Five BURNING Penn State Training Camp Questions

[Music] welcome to the BW my live show I'm Thomas Frank Carr hope you're having a great Wednesday um I said yesterday on the show July is one of those situations one of those times of the year where we get a chance to uh go somewhere do something where there isn't as much news there aren't as many things that we have to be strapped in to cover obviously breaking news happens at any moment of any time but uh what I'm saying is Greg's uh Greg's away today Greg is taking some time to go have a little bit of fun so he's not on the show today normally we got in a great rhythm of we would do this show together and then we'd have the wrestling show later today but we're uh he's not here today on this show and then we'll be postponing the wrestling show for next week so if you haven't seen that in a little bit that's why uh the Olympics are coming up there's a whole bunch of things to talk about with wrestling and and here on the show today but he's taking some welld deserved time to go explore the world and and see things and uh you know not be staring at a computer screen the entire day so so I'm rolling solo today and of course when I am allowed to be off the leash and do whatever I want and have a show to myself we're obviously going to be getting into film adjacent conversations what I really wanted to talk about today was I did a deep dive on the USC offense uh earlier this week and I found it super fascinating but it's kind of hard to do those film things here on on the YouTube show without being able to show you and for copyright purposes I can't so what we're doing today is the thing that's more responsible we're looking at pens football specifically before we get to USC and how pens might match up and what that offense does because they're the shiny new toy shiny new object on the uh calendar we're going to be taking a look at what Penn State needs to do during training camp they have been spending all offseason preparing training drilling getting instruction in so they can hit the ground running in Camp the reason you don't do two aay anymore is not just for the health and efficiency of the athlete you're not trying to get in shape anymore more and you've been installing your stuff since February so now it's about putting all the puzzle pieces together and here are five puzzle pieces that I think are super interesting now as always it's me these aren't going to be is Drew Aller good who are the wide receivers is Peter Gonzalez or tyy or Denmark those aren't the conversations we're going to be having today we're going to be diving a little bit uh off the beaten path but things that I think are incredibly important for the team's overall health and some of the things that are going to give uh shape and texture to the offense and defense this fall so that's what's coming up today but if you got thoughts you got comments you got questions I'm here for it as I always say when I'm here by myself my co-host is you you are the star of the show so if you got some thoughts I will be putting that up into the chat today Ryan back he says good morning folks been way too long since I caught a live show power is back and we are ready for an awesome show here in Texas let's go t Frank and the Gang uh Ryan uh I'm happy to have him back cuz I know he was in the path of hurricane Barrel last week so power is back up he missed the show last week because there I don't know if he had power last week but we didn't have a show last week so we're back here the gang is back together I knew it was going to take a day or two to get everyone back on board Eggman is here he's been throwing up just these numbers uh either in the YouTube comment section or in the live chat yesterday he just said 46 and I was like 52 what is it Powerball numbers I get what you're doing now Eggman appreciate it you're getting everyone excited for Penn State football and if you don't know what he's doing I'll let you figure it out on your own because it was a bit satisfying for me so I'm not going to give it away um David Greer here he says Drew Aller 40 touchdown season inbound T Frank you know it's possible I will never say never in all of these situations um I think some of the things we're going to get into today may say that he throws 30 touchdowns but how many of those are explosive play touchdowns you know the quality versus the quantity all those things are on the table um one thing I know is that he's very good at reading a defense in the Red Zone he's really good at executing in the red zone so if they get down close they're going to have an opportunity to throw some of those touchdowns Corey Smith she says good morning we're here for you t Frank going to be a great show thank you appreciate that appreciate the positivity I got to tell you Corey um we're not going to get into psychology here but I appreciate positivity on the internet more than ever if you haven't notice it's not necessarily the friendliest place at all times so I'm glad for the roll call here I'm glad we got the regulars on the show and we got people that are excited for what's going on before we get into today's main topic we had another question from the BWI mailbag yesterday that I really like but we didn't have time for it we had a really full show with Nate and with the white out and all those discussions so I want to get to that right [Music] [Music] now so our question actually comes from David WG one of the reasons we didn't get to the show yesterday is because he had another question question that I wanted to answer and I always feel bad when somebody has two really good questions I struggle with like do you get two bites of the Apple when we only have four or five spots so I wanted to get to this question today might even WR about this a little more in depth at bluewhiteillustrated.com and if by the way you want to have an improv to mailbag session here you can ask a question in the chat he says if Penn State has two wide receivers that play to the level of Parker Washington is that enough for the offense to be able