How to fix Penn State Football’s broken running game

Issue No. 3 – The offensive line is bad

Right off the bat I would like to point out that Sal Wormley (four-star recruit) was projected to be a starting guard going into this season. Which meant Juice Scruggs had to slide over from center to guard and Mike Miranda took over at center.

If you watched only two full quarters of the Penn State offense this season it would be easy to come to the conclusion that Miranda is far from a good center. So, losing Wormley immediately started Penn State Football’s offensive line with an arm tied behind its back.

For the majority of the season Caedan Wallace (four-star recruit), Juice Scruggs (four-star recruit), Mike Miranda (three-star recruit), Eric Wilson (three-star recruit), and Rasheed Walker (four-star recruit) were the starting five on the line.

And you’re probably asking yourself why I included their star ranking from when they were recruited. I’ll explain.

Usually, somewhere before or after the obligatory “man this o-line stinks” comment was something along the lines of how highly recruited they were. So is this really supposed to be a good line based on their “OMG starz”? Let’s see.

Caedan Wallce was the third overall guard prospect and the 81st ranked player in the 2019 recruiting class with a 247 composite of .9627.

And do you remember what position he played this season? Yep, right tackle. So one of the nation’s best guards had to switch positions to right tackle out of necessity due to Penn State not having many other options there.

Let’s check out the other bookend on the line, Rasheed Walker. He was the sixth overall tackle and the 65th ranked player in the 2018 recruiting class with a 247 composite of .9676. And due to his size, strength, talent, and quickness he was a lock to be a brick wall on Clifford’s blind side. Which was the case most of the time.

Emphasis on “most.”

Because at times this season, Walker did not play like he was an early round NFL draft pick. Far from it. But the majority of the time he was pretty good.

Juice Scruggs was the fourth overall center and the 233rd ranked player in the 2018 recruiting class with a 247 composite of .9118. And as I mentioned above, Scruggs was forced to play out of position this season due to the injury to Wormley.

Speaking of Wormley, he was the 18th overall guard and the 287th ranked player in the 2018 recruiting class with a 247 composite of .9027. It would have been nice if played this past year.

Mike Miranda was the fourth overall center and the 445th ranked player in the 2016 recruiting class with a 247 composite of .8747. Eric Wilson was the 58th overall guard and the 1144th ranked player in the 2017 recruiting class with a 247 composite of .8388.

Not exactly the cream of the crop there.

So outside of Rasheed Walker, the rest of the offensive line from the 2021 season was either a decent recruit playing out of position or a mediocre recruit in general.

And here’s what I’m getting at. Penn State fans have seen James Franklin bring in some highly ranked talent on the offensive line during the past several recruiting classes. But this doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to how they play on the field. Especially when there’s an injury to a projected starter and the perceived “high ranked” players have to change positions while the depth behind them aren’t exactly world beaters.

The positions are not interchangeable on the offensive line and just like all of the other teams sports, you are only as good as your weakest link.

Was the offensive line good this season? No, not by a long shot. But I would argue they shouldn’t have been expected to be a strength of the team. Especially with Wormley out.

Is this really a problem? Sort of, but they aren’t the line people think they are