STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The mood was light on the practice field Tuesday evening. James Franklin even wanted a rep, lining up opposite wide receiver Kaden Saunders. The head coach took off after Saunders, and while Franklin was no match for the slot receiver, the 52-year-old did smile as he trailed Saunders down the field.
With Penn State’s first of two idle weeks upon us, everyone has a chance to take a breather. I look forward to lounging on the couch this weekend doing the same. Before that, it’s time to answer some questions as we try to figure out what to make of No. 8 Penn State.
Note: Questions have been lightly edited.
Hey Audrey, if you had to give letter grades to the three new coordinators so far what would give each of them and why? — Jordan L.
- Andy Kotelnicki: A-
- Tom Allen: B-
- Justin Lustig: B+
I’ll admit I can be a tough grader. Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time in classrooms and working with students. One detail I’ve always kept in mind is that progress matters.
Kotelnicki arrived in the winter with sky-high expectations. This is an offense that underperformed in recent years but still had a lot of talent. He inherited the most difficult task of these three hires. Through two games, while the offense hasn’t been perfect, it’s been significantly improved. Drew Allar is comfortable, confident and is throwing the ball down the field more. Per TruMedia, Penn State’s offense is fourth nationally in explosive play rate (percent of pass plays of 16-plus yards and run plays of 12-plus yards). It was 103rd last season. Nick Singleton rushed for 100-plus yards just once last season. He’s already done so twice this year. Remember, the offense kept this team afloat during that first-half shootout against Bowling Green. For the first time in a long while, the offense carried the load.
Kotelnicki has been creative, using countless personnel groupings, and Harrison Wallace III and Tyler Warren have stepped up. This offense has looked as good as fans realistically could’ve hoped it would. There’s room for improvement, for sure, notably third-down efficiency (7 of 20 through two games, 94th nationally).
DREW ALLAR WITH A DART AND PENN STATE TAKES THE LEAD! 🚀 @PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/b0GccLmvK6
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 7, 2024
Allen’s grade dropped after the defense forgot to turn in its assignment during that rough first half against Bowling Green. For a group that looked sharp against West Virginia, it got hit with a pop quiz against the Falcons and definitely did not do the reading.
Players said afterward they were trying to do too much and that the energy was low. The tackling was shoddy, too. However, I’m much more willing to chalk this up to one bad half because of how well the defense played in the final two quarters. Corrections were made and executed. That same defense that surrendered 286 yards in the first half gave up 89 in the second. I think this defense will be fine.
Franklin hit on something this week that I found interesting and I took it into account with this grade. He said there have been some technology challenges so far with the defense, particularly in that Bowling Green game. It sounds like the crowd noise inside Beaver Stadium made it difficult for middle linebacker Kobe King, who wears the green dot, to get on the same page with Allen. That might also help explain why there were some uncharacteristic issues in the first half for the defense.
Lustig inherited the second most difficult job of these three. Kicker Sander Sahaydak looks to be settling in. It’s still a small sample, though. Saunders, the punt returner, should be back to full health after this idle week. He’s been healthy enough to play, but his effectiveness as a punt returner has been impacted. Based on how West Virginia punted to teams last year, with shorter, higher kicks, Penn State went into that game wanting Saunders to call for fair catches, and he did. Lusting said Bowling Green’s punter didn’t “present a lot of opportunities to get Kaden going” but added that this idle week should help Saunders get healthy.
The biggest surprise for me is the lack of a pass rush. Maybe the Abdul Carter experiment is just a failure, but since Dani Dennis-Sutton has also failed to produce, maybe it’s more scheme-related. Any insight here? — Anonymous
I expected both would’ve been more productive so far. But it was difficult to evaluate them in the Bowling Green game because the quarterback got the ball out of his hands quickly. He was not sitting back and giving them a chance. I wrote on Sunday that it was all by design.
Franklin even went out of his way to mention this Tuesday night, surely knowing that there’s some panic among fans about the pass rush.
“Their whole game plan was not to allow us to get sacks,” he said. “It was quick game. It was run game. It was move the pocket. They weren’t holding on to the ball.”
