Facing a USC defense that ranked No. 119 in success rate coming into Week 6, Penn State managed 68 yards on 31 carries (2.2 ypc) and a 31% rushing success rate. Penn State ranks No. 96 in the country in rushing success rate through Week 6 and is averaging just 78.3 rushing yards per game in Big Ten play.
Simply put, Penn State cannot run the ball. And that’s a big problem for a coaching staff and offensive nucleus that ran it 53.5% of the time at Iowa State last year. This season, Penn State is at a 50/50 split, but in his Tuesday press conference, offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser admitted that they may need to become a pass-heavy team behind quarterback Rocco Becht if they can’t get it figured out on the ground.
As fun as 40 pass attempts from Becht and an uninspiring group of pass-catchers sounds, it’d be best if Penn State could figure out how to run the ball. Mouser has seemingly exhausted most of his options schematically, so next up is personnel changes.
While most Penn State fans have focused their ire on the distribution of snaps and touches in the backfield, four different running backs have gotten opportunities this year. The coaching staff hasn’t tinkered in the trenches with an underperforming offensive line, but it sounds as though that could be changing soon.
“Obviously, that’s been a squeaky wheel for us,” Mouser told reporters about the run game, “and that’s certainly been a discussion for, are we playing the right people?”
Penn State needs to fix its interior OL for Mouser’s preferred identity to take hold
As a whole, Penn State’s offensive line hasn’t been good. The talent of the running back room, primarily Carson Hansen, who returned to his role as RB1 in Week 6, is beyond questionable and may just be outright bad, but the issues start up front, in both the run and the pass game. The primary culprits have been left guard Trevor Buhr and center Brock Riker, who has been battling injury much of the year.
If you would like to know why Penn State can't run the ball, watch Trevor Buhr (70) and Brock Riker (51) on this rep pic.twitter.com/tJJcMgQeo9
— Josh Yourish (@JYourish3) October 12, 2026
Right guard Cooper Cousins has been good, as has right tackle Anthony Donkoh, but the offensive line is a weak-link unit, and a team that wants to run the ball between the tackles as much as Mouser explicitly stated he would like to, saying on Tuesday that his ideal run game is “I think between inside zone and duo, we have to get good at one of those.”
To successfully run those plays, especially running out of the shotgun as much as any college offense is going to operate, you need to have a quality interior offensive line. You also need running backs with patience and good vision, which Penn State doesn’t seem to have, but let’s try to solve one problem at a time.
A full O-line reshuffle could be a galaxy-brained solution
This issue for Penn State, not just at offensive line but all over a roster that is consistently submitting subpar performances, is that there aren’t many options behind the struggling starter. This team doesn’t have high-end talent, so what would make anyone believe there are quality Big Ten starters just sitting on the bench? There aren’t, but that doesn’t mean that at 0-3 in conference play, you don’t start to search for solutions, even if they aren’t obvious.
Penn State could hope Riker gets healthy and maybe swap Vaea Ikakoula, who replaced Riker at center against Buffalo, in for Buhr at left guard. That likely wouldn’t solve the problem, though. Replacing Riker with Ikakoula would probably yield the same negligible improvement, if any at all.
What could potentially work, and would probably have to wait until the bye in Week 8, is a full-scale reshuffling of the offensive line. It probably won’t happen, but hear me out.
Donkoh is the team’s best offensive lineman, and while you usually want your best offensive lineman at tackle, Donkoh played guard last year, played it well, and Penn State has more theoretical options at tackle with Owen Aliciene and Garrett Sexton, who battled Malachi Goodman for the left tackle job, than it does on the interior, especially with Will Tompkins out for the year.
So, you could kick Donkoh into right guard, where he played last year, flip Cousins to left guard, play whichever center is better between Riker and Ikakoula, and move either Aliciene or Sexton to right tackle:
- LT: Malachi Goodman
- LG: Cooper Cousins
- C: Riker/Ikakoula
- RG: Anthony Donkoh
- RT: Sexton/Aliciene
It’s a risk. You’re flipping either Cousins or Donkoh midseason, which is not an easy ask for any offensive lineman, and you’re asking the entire group to build chemistry midseason from scratch. It could be a disaster, but isn’t this line already a disaster? At least it would put your best two offensive linemen at guard for an offense that wants to run a ton of duo and inside zone, which absolutely requires good guard play.
Maybe the run game gets marginally better, pass protection gets marginally worse, and you end up in the same place. But at least you tried something because, as currently constructed, this line isn’t good enough to help this offense win games. With more playmakers and a better quarterback, maybe it could get by, but those aren’t coming through the door.
At this point, almost any change is worth making because this is a lost season, and for a team that needs to overhaul its roster this offseason, evaluation should be the No. 1 priority. Get a look at your two young tackles. See if your running backs can produce with (theoretically) better blocking. And eventually, see what your young backup QB can do.
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