John Donne, who once wrote ‘No man is an island,’ never met Jahan Dotson. In 2020, there’s Dotson…
Running alone the along sideline, making circus catches.
Keeping his head down and his reach high, single-handedly carrying a beleaguered Penn State offense through three desultory games, making 21 catches for 361 yards and five touchdowns.
All the while, keeping his head on straight in what has been a three-ring (loss) circus.
Look to Dotson to find out what is right — and what has led to things going so wrong, so quickly — about Penn State football in 2020. The wide receiver is seemingly the only Nittany Lion having a good season. And even at that, he dropped a pass on his team’s very first play against Maryland on Saturday.
But here’s where Dotson, a mature and quiet junior who takes care of his business on the field and in the classroom, veers off from his teammates and his head coach, James Franklin.
After his team’s disheartening 35-19 loss to Maryland, Dotson — who is all of 20 years and eight months — made a mistake, took the blame, bucked up, re-focused and didn’t do it again.
‘On that first drive, I had a drop,’ Dotson said after the game, ‘and I told myself that can’t happen. If Coach Franklin is going talk about me being the guy, I have to be the guy. I have to be the go-to guy. And I have to make those plays. Those are routine plays that I make every single day. And I got to make them.’
By contrast, here’s the only hint of blame that Franklin took in his post-game press conference, which covered 965 words and 11 questions:
‘There’s a lot of things that we’ve got to get corrected,’ Franklin said. ‘Ultimately, it’s my responsibility and we’ll get to work on it on Sunday.’
Franklin, who in the offseason pushed for a $38.4 million contract extension that was officially announced on February 26 (and which includes an annual insurance annuity of $1 million), noted that ‘we’ — plural — ‘need to get it fixed and we need to fix it fast.’
Later, he added, ‘We all own responsibility in this.’
Penn State is 3-5 in its last eight games.
After the loss on Saturday, Franklin insisted that he has not changed the way he has done the things that got Penn State to a 53-20 mark before its recent funk. ‘Our approach hasn’t changed,’ he said. ‘It’s been the same approach it’s been for six years.’
Perhaps Franklin’s approach may not have changed, but a lot else has. Including the players and their mindsets. This is where we bring in Dotson, the only thing close to a hero in the unfortunate saga that is Penn State football in the Covid Era.
DOTSON AND THE ‘DISTRACTIONS’
To listen to Dotson, the answer to Penn State’s woes may be in the players — and coaches — heads. And hearts. Here’s what Dotson had to say after the game:
Dotson: ‘We just have some guys doing their own thing at times.’
Me: ‘What did Franklin say to the guys after the game?
Dotson: ‘…he basically just told us that we need to come together as a team. Right now, we have a lot of individuals, a lot of guys thinking about things they shouldn’t be thinking about.’
Me: ‘You said that guys are thinking of other things. Like Covid and those type of things? Where is everybody’s head at?’
Dotson: ‘I can’t speak for everyone. But we’re not as one right now. We’re not a unit right now. There’s a lot of different things going on right now. There’s distractions, basically. That’s what I mean. There are distractions we shouldn’t be focused on right now. We have to be focused on getting in the win column, and nothing else. Literally. That’s the biggest thing right now, and we just have to come together as one.’
What distractions? We can only guess.
To understand how Penn State got to this point — a 16-point loss to a team that was a 25-point underdog and a program that had lost to Penn State 201-20 cumulatively over the previous four seasons — taking a deeper dive into Dotson’s time at Penn State may provide some clues.
Because if anyone has a right to be distracted, it may be Dotson.
But, clearly, he is not.
And if he feels alone on an island at times (my words, not his), it would be understandable.
But if he’s not distracted and affected by what’s transpired during his Penn State career — and that includes Covid, which the football teams at Indiana and Ohio State and Maryland have each had to deal with it — then perhaps no one else should as well. Let’s take a look:
THE CLASS OF 2018
Dotson, who is from the Lehigh Valley, originally committed to UCLA in September 2017. He flipped to Penn State on early signing day (Dec. 20, 2017), and was part of PSU’s Class of 2018, ranked No. 6 by 247, Franklin’s highest ranking.
It’s three seasons later. The top three players in that class, all five-stars according to 247 Sports, are gone: linebacker Micah Parsons, who opted out of 2020 to concentrate on the NFL Draft; Justin Shorter, who transferred to Florida (where has 10 catches and one TD); and running back Ricky Slade, who joined former PSU O-coordinator Ricky Rahne at Old Dominion, where Rahne is head coach, though ODU is not playing this fall.
You have to think that Shorter and Slade could have made important contributions to Penn State in 2020, if they were still on the team.
Also gone from that class is Isaiah Humphries, who transferred to Cal. He subsequently filed a harassment lawsuit against Penn State and a former teammate. Two other members of the Class of 2018, Nan Asiedu and Jordan Miner, never played a down for Penn State after they were diagnosed with heart problems.