to compete for a big 10 title this is a great question because I think there's Nuance to to the threshold here it's not just if Penn State has good wide receiver play or Elite wide receiver play can they compete for a big 10 title Parker Washington to me evokes a very specific thing a very specific threshold of play so David Here's my thought on that Penn State did have two players that played to Parker Washington's level of consistency and ability when they had Mitchell Tinsley and Parker Washington on the team 2022 they didn't compete for a big 10 title I mean they did technically they went 10 and two like every other year but they didn't they didn't get to the Big 10 title so my first answer is no no they would need something more than that in order to create a threat in the offense and this is why we talk about speed and why we talk about uh big play potenti itial in an offense this gets into the tactics of how a defense reacts to you and adjusts to what you're doing offensively speed is the is the number one commodity in football because if you can threaten a defense for a touchdown from a wide receiver on the outside of the formation or generally on the perimeters of the defense you force them to play certain coverages they have to do certain things you can't just play three deep Defenders whether it's cover three or if you want to play cover one where you have one deep Defender and then everyone's playing man coverage you speed forces you to play zone or play off which creates space for guys like Parker Washington now Parker Washington wasn't slow and I do think injuries were a big part of the fact that uh he wasn't necessarily the same guy that he was as a freshman that he was as Junior I I think he's fast enough I really liked the way he played football but the final iteration of what Parker Washington was he's a very good football player he had enough speed to break tackles and get explosive plays but he wasn't the kind of player that threatened the defense deep the person that did that in the offense was Theo Johnson a tight end who doesn't run a 4-3 who doesn't run a 440 you know he's a four FS athlete as a 6'6 tight end that combination is special so special that when he was a draft pick with minimal production his senior season or his final season he went in the fourth round which he is now in line to start for the New York Giants he's replacing Darren Waller a borderline Hall of Fame player so that's the talent level Theo Johnson had but it is still not that receiver threat because it's in the middle of the defense which can attack certain parts of the coverage but it is just not quite the same so my next question to that question is what about Andy cotal Nikki because in in Mike urich's offense it was not enough um for all of those pieces to work together to create the offensive ability to generate the level of um attack necessary to put it to to go to head-to-head with the Ohio States and michigans does Andy Co Nikki know how to get a guy like Parker Washington open for more explosive plays down the field does is that a does Andy cotal Nikki lower the threshold for what you need because that informs the conversation today about the receivers do they need somebody that has all of those things as a receiver Brad Mohler says Wallace equals the guy yes I think he has enough speed and that's the conversation too about football we we do glorify sometimes to the detriment of good player skills speed because of what it can do for your offense but if you don't have the other skills to catch the football get open uh know where you're supposed to be play with consistency then speed like size or strength without enough of the other ingredients in the pie means nothing so Trey Wallace is fast enough he is big enough he's explosive enough when he is healthy he can be that guy for this offense now there are other players that need to hit um so that's something that we'll talk about too on the show today uh Brad also says like And subscribe I I agree thank you Brad thank you for the like And subscribe but I also want to go one step further if you like this video you're going to love what's at blue white illustrate. comom where you can go and see that conversation about the uh USC offense because there I have no problem showing you a YouTube video breaking down individual plays all the way through a game and showing you what I see on the film and that's something that I've started to do something I think is really fun subscribe to blue white Illustrated domcom right now for uh two months for $1 code psu1 you'll get into the game film breakdown where I go into the coach's film and I say here's what happened in the Penn State game as mine interpretation of what Penn State called why they called it how it worked out or why it didn't work out I do that for every single football game on the message board where we break down those plays and give you the why behind what you saw it happens every Sunday on the blue white Illustrated Message Board you'll get that for a dollar subscribe right now and you can get all that stuff I'm getting warmed up I'm getting you know my shoulders loose I'm getting my fingers loose which I'm going to get carpal tunnel from the football season cuz that'll always happens but you get all that information for a dollar bluee Illustrated dcom and we're starting now taking a look at the USC uh offense and what makes it special or not because that's the thing we know about Lincoln Riley because the people here in this show whether you're watching or you're on camera we love college football we love football so you've heard of Lincoln Riley but what is it about him that makes him an offensive genius you know how everyone throws around the word genius well there is some interesting stuff that he does in his offense but is it all unique is it all singular is he this offensive Mastermind or did he find a couple good wrinkles and then he does a lot of things that everybody else does find out all right so let's get into our five burning questions that TR Frank has for Penn State training camp