As Penn State opened up its summer camp on Sunday, Nittany Lion players were diving off of Twitter left and right.
Both old (Jason Cabinda) and new (Lamont Wade).
For James Franklin, who heads into his fourth season as Penn State’s head coach — CJF’s Day No. 1,300 at PSU is this Thursday — the detweeting is a good sign.
That’s because in 2017, Penn State’s toughest opponent has the potential to be itself. As in Pogo, who said, ‘We have met the enemy and he is us.’
True, the Buckeyes are listed as an 8.5-point favorite against the Nittany Lions in The Horseshoe. Otherwise, though, a case can be made that Penn State is a favorite in every other game. At least right now.
To wit: Vegas has installed Penn State as a 19-point favorite over Pitt and a 14-point pick over Michigan. And even though there’s that early dreaded kick time at Northwestern, a road game in the Kinnick brickyard and a November home date with Nebraska, Penn State is a favorite in each of those contests.
This is not to say that the Nittany Lions will be their own worst enemies in the season ahead. Only that the potential exists. For Franklin, after rebuilding the program, that’s a good problem to have. But it is still one he must guard against. Constantly.
Hence…Akron, Akron, Akron.
So, the fact that old heads like Cabinda and young five-stars like Wade are both being anti-social (media) during summer camp shows the Nittany Lions are well-aware that some — OK, many — distractions, disruptions, disturbances and even defeats have the potential to be self-inflicted in 2017.
LASCHING OUT
Here’s a laundry list of challenges that Penn State’s players and coaches will see in 2017 when they look in the mirrors at Lasch:
1. Reliving the 2016 season. At the Big Ten media days, Franklin promised that will not happen: ‘We’re not going to spend a whole lot of time at all talking about last year. We spent all offseason talking about last year. They understand it, they get it. We appreciate it. I think what we all have to understand is none of those points, none of those wins are going to transfer over. We have to start from the ground up and rebuild this thing.’
2. Buying into the hype. Ain’t gonna happen, senior cornerback Grant Haley said at Lift For Life. ‘Right now, we have a level head. The last game we played, we lost. Everybody realizes that. We’re 0-1 this year. That’s the way we look at it.’
3. Starting slow. Last season, PSU stood for Procrastination State University. If Penn State’s games in 2016 had ended at halftime, the Nittany Lions would have had a record of 5-7-2. They trailed in each of their final three games of last season and, overall, had a program-high four double-digit comebacks. In the first half of games in 2016, the Nittany Lions were outscored 223-194. Season-wise, Penn State’s record was 2 wins and 2.5 losses through halftime of the Minnesota game.
‘We did great things with this offense last year,’ wide receiver DaSean Hamilton said a few weeks ago, ‘but we didn’t get cooking into full swing until the middle of the season. We’ll need to hit on all cylinders from Game One. The main improvement is going to be guys knowing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing after a whole year under their belts.’
4. Going for the bundle (with apologies to Keith Jackson, and a respectful nod to Joe Moorhead). Yes, it paid big dividends for the Nittany Lions for much of the 2016 season. But in two of their losses, which bookended — and ended — their season, last-second big-play bombs against Pitt and USC exploded in their faces.
It’s easy to Nit-pick now, hindsight being 20/20 and all, but Trace McSorley’s pick against the Panthers came in a second-and-9 with 75 seconds remaining, with Penn State at the Pitt 31-yard line and down 42-39 — and momentum on its side. A potential game-tying field goal was within reach with a good Saquon Barkley burst.
And the Rose Bowl? Kinda the same story, but even moreso, as the Nittany Lions were tied 49-49 with under a minute left when a McSorley deep-ball interception (seconds after a near-pick) gave the Trojans a chance to win it. Which they did.
5. Handling the Heisman frenzy. Barkley and McSorley are bona fide candidates — especially Saquon. From all that I have seen in numerous and myriad circumstances, both are mature, consistently level-headed, typically humble and very modulated young men. Almost remarkably so.