Six players from that class were starters against Maryland: Dotson, tight end Pat Freiermuth, offensive tackle Rasheed Walker, defensive linemen PJ Mustipher and Jayson Oweh, and linebacker Jesse Luketa.
ASSISTANT COACHES
When Dotson signed with Penn State, Josh Gattis was the wide receivers coach and the position coach who worked hard to sell Dotson on PSU. Gattis left for Alabama in January 2020, and Franklin gave the spot to David Corley, who was originally hired as the team’s running backs coach. After the 2018 season, Corley was replaced by Gerad Parker. When Parker left after the 2019 season for West Virginia, Taylor Stubblefield (the current coach) was hired. That’s four position coaches in less than three seasons.
On the offensive side of the ball, Dotson has worked under the schemes and play-calling of two coordinators/QB coaches, has seen two O-line coaches and – as a punt returner — two special teams coaches.
THE WR ROOM
Dotson the college receiver has had to grow up quickly.
Since Dotson signed with Penn State, several wide receivers have left the program with eligibility remaining, among them: Shorter, Irv Charles (dismissed from the team shortly after Dotson signed,) Juwan Johnson (transfer, Oregon), Brandon Polk (transfer, James Madison), Mac Hippenhammer (transfer, Miami, Ohio) and KJ Hamler (second round, Denver Broncos, 2020 NFL Draft). Also not in the room, but vigorously pursued by Franklin to be there: Julian Fleming, the top high school receiver in the country in 2019 who is form Pennsylvania, but opted to attend Ohio State.
In addition, redshirt junior Cam Sullivan-Brown, who listed as a starter for the first two games of 2020 and warmed up, has not played this season. “Cam Sullivan-Brown’s a guy we were really excited about, and, he had some things going on that wasn’t going to allow him to play the way he wants to play, and that we know that he’s capable of playing,” Franklin said last week. CSB did not play vs. Maryland.
These days, Dotson finds himself in the room and on the field‚ with a pair of freshmen starting at the other wide receiver spots — Parker Washington (14 catches, 155 yards, 3 TD’s) and KeAndre Lambert-Smith (4-43). As the veteran, not only has to care of himself, but them too.
YOUTH
The fourth item on Penn State’s official game notes prior to the Maryland game featured this nugget:
YOUTH MOVEMENT: Penn State is one of the youngest teams in the country with 81 underclassmen (31 true freshmen, 24 redshirt freshmen, 26 sophomores) to just 10 players in their final year of eligibility.
These young players came to Penn State on the heels of Barkley, McSorley & Co. and a 29-7 run from mid-2016 through the 2018 season. Their expectations were no doubt high, but not having been a part of those squads, these newcomers did not see — or perhaps learn from — the hard work, unity, sacrifice, humility and resolve that created such success record in the face of adversity.
Do they really know what it takes to succeed at that level? Or, are their expectations higher than their resolve? The next six weeks will be telling.
And could those seniors be distracted by the prospect of their potential standing in the 2021 NFL Draft?
DISCIPLINE
There have been signs of internal challenges within the program, off of the field. Eight Penn State football players were charged with marijuana possession thus far in 2020, with one of them also charged with possession of LSD tabs. In addition, the program and a former player were named in a lawsuit brought by Humphries, and a current player has been reported to be part of the accusations. The complaint, as reported by PennLive.com on October 20, alleges that Parsons was placed on conduct probation by Penn State University from May to December 2018.
AN EMBATTLED QUARTERBACK
Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford is under siege. He’s been sacked, bashed, hurried, harried, picked on and picked — on the field and on social media. Clifford’s 57 passes vs. Maryland on Saturday were the most by a Penn State quarterback. Ever. In 1,336 games.
In the post-game words of Franklin, ‘There’s too many times where (Sean) is under pressure and getting hit early in games. He’s been hit way too many times this season. He’s been sacked too many times this season and has been under pressure too many times and does that have an effect? Yeah, it does.’
Clifford has been sacked 13 times in just three games (including seven by Maryland), and he leads the team in run attempts (52, which 45% of Penn State’s total) and yards gained (150). He’s also thrown five interceptions and nine TDs — five to Dotson. All with the spotty protection of a starting offensive line than has been at Penn State for 21 combined seasons — an average of 4.2 years per starter.
The continued harassment of Clifford and his subsequent frustration and overthrows have put added pressure on Dotson, as the top receiver on an offense playing without its top two running backs.
THE BOTTOM-LINE
That’s not all. In his time at Penn State, Dotson has seen his family undergo a serious medical challenge.
Still Dotson remains resolute.
All of that, plus his performance on the field this season, has earned Dotson the right — and the situation demands that it be his responsibility — to call his teammates out for yielding to the aforementioned distractions.
Dotson is not one of the Nittany Lions’ eight captains for the 2020 season.
But he certainly is a leader. Even when at times it seems like he may be the only one.
