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Is this the year PSU fields a good offensive line?

Offensive line poll


  • Total voters
    65
They would have to measure up against 1994 team in my opinion.
Until the line is taught that the goal is to knock their opponent over instead of just getting in the way of the defensive rush, the answer would be a no.
I cannot remember the last time I saw a pancake block, but then I am old and have lost lots of brain cells.
 
All 4 - 5 stars, and slightly bigger than the Steelers.
Irrelevent. The majority of the players on hand were recruited to play in JoeMo's MAP blocking scheme. MY's spread Gap is very different. Some linemen will transition successful to the new scheme, some won't. Year 1 was the crawl. Year 2 is the walk. By walk, I mean who can handle the lateral movements and who can't. Year 3 is the job. Year 4 is the run. That is when the line will be an asset. 2024, not 2022.
 
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Woah, 4 yes votes and 3 no votes! Do you believe!? Oh...I just remembered that every year in July, every Penn State fan deludes themselves into believing that a coach who has failed every single season, will somehow succeed this season, in fielding a good offensive line.
 
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Woah, 4 yes votes and 3 no votes! Do you believe!? Oh...I just remembered that every year in July, every Penn State fan deludes themselves into believing that a coach who has failed every single season, will somehow succeed this season, in fielding a good offensive line.
Which coach are you referring to? There have been several OL coaches under his tenure. If you are referring to Franklin, were you living under a rock when they won the Big Championship?
 
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every Penn State fan deludes themselves into believing that a coach who has failed every single season, will somehow succeed this season, in fielding a good offensive line.

What is the criteria for a good offensive line?

Can a team win the conference without a good OL?

Can a team win 10 games without a good OL?

Sure, no national title. No playoff. But that's probably going to take a great OL.
 
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I’ve been saying for the past 5 years, “this is the years”. Unfortunately we’re still years away. I do like what I’m seeing from our OL recruiting. We’re finally done star gazing. We seem to be recruiting football players at OL. Trautwein is finally getting hard nosed 3* kids with something to prove. He’s getting players that aren’t relying on just being physically gifted. I coached Jr High and HS wrestling. I generally found that there are 2 types of kids. Those aren’t the most physically gifted work the hardest and are very coachable. The physically gifted kids coast and aren’t nearly as coachable. By their senior years the kids that worked hardest and were coachable ended up better than the kids getting by just on physical ability.
 
My positivity towards the OL this year is based off of two kids, Tengwall and Wallace. I think those two have higher ceilings than almost all of the other guys we’ve had in the last couple years.

I know some people will say that Walker would have been in that same boat last year but we played against him in high school and he’s never had that fire that a lineman needs to have.
 
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My positivity towards the OL this year is based off of two kids, Tengwall and Wallace. I think those two have higher ceilings than almost all of the other guys we’ve had in the last couple years.

I know some people will say that Walker would have been in that same boat last year but we played against him in high school and he’s never had that fire that a lineman needs to have.
What about Fashanu?
 
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My positivity towards the OL this year is based off of two kids, Tengwall and Wallace. I think those two have higher ceilings than almost all of the other guys we’ve had in the last couple years.

I know some people will say that Walker would have been in that same boat last year but we played against him in high school and he’s never had that fire that a lineman needs to have.
Wallace needs to move inside to guard. He’s not fast enough or athletic enough to play tackle.
 
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I still say that some of people's dissatisfaction with the OL run blocking stems from our offensive scheme. RPOs are a part of that.
 
I’ve been saying for the past 5 years, “this is the years”. Unfortunately we’re still years away. I do like what I’m seeing from our OL recruiting. We’re finally done star gazing. We seem to be recruiting football players at OL. Trautwein is finally getting hard nosed 3* kids with something to prove. He’s getting players that aren’t relying on just being physically gifted. I coached Jr High and HS wrestling. I generally found that there are 2 types of kids. Those aren’t the most physically gifted work the hardest and are very coachable. The physically gifted kids coast and aren’t nearly as coachable. By their senior years the kids that worked hardest and were coachable ended up better than the kids getting by just on physical ability.
Reminds me of this quote:
"I've got a theory that if you give
100% all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end." -Larry Bird
 