number five okay so number five here is the receiver room I said we're not going to be going into who's the starting receiver but the receivers are important and this is this is a depth chart question one of the things I love there's so many reasons I love football first off it is the perfect blend of athletic prowess and mental accuity you have to be smart to play football you can't just be a caveman or overly violent you have to be you have to know what you're doing it's tactical it it's also a puzzle Ross construction I grew up playing Madden I I'm going to admit this on air I never played NCAA football I played Madden because when I was a kid I was some weirdo that thought you had to choose like you know only dogs not cats I play Madden not NCAA are you kidding me anyway I love roster construction I always wanted to be a GM when I was growing up so these intricacies The more I've learned about football and the thing I love thinking about is how do the puzzle pieces fit together to get you a winning picture at receiver you need good football players we talked about the traits necessary to be to be explosive and to have a threat index on your offense that spans the board that creates the spatial Distortion Andy Co Nikki talks about you can't just do that through scheme you actually have to have viable threats outside in the slot in the middle of your offense in order to for for the defense to make hard choices but how do those players work together I think it's super interesting talked about Trey Wallace already he and Julian Fleming kind of fit the same position um I'm going to speak in general terms and it's not 100% true all the way these are just the the things I've seen from college football over the years and how I understand these Concepts the Z receiver is the receiver to the field they are a route Runner they are a guy that uh works well in space has some deep threat ability but primarily is a guy that's going to catch the football and make plays for your offense Fleming and wall Wallace are both that guy now the wrinkle here is Trey Wallis was also the team's ex- receiver last year but if you're trying to feature him in the offense what's the most efficient way to get him the football it it would be from what I've seen to put him at that position where you funnel most of your targets now Andy codal ninki does two things really well ignores that and throws the football and gets players open at whatever position he wants to but there is the general where are you starting position if we have to build a depth chart and we can't put Trey Wallace at two different positions because he physically can't be in two places at once which would you prefer to have him at same thing with Julian Fleming the X receiver in college football generally is a guy in Penn State's offense tradition Al if you look at where they started a guy like Keandre Lambert Smith Trey Wallace these are Malik mlan big fast athletic players that can stretch the defense and in one-on-one situations where you're skewing the coverage to the long side of the field because you need to cover green grass you get more one-on-one opportunities on the X receiver side which is typically the short side of the field the boundary that guy needs to be explosive he needs to be a big play threat and he might not get the football all the time but he can generate big plays then the question becomes looking at those two players how do they fit together what about Liam Clifford where does he play I thought it was very interesting the way they split up the white team and The Blue Team during the blue white game Liam Clifford was on the white team offense but after Trey Wallace's day was done he started playing a little bit outside is he a three position player is he going to be the guy that is the glue guy fix it all I'll play X I'll play h play Z put him anywhere and he can run routes because that's his skill he is a good route Runner he's fast enough to play all of those positions I think he can play with more physicality that's the part I think he needs to do a little bit better but he didn't look bad running from the X position he didn't look bad running from the Z position so does that give the flexibility to get Kaden Saunders onto the field can you see like how the pieces need to fit together okay so Kaden maybe is best here uh Wallace is maybe best here so then who's going to play this other position and what are the things you need to have on the field we talked about speed so Amari Evans Nate talked about how important Amari Evans is to the offense because he is the guy that can threaten the the team the defense deep where he has that speed threat that you have to account for he needs to make good on it and Penn State needs that in the offense he's not a fast enough guy he's a fast fast guy so he has to play a position with the way Andy C Nikki motions players in and out of formations and changes the formation from bunched like there are sometimes I saw in film where he had all five eligible receivers on one side of the field so some of these questions and some of these conversations are just like it doesn't it doesn't matter in those situations but you can't make an you can't make a meal out of side dishes you have to have some you have to have some meat and potatoes you have to have a protein you can't just make a meal out of all arugula salads and I'm stretching this here I apologize but you get what I'm saying you need to have some Staples in your offense and most teams run out of Base formations base Personnel packages and a three receiver package that works well together presents those multiple threats is essential for this offense to function the way that everyone wants them it's not just who's good it's how do they fit together to get the optimal situation now that's the optimal situation that is not what do we have to do because at a certain point you just have to do something in order to get uh your offense to function at some level which can um be good enough doesn't have to be perfect going to jump in here in the chat we got some