Penn State Football: Punting Game Flunks Out

UNIVERSITY PARK — Jeremy Boone cautiously walked through the door to the Beaver Stadium media room, and as his eyes widened, his face went blank and his gait slowed.

A kindergarten and elementary education grad who now spends time in the classroom as a substitute teacher, Boone was accustomed to the view. He knew what was coming. He’d been here before.

Lots of crazed faces, simplistic minds ready to fire insipid questions, papers and pens everywhere, everyone out of his and her seats. A frenzy.

Twenty little kids…er, reporters… firing questions, all at once:

“What happened to Penn State’s punt game…”

“…Again?”

After Boone finally made his way across the room, the reporters trailing closely behind, he took a seat on a stool, affecting a slight grimace. That he came to the room knowing the queries that would follow him, shows what kind of a teacher…er, football player…he is.

It was painful, no doubt. No cooling off period. No rest, period. Boone’s hair was still wet from the post-game shower. Ohio State’s 24-7 victory over the Nittany Lions was barely 20 minutes old.

The crowd of 110,033, the fourth-largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history, had already left the stadium.

Gone, too, were any hopes the Lions (8-2, 4-2) had for a Big Ten Conference championship or for a spot in a BCS bowl. The hated Buckeyes (8-2, 5-1) — who had spoiled the celebration of Beaver Stadium’s 300^th game — still had conference title and BCS aspirations.

But there was Boone. In some ways, the 5-foot-9 and 168-pound punter was shouldering the load of the loss. Unfair, because five guys who weigh an average of 305 pounds — the Lions’ offensive linemen, each of whom weigh literally nearly twice that of Boone — may have been the biggest culprits in the Lions’ loss.

Boone shrugged. His lesson plans, his failure.

“Our punt return game put our team in an uncomfortable position,” Boone allowed. “They made some great plays.”

The “they” to whom he was referring is not Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who threw for two touchdowns – 62 yards to Devier Posey and six yards to Brandon Seine – and ran for another for 175 yards of total offense.

Rather, Boone was referring to the Buckeye punt return in general and Ray Small, Ohio State’s punt returner, in specifics. Small ran back seven of Boone’s 10 punts for 130 yards, setting up two of Ohio State’s touchdowns. Small’s returns were for 41, 9, 19, 7, 8, 45 and 1 yards. Small also had one fair catch.

It wasn’t as if Small was this great return man, laying in wait for the Nittany Lions. It seems like this happens all the time this season. Mere specialty mortals gain super powers against Penn State.

Small entered the game with 125 yards on 23 punt returns, for a pedestrian 5.4-yard average — for the season! His long was 18. On Saturday against Penn State, he had three returns over his previous long and averaged 18.5 yards per return — more than three times his average.

Penn State could only wish. In comparison, Ohio State’s Jon Thoma punted eight times. And Graham Zug, Penn State’s punt returner, returned one. For zero yards.

Let me repeat: Eight punts. One return. Zero yards. “Our first goal is to catch the ball,” said Zug, who muffed a punt but did recover it.

Small’s day was bigger than Penn State’s season – counting Saturday’s contest, in 10 games in 2009, the Nittany Lions have had all of 98 yards in punt returns with a long of 20.

Something is rotten in the state of Penn State. Way too many unhappy returns. There’s nothing special, basically, about the Nittany Lions’ special teams.

You gotta give Boone credit. Although a few of them were line drives, he averaged 45.8 yards on 10 punts. Ten seems like a lot, but it’s still off by four for the single-game Penn State record of 14, set by Joe Colone in 1942 in a 0-0 tie against Cornell in 1942. (Take that, you moaners about the blandness of a tussle with Tressel.)

Boone’s 10 can be used to measure some other Penn State performances on Saturday:

Compared to 10, Darryl Clark only had two more completions. Ten is one more than the Nittany Lions’ total first downs. Evan Royster had only 26 more rushing yards than 10. Nearly 10 is the 9:34 advantage in ball possession time Ohio State had in the fourth quarter. Sean Lee had four more tackles than 10, Josh Hull had three more and Navorro Bowman had one less.