Per TruMedia, the Nittany Lions are 93rd in pressure rate (27.8 percent). They finished second last year at 44 percent. Penn State’s 10 knockdowns (sacks plus hits) rank 111th.
The Kent State game likely won’t teach us much with this pass rush. I think it’s going to take until Illinois week to really see if the production shows up. Carter told me on Saturday he believes he just needs more reps and he’ll be fine. We’ll see.
Can you comment on Nolan Rucci and Cooper Cousins supplanting Drew Shelton and Sal Wormley in the second half vs. Bowling Green? — William S.
I wouldn’t say supplanting as much as Penn State made it a priority to get Rucci, Cousins and JB Nelson in the game. I don’t expect there to be any changes to the starting offensive line after the idle week. I’d think of this more as Penn State being mindful of load management during what could be an extra long season if there is a College Football Playoff run.
I asked Franklin specifically about Rucci on Tuesday, and Franklin said he “did some good things.” Rucci played 24 snaps against Bowling Green after playing 11 against West Virginia. Cousins has played 18 total snaps so far this year and Nelson has played 34. This is all being done to build depth. Franklin said they would have played those three even more as part of the rotation had the game not been as close.
Hi Audrey, just curious if you’ve had a chance to see the ongoing renovations in person and your thoughts in general and how do you feel it compares to other college stadiums? — Anonymous
So far, much of what Penn State has done with the stadium isn’t super noticeable from the outside. That’s going to be the case until after this season. However, there definitely are changes inside.
There are four new escalators, but they won’t be functional until the Illinois game. The super ribbon board is in place but will not be used until Nov. 2 for the Ohio State game. There is improved Wifi, which worked well for me in the concourse, but I did not notice any improvement in the actual stadium bowl. In fact, during the last few minutes of the game, I walked from the field to the tunnel just to get service so I could send an update.
There is now a 34,000-square-foot open-air lounge outside Gate F that looks neat. On Saturday, there were high-top tables out there, food trucks and a large TV showing other college football games. Throughout the stadium, there are new concessions and more grab-and-go food and drink options than ever before. The aim is to keep the lines as short as possible.
We’ll be ready to compare and contrast to other stadiums once everything is in place after the next phase is complete this offseason. I do wonder if anything special is in store for the super ribbon board coinciding with the Ohio State game.
Do you think that the lack of even distribution to receivers is taking what is given or just the game plan to take advantage of weakness? Is anyone underperforming in the receiver room? — Mike S.
There just aren’t enough targets to go around right now. Wallace and Warren are likely going to be the two top options this season. They’ve combined to gobble up 60.5 percent of the targets thus far. But one of the best signs for the development of this offense is that Allar has shown trust in several players.
Seeing Allar targeting Omari Evans is a promising sign. Evans had a drop against Bowling Green, but that didn’t stop Allar from looking his way later. Singleton and Kaytron Allen are going to be factors in the passing game too. Franklin has said several times that this offense needs to run more plays because there are so many more players it wants to and needs to get involved. Liam Clifford and Julian Fleming would certainly be in this category.
Who is a player we haven’t seen much of through the first two games who could end up being a major contributor down the road? Fleming? Luke Reynolds? — Garren W.
We know tight end Andrew Rappleyea, who would’ve been my pick for this question, is dealing with a long-term injury. Franklin acknowledged as much this week after Rappleyea was on crutches Saturday. I think Evans is on the rise, but he’s a little too on the radar for me to make such a pick.
I’m going out on a limb on this one and picking No. 3 running back Cam Wallace. Yes, there’s plenty of depth at running back, but I still could see the redshirt freshman carving out a role. He’s currently back with Singleton on kick returns, but as Kotelnicki has shown already, if there’s a player who can impact the game he will scheme something up for them. I’d put Wallace in that category of someone who can somehow, some way help this offense. Plus, I’d think the staff would like to see a little more of him in games considering he could be the guy next year if Singleton and Allen are off to the NFL.
(Photo of Andy Kotelnicki: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
