Penn State Turns Toward Michigan State With a Tighter Offense
James Franklin dropped an interesting note about Penn State's offense this week: The Nittany Lions missed just one offensive assignment against Rutgers. That, of course, was the first game after Franklin fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. Co-interim coordinators Ja’Juan Seider and Ty Howle clearly simplified the game plan against the Scarlet Knights, leading to better efficiency.
“I can't remember a week where we only had one missed assignment,” Franklin said, adding that the group also met its third-down and explosive-play goals in a 27-6 victory. “The game plan was smaller and tighter than it had been all year, but still enough to cause challenges to a really good [Rutgers] defense."
Penn State wasn't going to overhaul its offense with two games remaining in the regular season, but Franklin and the offensive staff did make some subtle changes and might have more planned for Friday's game against Michigan State. For instance, Franklin mentioned the "smaller and tighter game plan." No. 2 quarterback Beau Pribula made a first-half appearance, before Drew Allar's injury, something Franklin said had been in the plan for weeks but largely went uncalled.
Further, Seider and Howle made some different personnel decisions. Most notably, receiver Omari Evans, who played 15 snaps (all against Maryland) in the previous five games, ranked second among wideouts with 32. He caught two passes, as many as he had all season, including the game's longest reception (25 yards).
“What we tried to do this past week, which is something we spent a lot of time talking about, is focus on the things that guys can do, rather than the things that they can't do," Franklin told reporters in State College after practice Tuesday. "And let's put them in position to allow them to have success, and then build on that, build confidence in other areas." Franklin said he was "pretty adamant" about that change.
Was the offense too complicated? Franklin hasn't addressed that directly but did mention on his radio show before the Michigan game that Penn State had upward of 700 offensive signals. When asked if anything was different last week for the offensive line, right tackle Caedan Wallace said little changed much but added that there was a “slight adjustment” in the way the group received play calls. Tight end Tyler Warren seemed to echo both Franklin’s and Wallace’s sentiments Tuesday.
“We talked about being simple equals playing with speed. And that was a big part of it,” Warren said. “How they were making the game plan, that we kind of cut down on a bunch of different stuff and kind of focused on the same things, just getting to it in different ways. I think that that played a big part in us being able to play fast.”
Immediately after the Michigan loss, Franklin talked about the need to get quarterback Drew Allar into rhythm with easy throws — something he acknowledged the team had not been doing consistently under Yurcich. Franklin's response to a question about whether he asked for those easy throws was telling.
“I think you guys have heard me come in and talk, whether it's openers, third down, starting fast, all these things are things that we've had lengthy discussions about and had a plan for,” he said. “But a lot of the times when we got to the games, either we did not call the games that way or we did not execute the games the way we intended them to.“Yeah, those things were asked for.”
Franklin praised the job Seider and Howle did against Rutgers, both before and after Allar exited the game with an injury (He's expected to return Friday). Penn State ran the ball almost exclusively — 17 straight runs after Pribula entered — and huddled often, trying to drain clock with a steady lead. Pribula has more passes in the game plan, Franklin said, but game situations have held him to just 18 attempts in nine games.
Before his injury, Allar seemed to be processing reads a bit better than he had previously this season. Regardless of the quarterback, Michigan State fields the Big Ten’s third-worst passing defense, which should give way to another week of improvement for the Penn State offense. Franklin expects Seider and Howle to build on their performance this week.
Perhaps another simplified game plan is a big part of that. Someone like wide receiver Dante Cephas has struggled to reach his potential as a late arrival to the offense and play book. It’s not likely Seider and Howle scrapped huge portions of Yurcich’s plays on their own. But it sure sounds like they have pared down the number of plays, the way they're called and how they're relayed to the field.
“They’re as tight as they can be with the game plan, but not so tight that it becomes simplistic and easy for the defense,” Franklin said. “Then I would also say the more complex the defense you're playing, then probably the smaller the game plan needs to be. The more base and standard the defense is, then maybe you can be a little bit more creative. You're trying to balance all of those things each week. That's a constant battle and struggle.”
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Max Ralph is a Penn State senior studying Broadcast Journalism with minors in sports studies and Japanese. He previously covered Penn State football for two years with The Daily Collegian and has reported with the Associated Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Follow him on Twitter (X) @maxralph_ and Instagram @mralph_59.
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