Taking a deeper dive into what went wrong for Penn State Football this season
By Nick Kreiser
Penn State Football’s depth … or lack thereof
Even at some of their best positions, Penn State Football lacks depth.
Offensively, their best position is clearly wide receiver, but even there, the Nittany Lions have mostly leaned on the same three guys.
Outside of Jahan Dotson, Parker Washington, and KeAndre Lambert-Smith, almost nobody has consistently seen snaps in close/competitive games.
Malick Meiga has seen an increased role in recent weeks, and veteran Cam Sullivan-Brown has seen some time in key moments over the past month.
On the defensive side of the ball, linebacker might be the position with the most depth issues. While the starting three have been mostly very solid throughout the year, they are expected to have to play nearly every defensive snap every single week.
While the defensive line and secondary have better depth than the linebackers, it is still less than ideal.
With so many guys being forced to carry the load defensively, they have noticeably been worn down late in games and began to play sloppy and missing tackles.