Sometimes a team shows up to spring practice prepackaged for success. In 2017, the Nittany Lions came out of the box already national title contenders, there wasn’t much to sort out. It was a matter of public record: this team was going to be good.
Enter the 2023 edition of the Blue White game and the take-home feeling is somewhere in between. There’s no question the Nittany Lions have talent, the question will be how quickly it can grow into it.
Spring scrimmages are by their very nature not designed to showcase the depth of offensive and defensive playbooks. As such estimating the developmental road ahead from one slightly rushed scrimmage is entirely guesswork. Penn State didn’t once pull out the T-Formation it made popular in 2022, the defense wasn’t overly exotic and the offense wasn’t trying to revolutionize the game. There’s only so much to go off of. This rings especially true for a team just hours away from finally having a break from football, mostly trying to get out of a 15 practice stretch with no new bumps or bruises.
If you were looking to be wowed by quarterback Drew Allar his most impressive throw of a day was a side-armed completion that gain a total of one yard. Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton were fine but totaled 10 carries which will likely amount to a third of what they should have any given Saturday in the fall. One might have wanted to see more out of the offensive line, but it’s hard to put too much stock in any single units’ performance when practices are often more about observing broad themes rather than drilling down on all the finer details.
And the theme from Saturday? This team seems talented, but it will have to do a lot of growing to get to where it wants to go.
“We have to be very intentional about what we do between now and West Virginia,” Penn State coach James Franklin said after the game. “They’ve got to have a personal plan. What do I need to get better at? What do I do well, what do I need t work on to be a more complete player?”
The first step in that process is an internal evaluation period that will consume no small part of Franklin’s next two weeks. It is tedious but necessary work as the Nittany Lion coaching staff looks to hone in on what will make this team tick.
“Monday and Tuesday all day, the players will be meeting with their position coaches,” Franklin said. “They will get feedback from their position coaches. The coaches will get feedback from the players. We have players fill out the document beforehand to come in and answer some questions for the position coach to discuss with them so they get really good feedback from their position coach. The strength coaches are all broken down and they have a position on offense and defense. The strength coaches will do the same thing. They’ll break down where they’re at, where they need to focus on and what they need to work on in a development plan.”
Then come the spring ball exit interviews.
“And then I meet with every single player on the team,” Franklin added. “I’ll meet with every single one. Review the document from the strength staff, review a document from the academic staff, the training staff, their position coach so they understand kind of holistically where they’re at. And then I give them specific feedback as well. And then I also get feedback on the staff. What do they think about their position coach, what are they think about the coordinator when they think about the strength staff? What do they think about that feedback is important and I kind of tally it all up … there’s a ton of information that we’re able to get that as a part of my evaluation process, not just for the players but for the staff. So that’ll be a grind. But I think that’s what we’re gonna have to do and be very intentional. We go through the tape from spring, make all the cut ups so when we get off the road from spring recruiting we’ll go through the cut ups and start to come up with what is our identity going to be now on offense, defense and special teams based on what we did well this spring. And then obviously right now the analysts and GA’s on Monday we’ll start working on breaking down our first core opponents as well. So there’s a ton of work to be done.”
In the big picture Penn State is relatively fortunate that its 2023 schedule allows for at least some degree of developmental patience. The Nittany Lions would be ill advised to take anything for granted ahead of then, but a Week 4 meeting against Iowa looks to be the first real legitimate test of the season. Penn State doesn’t face Ohio State until October 21st with an off week and an out of conference meeting against UMass in the lead-up to that contest. For their part, Big Ten defending champs Michigan don’t arrive in State College mid November. Even if Penn State isn’t quite ready to knock off either or both teams this season, the Nittany Lions stand to lock down 9+ regular season wins if they can get a slew of younger talent up to speed.
Starting with presumed starting quarterback Drew Allar.
“It’s about putting in as much work as we can between now and fall camp,” Allar said. “I think that’s gonna be the biggest thing … it’s really going to be on us as a players in May through June, July, to really get this thing narrowed down and focus on what we really want to get good at as offense. We’ll have like our exit interviews this week that will be with the coaches and then they’ll tell us their input and ask us for our opinions. So then off of that we can just work [and] I think the amount of work that we’ve got to put in is going to pay huge dividends for us.”
Allar’s development will be as key as anything that happens this summer. The 19 year-old sophomore is effectively a half decade younger than his predecessor Sean Clifford. Whatever Clifford’s shortcomings might have been, he had seen everything and as was deft as they come at orchestrating all the various game management aspects of being a starting quarterback. Clifford was rarely shaken in his resolve whereas Allar and onlookers will find out together what kind of mettle Allar has in those key moments. Penn State will be well served to feed its two-headed running back monster plenty to help Allar get his feet under him, and Penn State’s receivers’ room will be well served to develop quickly enough that Allar’s passes are met with equally as competent hands. The arrival of Kent State transfer wideout Dante Cephas will help things in that regard a bit, but he and Allar will need to develop a rapport quickly.
All told things went about as expected on Saturday, you can see the reasons why fans, coaches and players are optimistic about what this team can become. You can also see that this group will need to grow into the talent it has. Fortunately – or unfortunately – it has about four months to get a full head of steam into that growth.
