Penn State Football: Position grades versus Michigan State

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STATE COLLEGE, PA – OCTOBER 13: KJ Hamler #1 of the Penn State Nittany Lions celebrates after catching a 5 yard touchdown pass in the first half against the Michigan State Spartans on October 13, 2018 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /

Wide Recievers/Tight Ends

A theme of this season for the wide receivers have been dropped passes. Going into Saturday’s game, McSorley had 12.4 percent of his passes dropped this season. That’s the most of any team in a Power-5 conference.

While the dropped passes may not have been as bad as normal on Saturday, the wide receivers were certainly nothing to brag about. I’m not sure what’s going on with DeAndre Thompkins, but he’s been essentially non-existent this season, as be had no catches again vs. Michigan State.

Thompkins was targeted deep twice, but seemed to stop running in the middle of his routes, and the passes fell incomplete. In terms of redshirt freshman star K.J Hamler, he caught five passes for 66 yards and a touchdown.

Mac Hippenhammer has three receptions for 27 yards, Brandon Polk had two receptions for 23 yards, Juwan Johnson had two receptions for 19 yards, and Cam Sullivan-Brown had a catch for seven yards. Other than Hamler, there’s been absolutely zero production at the wide receiver position this season. This is becoming a theme every week.

From a more positive standpoint, the tight ends were productive yesterday, as true freshman tight end Pat Freiermuth had three receptions for 32 yards, and redshirt junior tight end Nick Bowers had three catches for 18 yards.

I thought it would be near impossible to replace Mike Gesicki, but Pat Freiermuth is showing signs that he has a very bright career ahead of him. Look for his role to continue to increase as the season goes on.

Grade: C+

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