comments here um Liam makoni I mean Clifford is definitely underrated yeah I don't know if he's lad first off I I get what you're saying it but lad makoni was fast he was I think he ran in the 4 fours I don't know if Liam runs in the low 4 fours and uh is as explosive but uh I get what you're saying yeah put him in a certain situation let him play an underrated football player on the team I think from what he showed last year there was an opportunity for him to do things in the offense but certain players got the football certain players got targets and other players uh didn't um wobble wobble says I have one Bur question and one question only when is Nick Singleton dropping a video of him breaking saquon's weit room record on the power clean yeah that's a great question uh can he do it it would be at some point this year uh Chuck Losi said that this six- week period and he mentioned this starting in June um at lift for life is one of the most important for the team to get ready for the season so if it happens I think it might be happening soon um we'll see I don't know Ryan says a contend at least you have a lead speed at least three spots on the field one being the backfield you can't compete for titles you know Ryan this reminds me of the pass rusher conundrum you can have one Elite pass rusher and a team can negate that guy with scheme and double teams but you see the best defenses have at least two if not a third that is competent maybe not at the level of the other two that can take advantage of those one-on-one situations and win and create no- win situations for the offense I think you're right receiver or offense you need to have speed a level of threat credibility at three I mean that would be ideal right you you want five you want no no no no I'm sorry you want 11 from the quarterback to the offensive lineman you want your offensive lineman to be fast and explosive and that's something else that we've we've talked a lot about in the recruiting conversation about uh receivers and speed and everyone's pushing back on well penate had fast receivers last year and they were bad on offense that is true there's also different types of speed there's being fast and I don't want to just a shortcat might be a track athlete where you have your hips turn really fast right but you're really light on the ground like P then there is explosive football speed where you push so hard into the ground with your feet and with your explosive movement skills that you generate Force Through barriers and those barriers are Defenders or blockers or whatever explosive athletes that is the number one thing I look for in football at every single position because being fast isn't good enough you need to have the combination of size speed and athleticism to be the best at your position in some form or fashion and that I think is a perfect place to wrap up the conversation about receivers and fit together because they've got fast receivers but Wallace is the one guy that's explosive fast where he's violent in his speed to the point that sometimes he gets hurt so let's get on to number four number four okay so we had a conversation several times about is this going to be a two tight end offense or is this going to be a three receiver offense and the answer is it's going to be both pen State's going to use both um and then the percentages obviously from there are important I still think you need to be a spread team a three receiver team to present those threats that we just talked about spreading the field and not gumming up the middle of the offense with two tight ends unless you can do that by creating threats from the tight end position out wide in a real way but let's go beyond that here for a second when you look at Andy Cal Nikki's offense there is a diverse robust and inclusive suback AG culture where it's not just it's not just you're going to run two tight ends you're just going to run three receivers you're going to run a bunch of different formations and player packages some of them are in specific situations and some of them are going to be uh for specific plays or ideas so beyond just the starters is it going to be a three tight end Focus we talk a lot about is khil dinkin or Andrew Rapier why not both khil dinkin moves like a receiver put last year during the bowl game the whole conversation we had about the X receiver they put dinkin at X that's what they did so you know he can he they see him at least somebody in the building sees him as a guy who can can play receiver in a certain light so do you have a three tight end set kind of in the vein of the T formation that suddenly you explode out of that and you've got KRON Allen in the slot you've got khil dinkin out wide and now you can run screens you can run goes you can do a bunch of things again that threaten the defense in multiple ways or what about a three running back package Quinton Martin is he going to fight for some of those snaps because here's the thing you can't do all of it all the time that's what causes problems when it comes to the defense or the offense of the depth chart or the defense of the depth chart is some guys aren't going to play as much and they might be deserving of playing time but they're not as good as somebody else at their position and Beyond the top two of receiver tight end one uh two and three three and four and even the fourth wide receiver why can't you have Liam Clifford Kaden Saunders Julian Fleming and uh and Trey Wallace on the field at the same time why can't you have aari Evans in there why why can't you go 10 Personnel is what that's called with four receivers and one running back you can you absolutely can do that but which one of these players is going to create the sub package culture for Penn State this year cuz Andy K Nikki will play the best one and he will uh he will generate an offense that is dictated by the talent on the field let's talk about what Rob Cheryl has to say here because I'm glad you brought this up he says speed is not what I think of when I think of Michigan last year they regularly beat teams