I think we need to look at running game in its entirety rather than just said bad OL. In 2019, we had Clifford injury at OSU but still competitive with Levis. JB had 11/64 TD and we ran Levis entire 2nd half. Not bad. Minn loss was just Morgan outplaying Clifford by a long shot. Still came down to final play and Brown had 124 yds/2 tds. I hate watching clip of last interception. Brown was all alone 10 yards in middle yet Cliff throws poorly into coverage. JB with head of steam probably scores or damn close to set-up 4th down near G or even 1st and G. Obviously 2020 and 2021 were horrible years but the loss of Journey Brown along with Cain's injury in 2020 really hurt team. Cain was not same back. I am cheering for him at LSU. We will see about ourselves in 2022 with some big RB weapons and entire spring/summer with Phil and MY. No excuses
 
I think we need to look at running game in its entirety rather than just said bad OL. In 2019, we had Clifford injury at OSU but still competitive with Levis. JB had 11/64 TD and we ran Levis entire 2nd half. Not bad. Minn loss was just Morgan outplaying Clifford by a long shot. Still came down to final play and Brown had 124 yds/2 tds. I hate watching clip of last interception. Brown was all alone 10 yards in middle yet Cliff throws poorly into coverage. JB with head of steam probably scores or damn close to set-up 4th down near G or even 1st and G. Obviously 2020 and 2021 were horrible years but the loss of Journey Brown along with Cain's injury in 2020 really hurt team. Cain was not same back. I am cheering for him at LSU. We will see about ourselves in 2022 with some big RB weapons and entire spring/summer with Phil and MY. No excuses

All of this is reasonable, but it doesn't excuse how systemically poor this line has been for years. It was most evident to me against Villanova last year. Sure, we beat em pretty good but everyone knew that was going to be a "fix the run game" type of game. Just smash these little guys, stay on your blocks, drive them back, and at least put something on tape to show future opponents we "can" run. We really couldn't, which was stunning.
 
All of this is reasonable, but it doesn't excuse how systemically poor this line has been for years. It was most evident to me against Villanova last year. Sure, we beat em pretty good but everyone knew that was going to be a "fix the run game" type of game. Just smash these little guys, stay on your blocks, drive them back, and at least put something on tape to show future opponents we "can" run. We really couldn't, which was stunning.
Completely agree. It was a total failure. I try to re-watch games during summer months but yet to watch Nova line debacle. The days of straight smash are over. Franklin tries passing mismatch and finesse. Honestly, I think play-calling is partly to blame as well as TEs. If you watch enough, you see failures across board. OL confused on who picking up, TEs not physical enough or lost, and slow developing plays to RBs who can't escape defender in backfield.
 
Irrelevent. The majority of the players on hand were recruited to play in JoeMo's MAP blocking scheme. MY's spread Gap is very different. Some linemen will transition successful to the new scheme, some won't. Year 1 was the crawl. Year 2 is the walk. By walk, I mean who can handle the lateral movements and who can't. Year 3 is the job. Year 4 is the run. That is when the line will be an asset. 2024, not 2022.
I've read some BS in my time, but this has to be in the top 2.
 
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Have to agree. You don't hire (and pay handsomely) MY to take 4 years to develop o-line. That is absurd. Look at UM in 2020. They went 2-4 and should have loss to Rutgers as well. We ran all over them and they looked lost on O mostly. In 2021 they turn it around win BT, play in CFP, have dominant Joe Moore award OL and strong running game. If PSU can't do it this year then something deeply wrong with system. It is going on years since strong season
 
I think we need to look at running game in its entirety rather than just said bad OL. In 2019, we had Clifford injury at OSU but still competitive with Levis. JB had 11/64 TD and we ran Levis entire 2nd half. Not bad. Minn loss was just Morgan outplaying Clifford by a long shot. Still came down to final play and Brown had 124 yds/2 tds. I hate watching clip of last interception. Brown was all alone 10 yards in middle yet Cliff throws poorly into coverage. JB with head of steam probably scores or damn close to set-up 4th down near G or even 1st and G. Obviously 2020 and 2021 were horrible years but the loss of Journey Brown along with Cain's injury in 2020 really hurt team. Cain was not same back. I am cheering for him at LSU. We will see about ourselves in 2022 with some big RB weapons and entire spring/summer with Phil and MY. No excuses
I think we need to look at the offensive line. Period. Because they have stunk for 8 straight seasons.
 
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