Christian Hackenberg’s status as a much-heralded NFL prospect didn’t do much to get the Penn State offense off the ground in each of the first two seasons under head coach James Franklin.
Now the Nittany Lions are breaking in a new quarterback, with a new offensive coordinator and a stud running back. But will that mean a change in fortunes?
Last season, Penn State ranked second to last in the Big Ten in total offense, averaging just 348.4 yards per game, a mark better than just 22 other teams in college football, only 10 of which played in Power Five conferences. The Lions ranked 12th in rushing offense, 11th in scoring offense and ninth in passing offense.
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Hackenberg, after a sterling freshman season, threw 21 interceptions as a sophomore and junior — just seven fewer picks than touchdowns over that two-year span following the departure of Bill O’Brien for the NFL.
What it all added up to was that despite a strong defense, a practically inept offense allowed Penn State to win just 14 combined games over the past two campaigns.
The solution? Joe Moorhead. The Lions’ new offensive coordinator arrives after four seasons as the head coach at Fordham, and his task is to turn things around on that side of the ball. As Franklin explained it at Big Ten Media Days, however, Moorhead’s challenge might not seem as steep as the numbers would indicate.
“The thing that’s exciting … there’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle,” Franklin said. “It’s a great situation to break in a new quarterback. You’ve got a much more experienced offensive line, more depth than we’ve had at that position. You’ve got experience at wide receiver, which is going to help our running back. You’ve got more experience at wide receiver, which is going to help our quarterback. And then the depth and talent that we have at the running back position, as well.
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“So all those things are going to be good for everybody. That was a lot of the things when me and Joe Moorhead talked about when I hired him was the timing is really good. The timing is good for Penn State, the timing is good for Joe Moorhead. We’re back to the 85 scholarships, Joe’s coming in at the right time.”
Experience hasn’t been in Penn State’s favor during the first two years of the Franklin Era, but with guys that were redshirted during the program’s lean-scholarship years ready to contribute, Franklin sees depth finally arriving — and those decisions paying off.
A once-porous offensive line now has experience. The receiving corps is in good hands with DaeSean Hamilton, Chris Godwin and Saeed Blacknall. And of course, the running back position is the star of the show, with Saquon Barkley ready to build on a spectacular freshman season.
That’s all mighty helpful in turning around an offense and in getting a new quarterback up and running.
Trace McSorley has the inside track to the starting job, it would seem, after serving as Hackenberg’s backup and stepping in in the second half of the TaxSlayer Bowl, completing 14 of 27 passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns while adding an additional 31 yards on the ground. He’s competing for the gig this summer with redshirt freshman Tommy Stevens.
Both, Franklin said, can do what Hackenberg couldn’t: Use his legs to make plays.
“I think the one difference is the two quarterbacks that are competing for the job are very mobile, so now we’re adding the aspect to our offense that we’ve got a quarterback that can hurt you with his legs,” Franklin said. “That’s going to have a big impact on the running back. So you’re handing the ball off on an inside zone from the gun to the running back, and that defensive end and that backside outside linebacker now have to respect that and it slows them down because if the quarterback pulls the ball and goes out the back side, they’ve got to be there to defend it. So it slows everybody down on the back half of the defense, the backside safety and the backside corner, as well. I think that will have an impact as much as anything.”
“Trace and Tommy are both really good stepping in and taking that leadership role that comes from being the quarterback,” offensive lineman Brian Gaia said. “Whether it’s Division-I college football or high school football, you are the leader. I think they’re just trying to hone in on the subtle differences between stepping up in college and stepping up in high school.”
Regardless of who it is to emerge as the Lions’ new starting signal-caller, the job is Moorhead’s to make it all work.