that were faster that is not necessarily true to me the biggest difference between the Michigan team last year and the year before is a consistently healthy Roman Wilson and JJ McCarthy being a part of the Run game when necessary Those backbreaking runs from JJ McCarthy he's a fast quarterback when you have to when you have uh Donovan Edwards who is an elite speedback he's out there on the field now did he break a lot of explosive plays last year not as much as he did the year before but speed was absolutely an element in that Mig Mig offense that caused them to be unstoppable because they had the credible threat of the Run game up the middle they had a good offensive line they could control the middle of the field and suddenly you got Roman Wilson on orbit motions where you've got to you've got to dedicate six seven players to the box maybe you're you're dropping a safety it's eight and you've got a one-on-one with a guy who runs a 4-3 and now maybe that's a safety you know in in Penn State situation maybe it was jayen Reed Jaylen Reed's a good football player he's he's not he's not a 4-3 athlete creating those situations where you got everything bottled up and suddenly JJ McCarthy pulls it and he's running in the open Field Michigan previously was a ground and pound team in the traditional manly way they made a big change to incorporate modern Concepts modern schemes when it comes to generating EXP exp plays they used motion like the Miami Dolphins with Tyreek Hill they used that that cheetah motion or or whatever the the explosive speed motion whatever when you're running full speed uh into it into a different formation at the snap that's using speed to your advantage that's using speed to generate problems for the defense so yeah on the whole they ran two tight ends whatever but speed was absolutely an element of of what they did on offense and how they generated explosive plays over the middle of the field with a guy like Roman Wilson When everyone's playing the run and now you have somebody to throw to over top and Pen needs to generate those threats they need to do the exact same thing somehow someway on offense and they need to find those players that do that the thing I've said you know Nick Singleton is explosively fast but tight ends generally are not as fast as the fastest wide receiver and do you have the guys to create that balance on offense or are you gumming up the middle of the field with a bunch of tight ends and a bunch of running backs and are you not actually creating uh a balanced threat package saying a bunch of the same things but it all comes down to can you force the defense into making tough choices and last year Penn State's offense did not do that the the defense could dictate to the offense by no what was coming pen state was going to run the football probably on the first play of the drive and probably on first down and then from there you know we all saw what happened in that so let's get on to the next thing in our conversation about things I want to know about during training camp that I think are really important for Penn State's Health next year might be pertinent here number three all right so we know and we talked about this yesterday so this is a little bit of a rehash of yesterday but I think it's really important left tackle depth uh Drew Shelton is going to be the starter is how we all are viewing this I asked James Franklin uh this this summer he was talking about Drew Shelton somebody asked about Drew Shelton and and how he's progressing and and some of those things and I asked do you how do you how do you define starter because he said in the past we view him as a starter but he was a guy that was a six offensive lineman that that didn't start last year and his conversation was somebody who has played for us to a winning level that we feel like if they play we can win so that makes sense yeah Drew Shelton has been a guy that has played and has played to a level that they can win do they have a Drew Shelton behind Drew Shelton this year that's a big question because tackle depth has been a problem for Penn State year after year after year I'm actually pretty optim mytic about where they are generally on the talent Spectrum even if in 2025 right now they don't have necessarily the same recruiting success that they've had at that position in previous years but here are the guys at left tackle specifically let's just assume that uh Anthony Dono and Nolan rri are both right tackles they're not in this conversation those guys are going to play on that side they're going to solidify the depth over there and I think you should feel pretty good about that now there's each player has some questions just because that's how football Works neither of them are 13 game starter proven level players but on the left side how's JB Nelson I mean I don't remember the last time I've seen him play consistently on the football field I know he's talented I know he's a guy that I saw that played left tackle and looked good despite some um weight issues and athleticism issues at lacana because of things we've already talked about he reshaped his body he plays guard he's States swing tackle for that left position um then he didn't play in the spring he didn't play last year so when it comes to the depth of the offense we've talked about this offensive line having a lot of depth and versatility but when you start cutting out certain parts of it do you still have that depth especially key players that are legitimate swing players that can play uh three positions and if not is Javin Williams ready again Franklin talked about uh Javin Williams this summer and said he's earned the right to be in the conversation he also didn't have to battle anyone for that because both JB Nelson and uh Andrew Shelton weren't playing in the spring so I'm here's I'm not saying James Franklin is lying about that I'm saying that the picture presented was that Javin Williams had to play and impress James Franklin enough to say that if if those other players are back in the conversation fulltime is that still the