap out of opposing quarterbacks.
I remember hearing during last week's broadcast that Michigan is now allowing Gardner more freedom to do what he wants with the ball. It showed against Rutgers. That has me both impressed and pissed off at the same time. It will probably work out well, because it did (well, more than it had been before this supposed change) against Rutgers. But why the hell does it have to happen right before Michigan plays Penn State? C'mon, man, you gotta save that shit for Ohio State. Back to the point, though, if Gardner looks like he did last week (except for the back-foot throw directly to the RU defender) Penn State is probably doomed.
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| Hull has grown from injury-prone Tampa 2 coverage LB to LinebackerU-approved proto-Urlacher. [photo: Pettigano] |
How's the secondary rebuilding program going? Do you have more than one Amos now? What's going on with the original Amos?
The original Amos is doing just fine. He's a safety now, a really good safety. Jordan Lucas, who intercepted Michigan on the first drive last year, is the best corner and getting better. The other side is meh, but very serviceable. This position overall was such a liability just two years ago, but O'Brien recruited the hell out of it and now it's actually a strength.
Michigan's offensive success this year has mostly come against defensive linemen who do irresponsible things against basic zone runs. Is there a hole on your DL? Is it true it can be worn down?
This defense can stop the run with five guys, so covering Michigan's run game isn't the problem. The problem is when the Penn State offense does NOTHING when it gets the ball. I'm not talking about a lack of scoring points or settling for field goals. I'm talking about incomplete-run-incomplete-punt; or worse, incomplete-incomplete-sack-punt. If the defense has to go out there over and over again with only a minute or two of rest so early in the game, even the best defenses would get worn down.
Making matters worse, by the fourth quarter (and this was evident against NW) there's not enough depth to make up so much ground. Had the Penn State offense even traded one of those field goals for a touchdown, the game may have been completely different. Then again, if the Penn State offense were able to score a touchdown two weeks ago, that'd mean it wouldn't have been so bad at the exact moments it needed to be exhibiting some kind of a pulse.
So it looks like a night of much punting. Michigan, like Rutgers and just about nobody else, likes to punt NFL style because a Michigan Man doesn't believe in schematic advantages. Do you have a returner who can punish that?
Oddly enough, our hands guy, Jesse Della Valle, is pretty nifty when he gets a block or two. He had a fantastic 40-something yarder against Northwestern (that the offense proceeded to squander) and he can do a decent job. But overall Penn State hasn't put much into getting a dynamic return man back there. So don't read too much into this facet of the game.
Before THAT, the Penn State fans seemed to be going through a lot of the same institutional hubris and over-leveraging from their athletic department that's currently disintegrating Michigan. Now that THAT is over, how have things changed?
It's taken time... and by time, I mean a new president, new athletic director, and an entirely new football staff. You know, minor changes. Typically when one of Penn State's football enemies goes through a rough time, we chuckle and have a good time with it. But I'm being completely honest here, I don't want this for Michigan. Being bad on the field is one thing. But what's going on with Michigan is just sad to watch. Ok, maybe I'd still chuckle if it were Ohio State, but we can all just agree on that and move on. It sucks. This kind of stuff always sucks. Penn State had an administration that was hard of hearing. But I can't really even go beyond that because we had such an extraordinary thing happen to end it all. Who knows how it would have ground to a solution had it not been for IT? I sure don't.