Penn State football will take the field for the final time this spring as a team on Saturday afternoon for the Blue-White Game at Beaver Stadium. An annual opportunity to see the Nittany Lions in action, a glimpse of what’s to come during the season following months of summer work, the scrimmage serves as an appetizer of sorts.
It also reliably raises, and answers, some of the questions that accompany every offseason.
Predictably, Penn State head coach James Franklin is comfortable with the uncertain side of the process. Encouraging competition at every stage of the offseason, the pecking order, winners and losers, and the direction the Nittany Lions take are elements meant to be determined at a later date.
“I think more than anything, it’s a foundation of habits. It’s a foundation of offense, defense, and special teams,” said Franklin, “Not just for the players but for some of the coaches as well that are new, so that literally we can come into summer and feel good about having a chance to legitimately compete for jobs.
“Right now, this is great. But there are gonna be no decisions made now. I think guys are going to want to know where they’re at at the end of the spring. There are so many things that are going to change between now and the first game. And everybody’s just kind of got to understand that. It wouldn’t be right or fair for anybody for us to make decisions at this point.”
As the scrimmage quickly approaches, though, that doesn’t mean we don’t have questions. Here are the three biggest questions we have to which, at least to a partial extent, the Blue-White Game could offer some clarifying clues:
Biggest Penn State questions for the Blue-White Game
How far along are Andy Kotelnicki, Tom Allen, and Justin Lustig?
There is a certain reality to acknowledge when it comes to the overall health of the Penn State football program entering Saturday’s scrimmage. And, to be clear, it’s not something that the Nittany Lions have attempted to deny throughout the process.
But, Penn State is likely to send at least six of its biggest contributors from the defensive side of the ball to the NFL this offseason from a unit that finished second overall last season and third nationally in points allowed. On special teams, a consistent transfer placekicker will vie for an NFL future this offseason, too.
And yet, there are very few questions of magnitude facing either Tom Allen or Justin Lustig this spring. Rather, in taking over for units that have mostly been somewhere between very good and elite in recent seasons, the question is not whether success can continue for those groups. It is, simply, to what extent can those groups’ success continue?
Andy Kotelnicki’s side is another story, though. Inheriting an offense that finished 12th in scoring last season, but proved fool’s gold against the best competition on the schedule, the Nittany Lions will proceed with much of the same offensive personnel, absent a first-round NFL left tackle, a sixth-year center, a steadily improved fifth-year right tackle, and a mainstay tight end.
Decidedly in need of explosive playmaking, Kotelnicki has been charged with delivering it. An element existing somewhere in the spectrum between coaching and execution, Saturday will go a long way to alleviating or exacerbating the concerns that already exist.
Who is playing?
This is intentionally loaded. But, two things should be made clear:
1) The 85-man scholarship limit is a quaint relic of a pre-NIL era. Penn State will figure it out and stockpile as much talent as it can afford.
2) That doesn’t mean the attrition of every offseason can’t come, anyway.
Franklin didn’t want to entertain the conversation during his Tuesday press conference this week for obvious reasons. Penn State, like every other major program in college football, has a strategic approach to its roster management that it isn’t keen to provide a blueprint to its competitors.
But, conversations are coming, and the Blue-White Game can offer an early look into how those conversations just might go.
Casted, braced, crutched, scootered, or otherwise, Penn State will show its cards, to some degree, for its personnel currently on the shelf.
Where are Drew Allar and the receivers, figuratively?
To be clear, Penn State’s offensive issues are broader than its starting quarterback and receivers.
The offensive line needs to be more consistent and to do so with inarguable turnover from last season. The stud running backs have to be bigger studs than they were a season ago. And at tight end, Penn State needs a continuation of its production, with a second spot to be solidified.
But, to discount the intrigue over Drew Allar, specifically, and a top-line receiving unit that, earlier this spring, would have consisted of KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Trey Wallace, and Julian Fleming, is disingenuous.
Lambert-Smith’s mere presence is in question for Saturday (and beyond). Fleming’s top-end capability is in question. Wallace’s health is, deserved or not, going to be in question.
And the players competing to take a significant step up in production this season – Kaden Saunders, Malik McClain, and Liam Clifford, for instance – are also very much in question.
A common refrain this spring from the quarterbacks and Kotelnicki is that the unit has had a chip on its shoulder, and used it to its benefit, because of those questions. Saturday, against a secondary with a buzz that suggests very few questions to answer, Allar and his receivers will offer clues as to what progress has been made.
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