truth so this training camp is that the case and that's something that I don't know um I'm sure there's more nuance and context to that but at this point that's what I want to know about the left tackle position because Drew Shelton is not a given we T again we I don't want to rehash that we talked about that yesterday I think he's got good talent uh he's a guy that can play the position for sure he has been preparing for this for 3 years but preparing for it and then doing it are all that's always the leap right so these guys behind him injuries happen he got he got hurt last year they need to find out what the left left tackle depth is not what it presented itself to be earlier if that makes sense so it's kind of a Nuance conversation about depth because you like their depth you I like the talent that they have going even down the the list of Egan Boer and Garett ston who are not going to be a part of this conversation long term I like the bodies and the talent and the at the position but there is a difference between that potential and uh productivity playing right now and I think that that is still a part that a gap that needs to be bridged during training camp okay getting into number two now here on our list number two uh number two this is we just talked about some of the problems let's talk about a good problem to have Penn State's third down defense what's it going to look like this year regardless of your uh defensive coordinator regardless of the scheme you're playing third down is your opportunity to be creative and aggressive on defense so Tom Allen likes to play dime defense so you have your nickel who is a safety in this defense now they've talked about how this is still uh a 4-3 defense and they B out of that but that's also just kind of saying like structurally we have four down defensive linemen and there are three players that play in The Underneath coverages at a linebacker position but the body types and some of the responsibilities and coverage for that lion position are closer or at least a more even split between secondary player and linebacker then when you get to third down that guy can Rove around the defense or one of those safeties can be kind of a free floating player then you bring in a true corner for that nickel position when you've got all of those when you've got those uh six defensive backs on the field you call that dime defense so Nickel Dime you get how football works right um but at the same time you've got to take players out of the SE out of the front seven in order to accommodate a player on the back end so which one of the players up front do you want to take off of the field granted one of them is going to be uh your heaviest defensive tackle your your run un stuffiest defensive tackle zann Durant needs to be on the field it feels like that's a strong gotta have him on on the field you have three if not four defensive ends that you can play Jamal Lions has people's eyes wide as saucers everyone's in love with Abdul Carter Deni Den Sutton is a good really good football player who's earned that right and a mean vanover is a really good football player who's earned that right so there's four there we got five defensive linemen we've got six defensive backs are they going to play linebacker at all Tony Roos needs to be on the field you've got to fight for these positions on third down it's almost like an entirely new defense so what's it going to be how are you going to how are you going to slice this cake um I'm always fascinated by this we saw Manny Diaz take one approach we saw him augment that Pro approach over time from when he had Jer Brown to then uh when he wanted to run four defensive ends and then people started running on him on third down and 20 and almost getting a first down and then converting some of those so they went back to just a base defense what's the combination this year they start that in Camp you you you lay the groundwork of what you want to be for the first month of the Season at the very least but really the core of your identity when we need to get a stop we do this and you start practicing that in uh well really you start experimenting with it in in the spring and then you really hammer in and tone in on what you want to be during training camp so that's going to be something they figure out a part of this conversation is the Abdul Carter conversation we had yesterday and I kind of left off with this thought because I didn't have enough time to get into the Nuance of it but here's what I'm thinking after 24 hours of kind of mulling on it uh base Downs are different as we as we mentioned and Abdul Carter's going to play with his hand in the dirt as a defensive end on base Downs whether he's a starter or not I don't know whether or not he beats out other guys for that position but on third down there there's nothing that says that he has to play outside he doesn't have to rush off the edge he can rush off the edge sometimes or he can go back to doing what he did which is being a total Havoc player where he's rushing over the a gap and you're designing the defense to get him against a running back you could do that with Jam Lions but Abdul Carter that linebacker likee movement skills the ability to win and dominate in space and dominate smaller opponents because he's got the size and the strength you don't want to just get rid of that in my mind because again like I said I only played Madden I didn't play NCAA so I have to fight this binary idea in my mind where now he's only a defensive end no he can play safety if you wanted him too like that's the whole point of defense is you can play those players at literally any position the results of that that's on you as the uh as the defense coordinator um so we'll see how third down defense goes where Abdul Carter plays how they use the front seven etc etc etc so those are uh the top four reasons five of the four of the top five reasons the things that I'm looking for in Camp so just a quick review here we are number five how will the receiver room shake out positionally how will the talents