Handing Out the Grades Following Penn State’s 38-25 Loss to Ole Miss

ATLANTA — Penn State fell to 10-3 on the season Saturday in an uninspiring 38-25 loss to Ole Miss that was worse than the final score. The Nittany Lions moved the ball decently well on the ground but once again couldn’t find a passing attack against one of the better teams on the schedule. Opt outs hurt this defense but end of the day this group was a shadow of what it had been this season. Penn State will hope things go better to start off next season in Morgantown but for now, here are the grades.

Offense: D+

Sigh. On the one hand Penn State did do some things pretty well on Saturday. 167-yards on the ground on 28 carries was a respectable clip while a 6-for-15 third down rate was not the worst either. Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen both averaged over five yards a carry while Penn State had eight carries of 10 or more yards over the course of the afternoon. This ground game effort resembled some of the better moments from last season. If Penn State can hang its hat on anything that might be it.

Then there is the rest of it. Drew Allar struggled, the receivers struggled, Tyler Warren and Theo Johnson were once again the only real consistent threat in the passing game from the receiving perspective and that wasn’t nearly enough. It’s challenging to knock a team extra hard for being the exact same group it has been all year against good teams, but given the chance to prepare for this game and practice and watch film for three weeks, it just wasn’t an inspiring effort aside from the running backs. If a C means “just as bad as usual” this gets a knock for being a bit worse despite having more time to get ready for it. Two turnovers hurt the grade here as well.

Defense: C

Losing Kalen King and Johnny Dixon was in many respects the worst opt-outs Penn State could have gotten on the defensive side of the ball relative to what Ole Miss does well through the air with a trio of high-end receivers. There were offsides penalties, missed coverages, and just general young player mistakes here. Abdul Carter was injured and played through it, but he was to some degree a liability because of it. Ole Miss finished the day with nearly 600 yards of offense, 30 first downs, but did give up 10 tackles for a loss. Penn State’s defensive front was solid for the most part but Ole Miss was just too good at receiver. Nobody can say this was a good defensive effort, but given the circumstances [don’t forget the loss of Manny Diaz, who left well before the meat of bowl prep] you can explain away some degree of these shortcomings. Penn State’s defense was too good all year for this to be the final chapter, but here we are.

Special Teams: C-

For a group that has been solid for the better part of the year this wasn’t a great outing. Alex Felkins nearly had both of his field goals blocked [one was, one wasn’t] and a missed coverage on a kickoff led to a big hit on Singleton early in the game. Riley Thompson continues to be solid and will be a good asset as a punter next year but otherwise this was a down day for a unit that has been something Penn State could lean on throughout the season. Mistakes happen and not every play goes your way, but Penn State seemed out coached on special teams and that seems hard to do. An extra knock for having a bad game at a bad time.

Coaching: C–

Shorthanded or not, this wasn’t the best problem-solving effort by Anthony Poindexter in his first stint as interim DC of the year. The offensive coordinator duo of Ja’Juan Seider and Ty Howle didn’t prove to be great problem solvers in their own right despite an improved running game and a few flashes here or there. Beau Pribula provided Penn State with a few sparks but other than that there wasn’t much to write home about on the coaching front. Penn State is what it is, and you could argue this grade could be lower, but with the amount of change going on around the program we’ll throw the coaches a bit of a bone, especially if you add in some potential snap-count scenarios for guys headed to the next level. Nevertheless this team had some issues all season and never came up with a real good answer to solving them. Some of that is on players, but a lot of it is on coaches. None of it look good in the grad department.

Overall: C-

You can explain away some aspects of this one but when push comes to shove it was an ugly, ugly performance in a game that Penn State could have won. Coupled with the two offensive duds against Ohio State and Michigan this game makes the end of 2023 feel just about the opposite of how the year began. Good news for the Nittany Lions, change is coming.