Blue-White Game Observations: Offensive Line

During Saturday’s Blue-White Game one position group I wanted to watch closely was the offensive line. As anyone who follows Penn State Football knows, the offensive line has been the team’s biggest weakness the past two seasons. If Penn State’s offense is going to improve in 2016, the offensive line play must be better.

There were some changes across the offensive line this offseason. Brian Gaia has been moved from guard to center where his skill set fits better, and redshirt freshman Ryan Bates has been added to the mix. Also, Andrew Nelson, who is probably Penn State’s best offensive lineman, has been moved from right tackle to left tackle. Furthermore, the blocking schemes in Joe Moorhead’s offense are simpler than they were in the old offense.

Also, in my opinion, Matt Limegrover is a better offensive line coach than Herb Hand is.

The offensive line play that Penn State fans saw during the Blue-White Game was much better than what we have been forced to watch the past two seasons. The starting offensive line on Saturday saw Andrew Nelson at left tackle, Ryan Bates at left guard, Brian Gaia at center, Derek Dowrey at right guard, and Noah Beh at right tackle. Nelson, Gaia, and Dowrey all have starting experience from the past two seasons.

One noticeable absence from the starting lineup was senior Paris Palmer. Palmer started 11 games for Penn State at left tackle in 2015, and steadily improved as the season progressed. However, this offseason he has been shifted to right tackle and also appears to have fallen behind Noah Beh on the depth chart.

Palmer still saw playing time with the first unit on Saturday, but Beh got the start and saw more reps than Palmer did. To me, that is pretty telling. Beh, a six-foot-six, 290-pound redshirt sophomore, has probably improved more than any other offensive lineman on the roster in the past year. And he has demonstrated that improvement this spring as by going from second or third string right tackle when spring practice began, to possibly being in the driver’s seat for a starting job.

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The early returns on highly touted redshirt freshman Ryan Bates at left guard and Brian Gaia at center have been good. Bates had a couple mental errors in Saturday’s game, as you’d expect from a redshirt freshman, but he did a nice job of bouncing back from them. Also, a tip of the cap to Andrew Nelson for coaching him up after he made those mistakes. That is great veteran leadership by Nelson.

As for Gaia, the move to center appears to be working great. Gaia is a strong guy, but does not have the greatest length in the world. Length is not nearly as a big an issue at center as it is at guard. Furthermore, Gaia tended to get beaten off the ball a lot at guard, but at center where he will almost never have anyone lined up over top of him, this will not be as big an issue.

There were multiple occasions during the spring game when the starting offensive line just flat out overpowered and dominated the defense across from them. Now, keep in mind they were facing a defense composed of second and third stringers, but that was the case in the past two Blue White Games, and the offensive line still struggled.

There has also been defenses that are pretty similar talent wise to what Penn State’s offensive line saw yesterday that they have struggled with in recent years. Akron and Buffalo immediately come to mind. So I am still chalking this up as improved offensive line play.

The offensive line will also benefit from Joe Moorhead’s offensive scheme this season. As I said above, the blocking schemes in Moorhead’s offense are a lot less complicated than John Donovan’s. Also, Moorhead’s offense has a lot of quick-strike passing plays which will require the offensive line to hold their blocks for a lesser period of time. This was also something that we saw on Saturday.

Derek Dowrey was also a player who had a good blue-White Game. This come on the heels of James Franklin praising Dowrey earlier in the week for how much he has improved this spring. Dowrey, like Gaia, is a very strong player but needed to get better with his footwork and at the mental aspect of offensive line play. Maybe Dowrey has started to turn a corner.

As we get ready to head into the summer months, it appears that three spots across the offensive line have been solidified. Barring injury, Andrew Nelson (LT), Ryan Bates (LG), and Brian Gaia (C) all appear to have starting jobs locked up. The battles will be between Derek Dowrey and Brendan Mahon at right guard, and Noah Beh and Paris Palmer at right tackle. Freshman Michal Menet should also be in the mix when he arrives on campus in June. Right now, Dowrey and Beh appear to have the upper hand.

Next: What We Learned at the Blue-White Game

All in all, the starting offensive line played a strong game on Saturday. They were not penalized a single time, Trace McSorley was not sacked at all, and for the most part they looked very in-sync. These are all things that could not be said about the offensive line in recent years. I am cautiously optimistic that Penn State’s offensive line play will improve by a good bit in 2016.