The MIA list for PSU and CJF on Saturday was substantial.
And it wasn’t just for starters.
Healthy scratches included Saquon Barkley, Marcus Allen, Mike Gesicki, Jason Cabinda and Grant Haley.
Together, here’s what that group did not bring to the Beaver Stadium playing field by not playing on Saturday:
4,053 yards of offense on 574 touches for 36 touchdowns. On defense, 546 tackles, with four interceptions, 29 pass break-ups, and 30 sacks and tackles for a loss.
Oh, and 121 career starts. To put that kind of experience and depth into perspective, consider this: The 2012 Nittany Lions went into their season-opener against Ohio University with an entire roster that had a combined 132 starts.
That comparison, as much as anything, underscores the rebuilding and rebirth and renaissance of Penn State State football.
That those Five Guys did not play is also an indication of the relative strength of the Penn State program. James Franklin has a fistful of players who had nothing to prove by piling up stats against second-stringers in a glorified spring scrimmage. It was addition by subtraction. They did their work in the spring, some more than others. But, most of all they didn’t get injured. (Franklin still has enough of that to deal with anyway, as the list four paragraphs below indicates.)
‘Mike Gesicki and Cabinda and Marcus Allen and Saquon Barkley took a bunch of reps this spring,’ Franklin said on Saturday. ‘Took a bunch of reps. Only thing they didn’t do was live work… The good thing about today too is that we stayed healthy.’
Another comparison: The 2012 Blue-White Game drew around 60,000 fans, but the next year attendance dropped to 28,000 amidst ever-changing weather conditions. On Saturday, Penn State put the crowd in Beaver Stadium at an estimated 71,000 — ranked No. 4 in the country this spring, behind Ohio State (80,134), Nebraska (78,312) and Alabama (74,326).
MORE MISSING
Here’s another list, not as well-publicized, yet it is also indicative of the relative depth and strength of Franklin’s 2017 squad. And his overall program. In addition to the aforementioned Fab Five, these key — and a few more with potential to be key — players did not appear in Saturday’s game. Injuries, both of the current and recovering variety, played a big role in their non-appearance, although not in all cases. Specifically, they include:
Saaed Blacknall, Nick Bowers, Ryan Buchholz, Tyrell Chavis, Jake Cooper, Danny Dalton, Brelin Faison-Walden, Steven Gonzalez, Joey Julius, Brendan Mahon, Michal Menet, Andrew Nelson, Tom Pancoast, John Petrishen, John Reid and Miles Sanders.
That group includes two veteran offensive tackles, with a combined 56 starts, and two other potential starters along the O-line; a senior receiving star who had two TDs and 155 yards in the Big Ten championship game; America’s favorite tackling kickoff specialist; three tight ends (and that’s not even counting Gesicki); Barkley’s backup, who was the country’s No. 1 running back recruit from a season ago; and a starting corner/top punt returner/fanatical computer geek.
A few years ago, that many absences would have been serious cause for calling off the Blue-White Game. Now, Penn State played on. It’s a good indication of the Nittany Lions’ depth.
Imagine if they, like Barkley and His Boys, also had played.
It could have been the competitive game that Franklin kinda, sorted bait-an-switch promoted with his 1’s vs. 2’s pronouncement. And it may have been like Saban’s Saturday spring scrimmage at Alabama, which the family of ESPN channels, apps and watches covered ad infinitum — with Herbie and Galloway mic’d up on the field. That game came down to a few final, almost-thrilling (I kid you not) moments, when the Crimson beat the White 27-24 on a game-ending field goal in a contest that featured 661 yards through the air.
Penn State’s not quite there yet. (Who is?) But, it’s not too difficult to imagine the Bristol folks showing up at Beaver Stadium next year, to cover Franklin and the Nittany Lions as #85k watch on in the stadium and hundreds of thousands more on ESPNU. With the way Franklin dispenses hugs to kids doing between-quarter promotions and reporters catching (and not) punts at halftime, he and PSU are good TV. Again.
QUALITY AND QUANTITY
Because it’s not about the game. That the score of scratches on Saturday weren’t the story shows you how little the Blue-White Game means in the long run. It also shows you that the level to which Franklin has restocked the larder in both quality and quantity.
Sure, it made for good copy that Tommy Stevens had three TD passes and has vowed not to transfer. And that massive human beings named Jon Holland and Juwan Johnson combined for 15 catches. And that D-end Shareef Miller had three tackles for a loss. But for starters, they aren’t starters — although the latter two have a good shot at it in 2017.
In the end, the final score mattered little. Or that Penn State continued its Blue reign of terror, as the Blue squad continued a string of victories that since Franklin took over in 2014 have looked like this: 37-0, 17-7, 37-0 and 26-0.
Soon enough, the real work begins again.
It’s 100 days until Aug. 1, and with the potential of Penn State starting official summer practice earlier than usual this year, the countdown to the 2017 season has already begun.
‘We still,’ said Franklin early into his post-Blue-White presser on Saturday, ‘have a lot of work to do.’
That means everyone.
