Aside from the fact the games had to be played, Penn State’s 2014-15 season was essentially set in stone before a single play ever finished.
The Nittany Lions had depth issues at every position, talent issues at every position and were simply not equipped to turn the season into something above average.
That’s not a knock on the effort, nor the skill that some players displayed or the coaching that went on all year. It was simply a season that wasn’t going to go in Penn State’s favor. The Nittany Lions had to play perfect football every Saturday and that was never going to happen.
And that’s where James Franklin and his staff had to make difficult choices with incoming players. Is it worth burning a redshirt for a player who won’t be able to change the team’s trajectory — or — do you save him for the future when there will be far more talent and depth to go around?
Franklin, predictably, but perhaps not without gritting his teeth, opted to save talent for down the road. His first season at Penn State was going to have the future in mind as the waters got rougher as the year dragged on.
With those challenges behind him, Franklin now faces more conventional questions and with them much easier answers. Penn State has exponentially more depth and talent, not enough to take on the world, but enough that Franklin’s hand ought to be forced far less often. As a result he can begin to finally manage his roster in a way that will help the future and not hurt the present.
“I think it just comes down to this specific season,” Franklin says on the process of deciding how to redshirt a player. “If he is a guy by the fifth game of the year is going to have a significant role, then yeah you should probably play that guy from the beginning and get him ready.”
“Is he a guy that you have to play just because you don’t have enough depth at that position anyway, then you’re going to have to play him. Is this a guy that you may like the redshirt but based on your depth you might not be able to?”
As Franklin noted, while Penn State’s depth is in much better shape, that doesn’t mean the Nittany Lions are out of the woods just yet. An injury or two in the wrong places could accelerate the careers of several players. That can be said of nearly every program, but the drop in talent can be the difference. Good teams don’t win simply because the first team players are elite. They win because players down the roster can step in and make an impact as well.
“So there are a lot of current things that you’re looking at based on your current depth chart as well as the talent that guy brings in,” Franklin added. “Also is he physically ready, yes or no, is he mentally ready, maturity? All of those things factor into it.”
Penn State is still a season or two from getting back to pre-sanction depth, but this offseason should be a good one for the program as some reinforcements arrive.
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