A Diagnosis From One Who Is Not A Doctor

First off, please don’t jump off that ledge. Calm down, breathe, read a book, go for a walk, spend time with friends who won’t remind you about football. Do something to remind yourself that there are more important things in life than a bunch of college kids wearing blue & white uniforms and throwing around a dead pig every Saturday in the fall.

Feel free to hit it now. Or don't. Either way it's doubtful you'll inspire much of a reaction from the team or fans.

OK, now that that’s done… PSU lost to a team they should have beaten on a homecoming Saturday. And they looked terrible while doing it. I was at the game, and the thing that was most disturbing to me – more than the final score, more than the injuries – was the utter and complete lack of emotion in Beaver Stadium – on and off the field – from anyone who wasn’t wearing orange. The team was playing uninspired football, and the fans looked like they were at an economics lecture. Someone behind me made the comment that it was like 2004 all over again. My first thought was, “This team isn’t that bad! What kind of idiot would make that comparison?” And then I remembered that this idiot did. So did a Penn Stater who knows something about the 2004/2005 seasons. I definitely had hoped that my comparison wouldn’t ring this true.

Straight up, there isn’t really anything good to take away from this game. I don’t care how much Blue & White Kool-Aid you’re drinking, this is one turd you can’t polish (though I’m sure it will be entertaining to watch PSU Football Story try). I'm not going to bother trying to dissect what went wrong - everything did - plus, it's just too painful. So rather than trying to put a positive spin on this game with false forced optimism, I’m going to take some time to talk about things that PSU shouldn’t do now, and things that PSU should do now – based on suggestions I’ve heard and/or read repeatedly.

Things That Penn State Shouldn’t Do

Fire Joe
If you’ve been following the PSU program for any time at all in the last decade, you’ve heard this one. It doesn’t matter if the season is good, bad, or mediocre – to some people, it should always be Joe’s last. The complaints generally go something like this:

Joe is too old. He plays offense too conservatively. He’s old. He can’t recruit like he used to. He’s pretty old. He hasn’t won a national championship since 1986. He’s old too. He hasn’t won a Big Ten Championship since 1994 2005 2008. Also, he’s old. He always favors senior players and never gives the younger players a chance even if they’re better. And he’s old. He’s also somewhat advanced in age.

He's not dead yet. Really.

Joe Paterno might be the only coach in the country that can put together five seasons in a row of 9 to 11 wins, winning 4 out of 5 bowl games and two conference titles, with the 7th highest winning percentage in the country during that time and people still want him to leave. It’s shortsighted to fire a coach based on one half of a season with an extremely young team. The question I have for everyone who wants to force out the man who not only transformed the PSU football team – but the entire university – from a middling college in central PA to a household name is this: what coach is going to step in and magically transform the program into the type of powerhouse team that is just slightly more elite than PSU, never loses to anyone they shouldn’t, and never has a down year (you know – like USC & Texas)? What gives you so much confidence that getting rid of Joe will automatically result in a better coach and a better program? Furthermore, say what you will about Joe’s strategery and ability to connect with players, but he’s made accomplishments like these staples of the program and that didn’t happen by accident (more on that later). It’s trendy to pretend you know more than the winningest coach in college football history. It’s also pretty dumb. PSU fans should be glad that Joe has coached as long as he has, and anyone trying to force him out the door needs to think long and hard about who they’re hoping will replace him.

Bench Bolden In Favor Of Newsome
I’m sure that the Bolden-haters will feel like they have some more ammunition since Newsome was responsible for two of PSU’s seven first downs and was in the game for a grand total of one drive which lasted 3 minutes and 22 seconds. This was also PSU’s longest drive, both in terms of number of plays and time of possession. Here’s the thing – you know how, late in early season games against vastly inferior opponents, PSU will often pull its first (maybe even second or third string) defense and thus allow the opponent to score their first or second TD in “garbage time” to make the final score a bit more respectable? That’s about how meaningful this drive was. The game was well in hand; Illinois had pulled their starters as they had little reason to give maximum effort or risk injury at this point, and they still stopped PSU. Also, it’s a good thing that Illinois did pull their starters as Newsome looked like Fred Astaire the way he was dancing around in the pocket. He may be a year older than Bolden but he sure doesn’t have the pocket presence to prove it. Or the passing mechanics. For anyone paying attention, it’s not hard to see why Bolden is the starter.

Lower Academic/Ethical Standards In Order To Recruit “Better”
Of all suggestions, this one irks me the most. If it takes becoming Thug U to win, I’d rather not win; and if all you care about is winning, you should probably be rooting for another team. Personally I’m proud that no matter what PSU’s final record is this season, no other team has been able to achieve Penn State’s level of success while graduating as many athletes and steering clear of NCAA investigations. I would rather have the level of success that PSU has had over the past decade the way that PSU has achieved it, than have a more “successful” decade the way that USC did. This is what distinguishes and defines PSU in the world of intercollegiate athletics. Those who would abandon these distinctives want to sacrifice the identity and integrity of the program on the altar of more wins. That is a very short-sighted trade. “Success With Honor” may be a nice marketing slogan, but it’s also something that the program has embodied for a very long time. And I think that if you truly “get” what Penn State is about, you’re more proud of that than any wins record. As Joe has insisted throughout his entire career, college athletics is first and foremost about preparing student athletes for the rest of their lives, not just winning games. If and when the PSU fan base loses sight of that, it’s time for a serious reevaluation of priorities.

