Penn State Football: Closer to 7-5 or College Football Playoff?

Road To Glory #2

The Offensive line has to be an objective strength of the team

“Okay, this is the year an experienced and talented offensive line is not going to be a liability, which in turn, means it will be a strength of the team.”

Are there any Penn State fans who say this to themselves leading up to each season? I feel like this is the case for every season since 2016. Are we stuck in the movie Groundhog Day?

And while the offensive line has played well in stretches over the years, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say they haven’t exactly been a strength of the team.

Furthermore, would any reasonable Penn State fan look at the offensive line play over the past couple of seasons and say to themselves, “Wow. There’s absolutely a handful of NFL players on the O-line.”

But that’s the case. Since the 2019 NFL draft, Penn State has sent 4 offensive lineman to the NFL. Connor McGovern (2019 3rd Round), Ryan Bates (2019 undrafted FA), Michal Menet (2021 7th round), and Will Fries (2021 7th round).

There were stretches in the 2018 season in which all 4 of these guys played at the same time. Were they adequate as a unit? Sure. Were they dominant? Eh. Were they an objective strength of the team? No.

And I know I’m trying to take something which is inherently subjective (ie. determining a strength of a football team) and turn it into something which is clear-cut fact. But it’s simple, in order for Penn State to be an elite program and have their name in the college playoff discussion most years, the offensive line absolutely has to be a clear-cut strength of the team. Period.

Now a lot of this is going to go back to my first point about hauling in top 10 O-line recruits. That’s certainly a big part of it. And by and large, James Franklin and company have landed talented O-line recruits over the years. They just haven’t landed many top 10 guys.

But coaching is also going to weigh heavy into the mix.

Penn State has now had 4 different Offensive Line coaches in James Franklin’s 7 years at the helm. Is Phil Trautwein finally the guy? Maybe?

And if Penn State wants to make the next leap, Trautwein is going to have to spin a mix of talented guys into a strong unit going forward. One that cannot afford to ever be a liability, rather, this unit needs to maul opponents in the run game, protect the QB, and have the team lean on them as a strength in must-gain moments in must-win games.