‘Refining the Process’: How Andrew Rappleyea and Penn State Refocused Over the Bye Week

For a team enduring a physically taxing college football season, the bye week can serve either as an opportunity for rest and recovery or as a test of patience.

For a Penn State squad riding a four-game losing streak, it was a mix of both. Sitting back and watching others take the field was challenging for tight end Andrew Rappleyea, who was forced to stew with the team’s shortcomings for an extended period.

“Having a bye week, nobody takes it as a bye week,” Rappleyea said on Wednesday. “You start preparing for the game. You got the week after, you come back as soon as you can. So obviously, it was nice having a little bit more time to prepare for this upcoming game.”

That extra preparation time was packaged with a degree of frustration for Rappleyea, who’s still hungry for that elusive first Big Ten win of the season and was forced to wait for the next opportunity.

“We had a really good week of practice, and I think a lot of us were upset we didn’t have a game,” Rappleyea said. “I know I was. That’s honestly the most frustrating thing is sitting back, especially when you’re in the position we’re in, watching other teams play, win, lose, all that. It’s frustrating, but we had a great week of practice, and we’ve had a great one so far this week.”

The extra time was critical for identifying what exactly went wrong throughout the last month, as the team lost conference games against Wisconsin, Northwestern, USC and Michigan. 

Looking back through film with a critical eye, Rappleyea described the Big Ten opener against the Badgers as “the worst of my college career,” adding that he played “alright” against the Trojans but was one-dimensional, contributing more as a pass-catcher than a run-blocker.

“It’s a complete evaluation period,” Rappleyea said. “You know who’s doing what. Honestly, we put a cut up together of, this is bad, this is good, and a lot of things you watch it’s like damn, I don’t even know it looked that bad, but it did. So then you see the things that are good, like hey, we need more of that, and that’s the reality of it.”

That rigorous personal standard is matched by a coaching staff that demands accountability. While some players might recoil from harsh criticism, Rappleyea said he embraces being held to a relentlessly tough standard.

With Purdue looming on Saturday and searching for its first win in Beaver Stadium since 2004, Rappleyea and the offense are expecting a high-energy, “rowdy” sideline from the Boilermakers. He stressed that Penn State must dictate the terms by establishing a run game early.

With Nittany Lion backs failing to generate a 10-yard carry since the start of conference play. Rappleyea admitted they’ve lacked an identity on the ground. For him specifically, improvement required breaking down his technique to a granular level. It was a meticulous process of tracking minor technical errors.

“It’s like refining my process,” Rappleyea said. ”Where did I go wrong? You know, man, I stretched the outside with this armpit too much, I got to be more vertical, got to be more head up, things like that. You know, just refining my process about what’s going to help me help the team.”