Penn State coach James Franklin is often fond of saying “it’s all of it,” a catch-all phrase for the idea that building a program comes down to a lot of little things on and off the field. It’s not just one thing; it’s the culmination of many different things coming together to draw a bigger picture.
In the case of Penn State’s offense the story is — in the season’s biggest moments — effectively the same thing. It’s all of it. So let’s start at the top. The Nittany Lions didn’t struggle against Ohio State and again in a 24-15 loss to Michigan on Saturday for any one reason. They struggled because of many little reasons coming together.
It’s Penn State’s receivers: Following the loss of Parker Washington, who could have returned and didn’t, the Nittany Lions entered the season with no established commodities at the position beyond a late season surge by KeAndre Lambert-Smith. For his part Lambert-Smith, spent his early Penn State career lamenting his own occasional inconsistencies, an inauspicious starting point indeed. Beyond that it was a room of unestablished options and transfer portal acquisitions but there was no Washington, no Jahan Dotson, no Mitchell Tinsley, no player Penn State could use to bail out newly minted starting quarterback Drew Allar. It was all just hopes.
Those hopes went largely unrealized in the season’s biggest moments with a group that generally struggles to generate consistent separation or provide Allar with legitimate and regular options down the field. It is a heavy statistic to hang over this group’s head that Harrison Wallace, who has effectively spent the season injured, had been Penn State’s second-leading wide receiver up until last week when Dante Cephas finally took over that crown. This group — for whatever reason — has failed to find itself and is very likely the difference between Penn State being a two-loss team and being undefeated.
It’s Drew Allar: For reasons we will probably never fully know but might just boil down to him being a 19-year old whose stock rose mostly because of his arm and size and not so much anything else, Allar’s sophomore campaign has been a mixed bag of accuracy, confidence and results. There is clearly plenty there to work with, but save for a few moments, he has never been quite the program-changing quarterback fans were hoping him to be. It’s perhaps a bit unfair to think Allar is capable of just making his receivers more open than they are, but Allar has not elevated the players around him to any real meaningful degree on a regular basis. On the whole, Allar could be better, but of the things that Penn State would like to be able to change tomorrow, Allar is probably not first on the list. He’s not the first on this one either.
It’s the offensive line: Penn State’s offensive front is fine by most reasonable standards, but it is not overpowering in the moments it needs to be and in the two biggest games of the year has saddled Allar with his fair share of pressures, a fact which has not paired well with a receiver group which has struggled to do most of the basics well. The loss of Landon Tengwall has proven to be more and more consequential by the day and while Olu Fashanu has played excellent all year he provides a limited utility in a ground game geared more toward running between the tackles. On the ground, the Nittany Lions have generally struggled to create an explosive attack, a fact which has rendered Nick Singleton in particular into something of a shell of his former self. Penn State has found success running the ball more through tenacity than dominance and the absence of a consistent passing attack has done little to aid that. A chicken and egg scenario.
It’s coaching: Coaching is often an excuse to explain away the football problems we can’t understand but broadly it’s difficult to point at a bunch of reasons why players aren’t succeeding and neglect to mention the people who are employed to help them succeed. Coaching can’t simply make everyone infinitely better. If that was the case bad players wouldn’t exist. But the move to receiver coach Marques Hagans hasn’t paid any visible dividends, especially following the work Taylor Stubblefield had done. Up in the booth one might argue Penn State’s undeniable success against teams not named Ohio State and Michigan speaks to his competency, but offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich has not looked the mastermind to drag Penn State out of its own shortcomings in the season’s bigger moments and in truth he has Manny Diaz to thank. A lesser defense would give Penn State’s offense far less freedom to struggle and remain in the game. For his part, Franklin’s shortcomings are harder to identify in a practical sense beyond being atop a flow chart of people who continually fall short of their biggest goals. How much that practically falls on his shoulders is a bit harder to define, but the buck stops with him.
The list goes on and on. The Nittany Lions are very likely going to win 10 games, a mark that has become predictable to a fault. All told, Penn State has generated a complicated dynamic of having one of the most successful periods of time in the program’s history while having not a whole lot to show for it. For all of the 10- or 11-win seasons, James Franklin has amassed a resume of side quests without finishing the actual mission. That might prove easier said than done, but as Penn State collects more and more seasons in which he never drags the Nittany Lions over the hump, it becomes harder and harder to believe that it will ever happen. This is especially true in a year which both Ohio State and Michigan faced Penn State defenses that gave the Nittany Lions more than enough rope to work with. These games were winnable, and yet…
As it pertains to Ohio State and Michigan, it may not end up mattering. Penn State won’t face the Wolverines again until 2026 and won’t host them at Beaver Stadium until 2027. Ohio State will remain a staple in the schedule but in an expanding playoff field and expanding Big Ten, the Nittany Lions might find success in variety and against programs that – at least temporarily – lack familiarity with Penn State. A tale to be told at another time.
In the meanwhile, Penn State will plod along, hoping that things will go different next time, and trying to fix what needs to be fixed. In this case, as Franklin often says, it’s all of it.