But no number hurt the Nittany Lions more than Small’s two large punt returns.

SMALL’S BIG ONE NUMBER ONE

The first came early in the first quarter, when Boone line-drived a 37-yard punt, which Small fielded on the 50. He quickly ran through Penn State’s coverage and was only tackled by Bowman because Boone slowed down Small.

“I felt a little bit of pressure — the only time all game — and I tried to compensate a bit,” said Boone, “and it came across the field.”

Two plays later, Pryor ran seven yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Ohio State lead. It was 193 seconds into the game, already the WhiteOut crowd turned ashen-faced and the Nittany Lions lost their bounce – not to mention the oddsmakers’ six-point cushion that usually comes with a homefield advantage. How crucial was the gimme? Five of the last eight Penn State-Ohio State games in Beaver Stadium were decided by a TD or less.

Joe Paterno was right. Dammit.

“I said prior to the game that I was worried about the kicking game,” said Paterno, who now has these records against Ohio State: 8-13 lifetime, 6-4 at home and 6-11 in the Big Ten. Tressel, by the way, is now 6-3 against Paterno.

So, if “Kreskin” Paterno knew it was coming, why didn’t he do anything about it?

THE SECOND LONG SMALL RETURN

Small’s second pivotal return came at the end of the third quarter, when Boone booted the ball 56 yards, but Small brought it right back for 45 yards to the Penn State 47. Only a shoestring tackle by Boone kept Small from scoring. The return gave the Buckeyes another short field. Ten plays later they scored on Pryor’s pass to Saine for a 24-7 lead that sealed the victory.

“One of the Ohio State players hit me, then was helping me up when I saw Small make some good moves,” Boone recalled. “The next thing I knew I was hitting Small and he went down the other way.”

You gotta like teachers who hit the books. But when Teach must tackle the guy who books, well, someone needs to get an “F.”

A little over three decades ago, there was a kid about the size of Boone who was a hustling, scrappy kind of player and was captain of Penn State’s special teams. He was known as “Scrap” and they were known as the Scrap Pack. That kid is Tom Bradley.

Those were the days when Paterno would rank the three phrases of the games as defense, special teams and offense. In that order. No more.

“Everyone always underestimates the importance of special teams,” said Bradley, now the Lions’ defensive coordinator. “It’s important that the three components are working together.”

It is clear that in 2009, the Nittany Lions’ special teams are not working. Period.

Entering the game, of the 120 teams in Division I-A football (FBS), Penn State ranked 114^th in net punting, 113^th in punt returns against, 100^th in kick returns and 101^st in punt returns.

Figure in two punt blocks this season (including one that Iowa ran back for a touchdown in the Nittany Lions’ only other loss), and if the special teams were not an oxymoron, the Lions very well be 9-1 or, per chance, 10-0.

That the Nittany Lions split the coaching duties of their special teams seems to be a divide so they do not conquer approach. For example, one hand (defensive line coach Larry Johnson Sr.) coaches the punt team, while the other hand (linebacker coach Ron Vanderlinden) coaches the punt return team. Tell me their main attention is on the punt teams.

It is an approach that does not seem to work. This may be what Mark Brennan of FightOnState.com was getting at when after the game he tactfully asked Paterno, “This is the second game where your special teams have broken down in a loss. Do you have to take a look at the way you’re doing some things there?”

Joe answered as if the players were the problem.

“We’ve done it this way. I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll obviously take a look at it, but I don’t know if it’s a question of looking at it to change things, maybe personnel. I didn’t see how that kid (Small) got around there. A couple of the coaches said the guy who was responsible fell down. I don’t know. We’ll have to look at the tapes.”

When they do look at the tapes, it must be a large room, given all the people who have a hand in special teams.

Near the end of Saturday’s game against Ohio State, a former Nittany Lion football player who had a long and successful NFL career (and who is not named Jack Ham) had an interesting take on Penn State’s lack of a singular special teams coach:

“That there’s not one coach specifically devoted to special teams sends a bad message to your players,” he said. “It says, at least psychologically, that they’re not as important as the offense and the defense. And that may be a reason they play like it.”

And believe me, he didn’t get a kick out of saying that.