Penn State couldn’t hold on to their 10-0 first half lead against Notre Dame in the CFB semifinal. They had their chances but couldn’t make the plays in the critical moments to move on to the national championship.
The impressive part of watching Penn State is just how good they are at running the ball and playing strong and aggressive on the defensive line. Tyler Warren is fun to watch, too.
What costs the Nittany Lions though is that their receivers are nowhere near as capable as the rest of the offense at providing a spark for the team. Penn State didn’t have a single completion to a wide receiver, which is ridiculous for a team that reached the national semifinal.
Penn State could have really used someone like Jahan Dotson or Parker Washington. Just one capable threat at receiver probably would have won them the game. Tyler Warren is excellent, but a tight end shouldn’t be tasked to carry as much of the load as he did.
Some of the questions surrounding the future of the program will be just how easily they can make it as far as they did again, and can they reload and be just as good without some key players leaving.
Star defensive end Abdul Carter has already declared for the NFL draft. Other defensive talent will be leaving because they ran out of eligibility, and big draft decisions for Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant will help decide just what to expect from the group next year.
The secondary was weak against teams with good wide receivers like Ohio State and Oregon. They aren’t national championship caliber there either, which is something that they will need to address.
Of course, the transfer portal is always an element that the Nittany Lions could dip into and find players. As of now though, I think it’s fair to expect a little dip in production from the defense.
Offensively, Drew Allar is another guy that can choose to leave. He hasn’t exactly been elite, but he certainly looks the part. NFL teams are interested in his potential, but I think he isn’t ready for that level of competition yet, especially if he lands on a team that doesn’t have much to build around him. He would be wise to come back for another season and excel in college football before making the leap to play in the NFL.
As for the star running back duo of Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton, they too can leave for the draft. Each are guys that would be drafted relatively highly. Getting at least one of the two backs for next season would be huge.
Warren is almost certainly going to leave early to go to the NFL despite still having another season of eligibility. The tight end position is fortunately a strong and deep one though. Khalil Dinkins and Luke Reynolds are good options returning next year.
Penn State is going to have their work cut out for them to get back to the semifinal. This season, they pretty much met expectations. They beat everybody they were supposed to have beaten and lost to everyone that they were underdogs against. Boise State and SMU fell into their lap as they were able to smoothly get past the two talent inferior teams on their way to the semifinal.
It might not be so easy in the future though. Michigan will most likely be more of a threat than they were this season, and other Big Ten programs could get better as well.
James Franklin is certainly a good coach who has made his team into a very good top five team in the country this season. They got the closest that they have to tasting a national title in a long time.
It’s going to take work just to maintain that level of play though, and even more work to make the leap to actually completing the goal of winning it all.