meld together uh the subpackage culture on offense wide receiver 4 running back three tight end three who sees the field more in those specialty packages that we all latch on to what's the what's the T formation for 2024 and which players make that go number three left tackle depth beyond the starter you need to have the next guy um either that just to prepare for the future or as a contingency do they have a guy they view as a starter behind Drew Shelton uh and then number two the third down defense what is the makeup and the nature of it this year which players are put in a position to shine and how is that uh all meld together so we're coming up here to number one if you've got any thoughts any comments any rebuttal to all this stuff obviously I'm up here monologuing and I can't read and talk at the same time you've seen me do that before it goes how it goes so throw your comments in the chat we'll get to that after number one number one here's the whole thing so we did the hypers specific a let's let's fiddle around with with running back three and the left tackle depth and third down defense and here's the major question the number one thing that they've been working for all year did the plan work did Penn State's streamlining of verbiage this year pay off the overarching thing we've talked about starting in February and going through training camp and this Summer that I we're going to just review this because there was some conversation recently that I think not everyone is still on the same page about What's happen on offense specifically and then what their plan was on defense here it is football has spoken in codes so you want to line up in a certain formation you call that formation tiger or pink umbrella or uh drywall well penate has called it banana for the last three years under Mike yich so guess what we're just calling uh a three receiver formation with a tight end and a traditional HB position we're just calling that banana doesn't matter what Andy K Nikki called it before you are running a certain stunt that everybody runs where you're going to have a defensive tackle looping around to the outside and a defensive end crashing into the B Gap you might call that swipe well guess what they called it flip we're calling it flip and that's James Franklin's whole point I'm not even going to call this a gamble I'm going to call this insight into how do we make this easier for for the players so that we skip the step of uh cuz that's half of football if you can eliminate the uh what am I doing and you just play football you execute your assignment with confidence and conviction you're suddenly a much faster football player Koby King is roughly the same speed as Tyler Ellen and I know I say that and you go how dare you it's kind of true kobby king started playing with better anticipation and his other skills started to show up he's a little more agile he's a little longer he's bigger he's got more traits that make him a positive Mike linebacker and again I'm not dumping on Tyler ellon this is the difference and why Kobe King played so well and took so many snaps last year to be the full-time starter you need to get everyone to do that offense defense and special teams because you installed three new schemes so make them as much like the old ones as possible in ways that don't matter in ways of we called it this so Penn State's offensive schemes Andy cotal Nikki and Mike yuch have overlap and really to quote James Franklin everyone's kind of running the same things going back to our conversation when I was uh rambling about Lincoln Riley he does a lot of the same stuff that literally everybody else does he's got a couple of things that make him unique but he does pretty much what everybody else does everyone runs option plays everyone runs certain pass Concepts and there are only so many ways to run the football you've got some traditional this is how we run the football and most people don't use the offensive Oddities because over time certain things work more so you lean into those here's an example once again everyone runs inside Zone everyone runs this particular Zone concept with the offensive line it pairs really well like wine and cheese with the option play and more recently the RPO what are you calling your inside zone are you calling it Rambo why are you calling it Rambo does it need to be called Rambo so the coaches had to unlearn what they had been doing for 10 years maybe and they had to be one person adapted instead of well I should say three people adapted of Andy K Nikki uh Tom Allen and Justin lustig those three people adapted instead of 127 so James Franklin I think made a wise insightful decision of here's what we've done in the past it hasn't worked because of all these things we've learned so we're going to do that differently and all of that was in anticipation of July 31st through August 31st when they can install everything and they can skip the uh part of the defense for all of the starters freshmen are still going to do that cuz they're learning what the the basics are at times of hey what is inside Zone maybe I didn't run that in high school what is uh how do I fill this Gap if x happens if I'm a defensive player say I'm a linebacker that's what you're learning all you're learning what you're going to be in training camp and the best way to learn is to execute properly to execute properly you need to know what you're doing that is to me like that's the number one thing coaches are doing is just getting everyone on the same page to do everything in unison and then letting their talent of the player uh take over because kind of like effort that's what you can control they've been pre-selected for their talent that variable in a certain aspect it doesn't matter because Penn State recruits well they recruit players that can win football games now do they come up against better players in other situations and sometimes do you just lose to a better football player yes but you you can't think like that if you're a football player you got to believe I'm good enough to win and