The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Reviewing where Penn State football stands after the 2022 season
Penn State ended its season on a high note with a 35-21 victory over the Utah Utes in the Rose Bowl.
The Nittany Lions got that win after an up and down season that didn’t start with high expectations from the outside, but ended up with them.
They started the season with two fairly high profile wins over Purdue and Auburn on the road in their first three games and got off to a 5-0 start overall.
However, a 1-2 stretch over three games that were widely deemed the most important of the season set the team back. The two losses to Michigan and Ohio State were sandwiched around a White Out victory over Minnesota, but calls for change at quarterback continued to come from the outside.
Still, Penn State head coach James Franklin stayed the course with Sean Clifford and it paid off with five straight wins to end the year and finish 11-2. Now the expectations have only risen heading into the offseason.
Let’s take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of where Penn State stands after the 2022 season.
Good
Manny Diaz: This wasn’t necessarily a question mark coming into the season — mostly because Diaz is an elite coordinator — but it was at the very least an interesting storyline. Franklin had only two defensive coordinators with him through his first 11 seasons as a head coach. Bob Shoop led the unit while he was at Vanderbilt and in his first two seasons at Penn State, then it was Brent Pry for the next six years with the Nittany Lions.
A change to Diaz was more interesting because of how little turnover Franklin had seen at the spot, but it’s safe to say the hire was an excellent one. Penn State played a more aggressive and versatile brand of defense than in the past and was able to force the issue and make opposing offenses uncomfortable this season. It helps that there was plenty of talent, but Diaz still had to make the calls and design the gameplans. There’s no reason to believe the unit won’t be good again next season, even with it losing several starters to the 2023 NFL Draft.
Passing offense changes: This is an interesting one because the passing offense looked different this year than previous versions of offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich’s career, but it was still effective. Yurcich was able to simplify the passing game and use more play action to make things easier on Clifford. However, that might not be the case next year. It kind of wasn’t even the case in the Rose Bowl. That offense, which featured more long-developing plays than Clifford previously hit on early in the season, is the one next year’s likely starting quarterback Drew Allar should excel in.
That, of course, is the other part of this. Allar is going to start barring a surprise in 2023 and he’ll do so with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s an excellent talent who put that on display whenever he saw the field this year, but now he’ll have to do it for prolonged stretches. There isn’t any reason to believe he won’t and his talent paired with Yurcich’s offense should be a thing of beauty for Penn State fans next season.
Running game: Arguably the biggest jump on the team this season came with the running game. Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen jump-started things as elite freshman running backs, but the offensive line drastically improved this season, too. The group was able to move the defensive line backward and get to the second level to free up running room for the two freshmen — and it was able to do so consistently. That opened up the rest of the offense this year and will keep doing it next season if everything holds steady.
And there’s no reason to think things will change with elite left tackle Olu Fashanu returning along with a slew of players with extended playing time in 2022. The line should be able to put Singleton and Allen in position to succeed once again, and if those two take a leap then this offense might be one of the most dynamic in the country next season on the back of the running game and what could be an explosive passing offense.
Pass defense: Most teams would take a step back if they lost Joey Porter Jr. and Ji’Ayir Brown in the secondary. They’re two of the best defensive backs in the country and played like it in 2022. However, things are looking up for Penn State even without them, thanks to their replacements and what could be an elite pass rush. Kalen King is already a high level cornerback and should easily slide into Porter’s role as a lockdown No. 1 cornerback. Him and Johnny Dixon, along with the addition of former All-ACC selection Storm Duck from North Carolina, should prove to be one of the best cornerback rooms in the country. That doesn’t even include Daequan Hardy in the nickel cornerback role, where he’s as steady as they come.
That group is going to be supplemented by two excellent pass rushers in Chop Robinson and Adisa Isaac, along with the emerging Dani Dennis-Sutton. Isaac’s decision to return instead of enter the draft will bolster a pass defense that should be able to get after the quarterback and put its cornerbacks on an island in the 2023 season.
Bad
Defensive tackle: While the pass defense will be good, the run defense will be worth monitoring — but there is no “worth monitoring” category in good, bad, ugly. The loss of PJ Mustipher to the NFL will not draw the splashy headlines of other players, but it’s a substantial one. Mustipher was a stalwart in the middle at defensive tackle who could just as easily eat up blocks in the running game to free up his linebackers or push offensive linemen back to make those plays himself. Not to mention the job he did freeing up Robinson and Isaac and the other defensive ends by occupying blocks in the passing game.
Coziah Izzard and Hakeem Beamon seem in line to start at DT next year, which could be interesting. Beamon is undersized but has proven he can be successful for long stretches of game action. Izzard is more of a question mark, but should be an above average starter at some point. It wouldn’t hurt, however, to add a defensive tackle in the transfer portal at some point just in case some of the depth doesn’t end up developing or if Izzard doesn’t take that next step.
Wide receiver depth: This is the spot everyone is starting at. That’s not to say there isn’t any talent — guys like KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Harrison Wallace III and Omari Evans have already flashed while Kaden Saunders, Cristian Driver and others could take a step as young options. But there isn’t enough proven talent and certain skill-sets are missing from the returning players. Namely, the team lacks a deep threat with size on the outside.
Help could be on the way in the form of former North Carolina State wide receiver Devin Carter, who committed after the Rose Bowl. Carter is listed at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds and had 25 catches for 406 yards and two touchdowns last season. However, he has since removed his commitment tweet and the program did not announce his addition when it announced transfers at the beginning of the semester. Regardless of his status, the Nittany Lions should continue looking to add receivers from the portal if they can, and they should have plenty of targets to offer up. Players like Dante Cephas, who had 48 catches for 744 yards at Kent State and remains uncommitted in the portal, should be targets for the program moving forward. This might be the most important position the team needs to add if it wants to maximize Allar’s first season as the starting quarterback in 2023.
Ugly
Cracking into the top two of the conference: Let’s be honest. This is what it’s all about — for the fans, for the staff, for everyone. Penn State needs to crack into the group that has featured only Michigan and Ohio State for the last two years at the top of the Big Ten. The placement in the ugly section is less about Penn State’s chances — I tend to think they have a good shot of doing it — and more about how hard it will be. Ohio State and Michigan will both be returning plenty of talent and could be just as good next season as they were this season when both finished in the top four.
To be clear, it’s not a necessity that the Nittany Lions finish top two and position themselves to make the College Football Playoff in 2023, but it sure would be better than not doing it. I’d bet on them making it in 2024 thanks to the expansion to 12 teams, but doing it a year early when the field is only four teams would say a lot about the program, Franklin and where it’s all trending. It’s not going to be make or break for Penn State, but expectations are high and for good reason. The Nittany Lions should be able to turn this year’s Rose Bowl win into more than they did the last time they played in Pasadena in 2016 and proceeded to stagnate instead of taking a step forward.