Things That Penn State Should Do

Figure Out What’s Wrong With The Offensive Line And Fix It

Take it one step at a time. Identify the problem. FIX IT! Identify another problem. FIX IT! Repeat as necessary until it is all FIXED!!

Injuries have decimated the defense, but if you’re really looking for the unit that’s most to blame for PSU’s failure to execute, look no further. Earlier in the season, one of the few good things we could say about the O line was that despite the fact that they couldn’t provide run blocking against, well, anyone, they were at least protecting Bolden well. And then came four sacks in half as many games, not to mention how often Bolden just managed to get the ball off in time and took a beating. The amount of protection/time that Bolden has now is pretty much entirely dependent on whether or not opposing defenses decide to blitz – they can attack at will. And the run blocking is still abysmal. If anything, this unit has appeared to regress through the current season. What’s more, I’m personally worried that this is a systemic problem.

This pretty much says it all.

Looking back over the past few seasons, the primary difference between good and great Penn State teams (aside from the QB-that-must-not-be-named) has been the offensive line. It’s the one position that, for whatever reason, PSU does not appear to be able to reload at, year in and year out. Penn State can bring in young receivers, running backs, linebackers, defensive backs, quarterbacks, and even defensive linemen that are able to start playing early in their career and contribute right away. The program seems unable to do that at offensive line. This means that very, very few offensive linemen get meaningful playing time prior to their junior year, so the collective experience on the line is always minimal. The few seasons when the team has had a great offensive line have been when most of the players on the line had been playing for at least two years prior. Why is it that Penn State is unable to start players at this position earlier and have success with them? Is it the caliber of offensive lineman the team is recruiting (they generally seem to recruit pretty well at O line, at least according to rankings)? Is it coaching ability at this position? Is it something else? I honestly have no idea. But if there’s one unit on the team that needs serious improvement, it’s this one.

Possibly Vary The Playbook A Little

i has teh keybored skillz so i know how to win teh footballz

Let me establish this right away – I get frustrated when people bag on coaches. Here’s why: the vast majority of bloggers, sports writers, and so-called “analysts” have never played a down of organized football above the high school level (if that). Even fewer have ever had to draw up a strategy to defeat an opposing football team. The level of playing, let alone coaching experience among those who criticize football coaches is usually close to nil (no, winning 10 seasons of Madden on your Xbox doesn’t count). I would definitely include myself in this. Every member of the Penn State coaching staff has forgotten more about the game of football than I will ever know. What's more, coaches see everything that happens in practice. The rest of us only see games, and that's all that we have to go on. So a lot of times when coaches make decisions that don't seem to make sense, they're doing so based on a large volume of information that the rest of us don't have. All that to say, I really don’t know what I’m talking about.

But as a self-professed inexperienced, uninformed blogger, this is what it looks like to me: JoePa’s bedrock football philosophy has always been “establish the run in order to pass.” You run and run, and run some more, until you’re able to get into a steady running rhythm. Then, once that happens and the defenders have to respect your run game, you can start taking shots downfield. Let’s be clear – there’s a reason Joe racked up 300 wins faster than any other coach in history. This system is good, sound, fundamental football and it works. The problem is, in my very humble opinion, PSU currently doesn’t have the personnel to execute this strategy effectively (see previous point).

Continuing to stubbornly try to pound the football up the middle - when halfway through the season, no success (or even progress) has been seen thus far - is starting to look like the definition of insanity. The few offensive plays that have been successful (including most recently in the Illinois game) have occurred when Bolden was allowed to throw deep. When Bolden is lined up in the shotgun or is allowed to roll out, and has time (sadly, not always a guarantee) to make a good decision, good things tend to happen. That’s about as close to consistency as we've seen with this offense. This is probably anathema to Joe, but from this uninformed blogger’s standpoint, it looks like maybe this year, if Penn State is going to have any success on offense at all, they’ll have to establish the pass in order to run. Between Bolden’s arm and the receiving corps, PSU definitely has the tools. Joe even offered a post-Illinois mea culpa to the press that seemed to indicate he would reconsider running up the middle so much. I hope so.

No matter what...
...this is still gonna be a bumpy season. Penn State is a young and now-heavily injured team. A miraculous turnaround during the bye week is possible but not likely. In my humble opinion, a win against Ohio State is extremely doubtful, and a win against Michigan State will have to rely on some JoePa senior day magic (Joe has lost only 8 of 44 senior day games as head coach, winning 19 of the last 20). Losses to Northwestern and even *gasp* Indiana are possible. But a bowl is still possible, and that’s what the team is playing for now. It’s sad that this is Penn State’s season, but this is the world in which we find ourselves. Here’s where we find out who the true fans are. If you’ve suddenly got better things to do on Saturdays this fall, that’s your business, but please don’t pretend you’re anything more than what you are: a casual, fair-weather fan. I, for one, will still proudly be wearing my white & blue and cheering on my Nittany Lions as they finish out the season, win or lose. In the style of Ali…

WE ARE (still)!!!!