then know how to do it and if you get enough players doing that and playing on the S that's when you become a good football team so I applaud the decision to do that but it matters now from February when they were doing all of this stuff and installing these things in March and getting those voiceovers to the players for them to learn all of that effort is paying off starting in August well July 31st so that's the number number one thing did the plan work did James Franklin's strategy this year of how to hit the ground running and not have a year of making sure you know like that adjustment year we saw in 2016 to Joe morehead's offense learning from those mistakes uh so we'll see how that goes um Sean says I know it's a game but our NC on NCAA the pennate offensive line sucks in the pass game yeah uh I haven't obviously I haven't played it yet uh you would have known if I had played it yet but that's that's interesting because they lost a lot of pieces I mean they lost two really good offensive tackles and there is one of those there is one of those things where you get a reputation for one thing last year not going their way in terms of like there was one kind of like cheat code for defenses to do like if you just do this this this and this you can get a free Rush are going through the a gap in that scheme um so they might be better than that they might not be I actually don't know um all right I don't know why I'm uh I don't know why I'm doing this but Sharice who's an Ohio State fan who is here in the chat all the time I'm not trying to feed the Trolls but at the same time she's got this provocative question here's a question will Pense be able to break out of Michigan in Ohio State Shadow and win the Big 10 this year Sharice we're going to find out in September uh but they don't play Michigan this year so who knows uh we'll all find out together David Kay says could somebody please explain to me why Nate Bower is not here it's his day off Nate does the Tuesday show this is my job to do the YouTube channel um and I love having Nate on the show but everyone deserves to not be working 247 uh all the day all the time his job is to get those interesting nuances and insights from the front office basketball football Etc so he's doing that today so if you want to know specifically he's focusing on that I'm here talking to you um Steve he says it's clear we can't recruit top wide receiver prospects so Penn State needs to attack the transfer portal for wide receiver Talent Steve you need to do both both have to happen both cost a lot of money money that right now Penn State is allocating in different places and they don't have the resources to do both and they maybe don't from a philosophical perspective want to do both um because speed is expensive not only is speed important I I I gave you like a DI tribe on why speed is important tactically in football knowing that wide receivers that are good cost more money than Penn State wants to spend or can spend I don't know the details of it but that's part of it so you say going to the portal it's not like going to the grocery store it kind of is like going to the grocery store but it's like ah are you getting the smoked salmon or are you going to be getting frozen tilapia there's a I keep going to food I don't know food that well but you know what I'm saying like you can't always buy what you want because cost is a factor and now that the transfer portal and name image and like name image and likeness are all a thing that's a huge part of recruiting so is it that pens can't get a receiver or is it that uh the way that they've been trying to get a receiver their normal ways are not working and they need to change the plan or have some sort of thing in the environment change around them that's important so there we go we hit on just about everything I think I think we hit on everything in the universe this is a uh this has been a good show appreciate everyone in the chat we've got some really good conversation and insight that we got on the show today um I really appreciate you being here we got a good show as always please subscribe to Blue Illustrated here on the YouTube channel sorry I'm saying the same thing over I'm vamping because I'm trying to read uh trying to read Josh's comment here he says he wants to talk about the white out game he's from gatesburg Illinois love the Washington pick for the pen State football white out game since it's the integration of West Coast talent I agree I think that there is a certain aspect of newness to the white out game now maybe reinvigorates it a little bit you might have a good chance of beating an interesting opponent and uh bringing in something that provides a little newness like you said um we'll see because at that point in the season November 9th we have no idea what their record is going to be they play Ohio State the week before does that cut the knees out of the excitement for the game I don't know I guess we'll find out uh when we all get there so that's it I think I've exhausted the chat you guys are tired of me talking to uh just monologuing here on the show and I think we we covered everything we needed to so we'll be back tomorrow with the recruiting show Ryan Snider is going to be here fits us off for the week so he and I are going to be talking about in detail those things that Steve was talking about in the chat Penn State is not able to get wide receivers because Lex Cyrus and Taz Williams went elsewhere last week it's been a while it's been a full week since Lex Cyrus picked South Carolina we're officially going to talk about that on the show tomorrow so if you're looking for your pound of Flesh if you want to yell and rant about Penn State wide receiver recruiting we're talking about it tomorrow also things other than that but I don't know what that is yet because I just got done with this show and it took me all day to think about what I wanted to talk about here so we'll be back with fresh interesting things because that's what we do here on the BWI live show we'll talk to you then [Music] n [Music]