A little bit of everything.
If you’re spending the first day of the new year trying to unpack Penn State’s 24-10 loss to Arkansas on Saturday afternoon in the Outback Bowl, you don’t need to look much farther than those five words.
Because that’s really what it boils down to.
The game itself is what it is. Penn State’s offense couldn’t find consistency without Jahan Dotson and save a few hopeful runs along the way, the Nittany Lions’ largely unthreatening rushing attack was no more potent in early 2022 than it was for the entirety of 2021. Sean Clifford was a combination of both his good and his bad, often running for his life behind a patchwork offensive line but also missing on a few throws that could have ultimately swung the game.
On defense the Nittany Lions leaned on a makeshift defensive front, a safety playing linebacker and the absence of six starters who opted out of the game to prepare for the NFL Draft. As a result Arkansas – closing out a historic season that featured a near upset of Alabama – managed to do much of what had made it successful all year long, and still, the Nittany Lions found themselves hanging around just enough to stay in the game.
Had Penn State’s defense resembled the same unit it had fielded all year, and had Dotson played on Saturday it’s entirely possible that things would have turned out differently. That’s a hypothetical that can be debated deep into the night and one we will leave behind here.
But when it comes to Penn State’s season, a 7-6 campaign that featured plenty of moments that nearly happened but ultimately didn’t, the question is what went wrong, and what needs to change.
And we circle back around to those five words: a little bit of everything.
Because Clifford may not be the quarterback Penn State needs to take the next step, but his job is a lot harder when the offense can’t run the ball consistently. And Penn State’s running backs might need to hit the hole harder, but they can’t do that if the holes aren’t there to be found. And maybe Penn State’s offensive line isn’t as good as it should be, but maybe their celling simply is what it is.
So heading into 2022 everything will have to be better. Clifford will have to be that much smarter, the defense will have to develop and tackle just a bit better. The offensive line will have to improve, the running backs will have to find their way through holes just a bit faster. Parker Washington will have to become his own version of Jahan Dotson and the Nittany Lions will have to find a truly productive return game.
James Franklin will have to get better too, although in many ways it’s hard to quantify what that looks like. Games are the product of coaching but they’re also a product of a million other factors often out of the hands of coaches. Franklin’s status as $70 million dollar man isn’t so much about his in-game decisions as it is a need to find ways to navigate the season’s ups and downs. Franklin has proven to be plenty competent in the moments when things are in order, less so in the moments when the waters have gotten choppy.
On the one hand it’s also difficult to deny the reality that a deeply flawed team for most of 2021 was also far more competitive than perhaps it ought to have been. The challenge is deciding if a lacking competency was a product of coaching – or the lack thereof – or if the fact a deeply flawed team’s ability to stay in games was ultimately a product of coaching up a roster that doesn’t quite boast the talent pool of some of its predecessors.
Whatever the case might be Penn State’s road ahead will get no easier. The Nittany Lions face Purdue, Central Michigan, Auburn, Ohio State and Michigan all in the first six weeks of the season with the Buckeyes and Wolverines coming in back-to-back weeks.
In the immediate future not much will change for Penn State in any way that is markedly an improvement over the current state of affairs. The addition of Manny Diaz as defensive coordinator will likely be nothing more – at best – than a continuation of Brent Pry’s own successful unit. As for the defense itself, it will be without at least six noteworthy starters in 2021 if not more pending a few decisions yet to be announced.
On offense Sean Clifford’s return will at least give Penn State a known entity at quarterback and while freshman star Drew Allar will head to campus in the coming weeks with no lack of hype, it remains to be seen how much he can truly compete for the starting job. If nothing else Allar’s ceiling is speculative while Clifford’s is at least known.
In similar fashion Penn State’s highly touted freshman class might bring with it some long term answers but it’s hard to imagine they will singlehandedly result in the program’s immediate turnaround within the first two months of their collegiate careers.
That brings us back to those five words: a little bit of everything.
Because Penn State’s issues are not at face value terribly difficult to diagnose. The Nittany Lions need to get better at everything. It’s not just Clifford, it’s not just Franklin, it’s not just the offensive line. The answer of how the Nittany Lions do that is a far harder thing to make actionable.
But then again only one of us is getting paid seven million to figure that part out.