But the constant attention — and potential resultant distraction — could be hazardous to their health. And, possibly, the team’s. (Although more likely the guys in the locker room will be thinking along the lines of Ryan Bates: ‘If one of my teammates wins the Heisman, I’ll feel like I won the Heisman.’)
Penn State’s history in this regard has shown it hasn’t been a problem on the field, whether it’s one player or backfield mates who are both in the Heisman running. (Of course, Joe Paterno didn’t allow his PR folks to engage in any of the Heisman hype. NoPa, no way.)
In John Cappelletti’s 1973 Heisman season, Penn State was 11-0 heading into the voting. In 1978, when Chuck Fusina finished No. 2 in the voting to Oklahoma’s Billy Sims, Penn State was 11-0 and No. 1 in the country when the balloting occurred. In 1982, Todd Blackledge (sixth) and Curt Warner (10th) led Penn State to a 10-1 regular season record and a No. 2 ranking prior to the voting. And in 1994, Penn State was 11-0 in the run-up to the voting, as Ki-Jana Carter finished second to winner Rashaan Salam of Colorado, while Kerry Collins was fourth.
6. Comparing the 2017 offense to Penn State’s 1994 juggernaut. The comparisons are bound to happen. The 2017 offense will be good — likely better than 2016, even. But chasing the ghost of the greatest offense in Penn State history could be an elusive race, to be sure.
The ’94 team has huge footsteps in which to follow. It averaged 47.8 points per game, yielded just 21.1 points, and averaged 7.63 yards per play. Carter ran for 1,539 yards and 23 touchdowns, while averaging 7.8 yards per carry. Collins averaged 13.138 yards per completion, threw for 21 TDs and just seven picks, and was sacked only five times. Bobby Engram averaged 19.8 yards per catch, with seven TDs, while Freddie Scott averaged 20.7 yards per catch, with nine TDs.
7. Suspending self-inflicted wounds. A couple of key suspensions in 2016 hurt the Nittany Lions. (Franklin gets big props for meting out punishment, even at the expense of missing key players.) A repeat of such offenses could hurt even more in 2017.
Penn State missed D-tackle Curtis Cothren in the Pitt game, when the Panthers made a living up the middle. Defensive end Garrett Sickels missed the first half against Ohio State (which led 12-7 at halftime), but to his eternal credit did come roaring back in the second half to have the best 30 minutes of his career.
One could make a case that the loss of wide receiver Saaed Blacknall and linebacker Manny Bowen — both suspended for the Rose Bowl — contributed greatly to Penn State’s loss to USC. Other than Chris Godwin, the PSU wide receivers had just two catches (both by DeAndre Thompkins, for 9 yards). The previous game against Wisconsin in the Big Ten title match-up, Blacknall had six receptions for 155 yards and two touchdowns. When veteran linebacker Brandon Bell went down in the Rose Bowl, the Lion D lost its heart and soul. Bowen would have been next man(ny) up. Instead, the Trojans took advantage of Penn State’s lack of depth at linebacker and scored the game’s final 17 points.
8. Winning the turnover battle. I wrote at length about this back in June; read it here. But if you don’t want to click on the link, here’s the deal in a nutshell:
Penn State picked up just 21 turnovers in 14 games last year, with 11 fumbles recovered and 10 interceptions, compared to the 20 turnovers committed by the Penn State offense. That’s an overall turnover margin of one for the season — very, very rarely a championship-caliber stat. Eight of those 21 turnovers created by the defense came from ballhawks who won’t be in the lineup in 2017.
Overall in 2016, Penn State was 7-0 in games where it had a plus turnover margin. But, in big games, the Nittany Lions had more turnovers than they gained. In their five contests against Top 25 ranked teams, they lost the turnover battle by an overwhelming 15 to 5 margin. And in their three losses (against Pitt, Michigan and USC), they were minus-2 in each game.
‘If we can increase our turnover ratio,’ Franklin said in the spring, ‘and do a better job with picks and things like that – and I’m not talking about making unbelievable catches, just making the ones you’re supposed to – then that is going to really help us.’
Help us, indeed.
In the end, the football gods (aka the College Football Playoff committee) help those who help — and don’t hurt — themselves.
