With college football preview magazine season officially underway, ESPN provided a look at how some anonymous coaches in the Big Ten view the rest of the conference in an ESPN Insider article. You will need an ESPN Insider account to view the whole story, but I took the liberty of copying and pasting the information you most want to see; how coaches view your Nittany Lions.
To put it briefly, the Penn State quarterback situation is a key focal point throughout the Big Ten.
“Maybe if they’ve got a quarterback who can move a hell of a lot better, [the problems] are not as obvious,” said one Big Ten defensive coach, who was referring to Christian Hackenberg’s less-than-ideal motor. In fairness, Hackenberg was not necessarily the most agile player with his feet, but he had to do a lot of backpedaling with the offensive line in front of him. Still, having a passer with a bit more mobility could help, and that is expected to be the case moving forward. “Maybe spreading it out and moving it more laterally will help them, because I’m not sure they’re going to move a whole lot of people up front.”
This is also true. Penn State’s offensive line woes have been well documented and explained, and improving the brute strength up front needs to be a goal this season as the line gets back up to speed. Of course, Penn State fans may be optimistic about the wide receivers, but they are not a real threat to one Big Ten defensive coach.
“Our big concern with them was always Hackenberg. Not to say we disrespected their receivers, but we didn’t do anything different against them,” said one Big Ten defensive coach. “We didn’t have any real fear of their receivers.”
Perhaps there was no Allen Robinson in the receiving corp, but Chris Godwin ended the season with the second-highest receiving yards per game average among Big Ten players, finishing behind only Michigan State’s Aaron Burbridge. Godwin, a sophomore in 2015, was one of three Big Ten receivers with 1,000-plus yards last season. Penn State’s top receivers have been young, including DaeSean Hamilton and Saeed Blacknall, but another year of experience behind them could make Penn State’s receivers just a bit more intimidating this fall for some defensive coaches.
But what about the defense? Is Penn State’s defense anything to intimidate any opposing offensive coaches around the Big Ten? After losing defensive coordinator Bob Shoop to Tennessee and with some key losses to the NFL and graduation, this appears to be a good year to face Penn State’s defense, one Big Ten offensive coach told ESPN.
“It will be interesting to see what they do differently schematically,” the anonymous Big Ten offensive coach said. “They’re just OK at linebacker, not what they have been. I’d much rather play them now after they lost those three guys.”
It is always interesting to see what people have to say about a team in this fashion. Perhaps what is even more interesting is the ESPN college football preview magazine is predicting a third-place finish in the Big Ten East for Penn State, with Michigan taking the top spot and Ohio State coming in second. Defending Big Ten champion Michigan State is predicted to finish fourth in the B1G East.
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