Monthly Archives: August 2021

Penn State’s first losing season since 2004 and the worst start in program history are etched in the minds of players and coaches.

The Nittany Lions have worked fervently to put 2020 behind them and once again become Big Ten East contenders in 2021.

The biggest move came when coach James Franklin sacked Kirk Ciarrocca as offensive coordinator after one season and hired Mike Yurcich to replace him.

Franklin wants the Penn State offense, which has nine returning starters, to regain the identity it had under former coordinator Joe Moorhead in 2016-17.

“We’ve kind of reached a whole new level with Joe,” Franklin said at the start of preseason camp. “We come back to that. It’s really who we wanted to be the entire time we’ve been here.

“With the athletes that we have at the receiver, the tight end and the running back, we want to involve as many guys as possible, hit as many guys and have as many guys in space as possible.”

Franklin also wants to improve the defense, which has seven returning starters from a unit that allowed 27.7 points per game, the most in school history.

Here is a position by position breakdown of the 2021 Nittany Lions:

Strategist

Sean Clifford returns for his third season as a starter after an eventful year. He hopes to prosper like the other quarterbacks under Yurcich’s tutelage. He will have a lot of weapons at his disposal.

Ta’Quan Roberson has played sparingly at Penn State, but he appears to be the choice as Clifford’s replacement ahead of real freshman Christian Veilleux.

At the end of the line : If Clifford improves his accuracy and timing, the attack could be prolific.

Ball carriers

It is the deepest position in attack and perhaps in the whole team. Noah Cain, Devyn Ford, Keyvone Lee, Caziah Holmes and John Lovett, who have led Baylor three times, all have starting experience.

Franklin said he would prefer a three-way rotation, which could make at least two guys unhappy. After Cain suffered a season-ending injury in last year’s opener, Lee led the Lions in rushing into freshman.

At the end of the line : Cain, Lee and Lovett are among the top three full-backs. Who ends up starting is to guess.

Offensive linemen

Penn State has three returning starters up front after Exeter graduate Michal Menet and Will Fries were NFL draft picks.

Rasheed Walker and Caedan Wallace give the Lions a pair of very good tackles. Mike Miranda slips down center after starting guard last year. Juice Scruggs will start on the right, and Anthony Whigan, Des Holmes or Sal Wormley will start on the right.

Offensive line coach Phil Trautwein said he expects to see more progress in his second year on the staff after the Lions averaged just 3.9 yards per carry. in 2020.

At the end of the line : With so many talented full backs and receivers, there’s a lot of pressure on the offensive line.

Tight end

Franklin said several days ago that Penn State may have the best tight end group he has seen since becoming a varsity coach in 1995.

Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson played a long time in the second half of last season after Pat Freiermuth suffered a shoulder injury that ended the season. They didn’t catch a lot of passes, but they blocked really well.

At the end of the line : Expect Strange and Johnson to be a formidable pair.

Wide receivers

Jahan Dotson led the Big Ten in yards and touchdowns last year and felt aggrieved. He wants to prove that he is one of the most dynamic playmakers in the country.

Parker Washington was reliable last year, even though he was a freshman. He caught 36 passes for 489 yards and six scores.

Who will be the third wideout? It could be KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who made five starts and 15 catches last year, also in freshman. It could also be a veteran, like Daniel George or Cam Sullivan-Brown, or a freshman in a red shirt, Malick Meiga.

At the end of the line : Finding a productive third starter could create room for Dotson and Washington.

Defensive line

This is the most consistent and productive position for Penn State since hiring Franklin in 2014. However, questions arise this year.

The Lions lost Shaka Toney and Odafe Oweh ends against the NFL, then promise junior Adisa Isaac a serious non-football-related injury. Temple transfer Arnold Ebiketie, Nick Tarburton and Smith Vilbert are the best candidates to start there, but Ebiketie is the only defensive end on the roster with at least one sack.

The inside line is strong and solid with PJ Mustipher and Hakeem Beamon at the start and Duke transfers Derrick Tangelo and Aeneas Hawkins as reinforcements.

At the end of the line : Generating a relentless pass rush, a Penn State staple, will be a challenge.

Linebackers

After the squad had a bad season in 2020, defensive coordinator Brent Pry moved Brandon Smith to the weak side and closer to the line of scrimmage and sophomore Curtis Jacobs to the strong side, where he can cover. receivers.

Ellis Brooks returns to the middle linebacker after posting a record 60 tackles last year. The odd man could be senior Jesse Luketa, who is expected to split his time with the linebacker and finish.

Tyler Eldson and Charlie Katshir should see the action as backups.

At the end of the line : Linebackers will be more athletic than last year. Expect a big year from Smith.

Secondary

Penn State’s defensive backs are deep, talented and flexible.

Up to six cornerbacks could play, but Tariq Castro-Fields and Joey Porter Jr. will likely start. The position is so strong that Keaton Ellis, who started five games last year, has been taken to safety. Transfer to South Carolina Johnny Dixon, Marquis Wilson and Daequan Hardy will also see the field.

Jaquan Brisker, an Associated Press preseason All-American, will be in the shelter. Ji’Ayir Brown, his former junior college teammate, is competing with Ellis and Jonathan Sutherland to be the other security. Tyler Rudolph and freshman Jaylen Reed could also be in the game.

Pry plans to move the security around the field depending on the situation.

At the end of the line : If the secondary can increase his interceptions, he could be among the best in the Big Ten.

Special teams

Jake Pinegar will once again handle the majority of the set kicks, and Jordan Stout the punters and kickoffs. Both have room for improvement, Pinegar with his field goal tries from outside 40 yards and Stout with his punt.

Dotson set a school record last year averaging 24.6 yards on eight punt returns. Finding a kick-back can be difficult. Brisker has expressed interest, and Ford and Washington have some experience from the past year.

At the end of the line : Pinegar and Stout have to be better if the Lions are to fight.

After three-time Major League Baseball winner Cy Young Clayton Kershaw quit a weight training session at Summit High School a month ago, Tigers coaches and players joked, “You never know what you are doing. might miss if you skip workout. “

“It’s going to be Michael Jordan, or this guy or that guy,” Summit head coach James Wagner said. “And, of course, within five days we got a call regarding Andrew Luck coming.”

In July, the Summit High School varsity football team had perhaps the biggest week of training with American sports superstars of any high school group in summer training history. And at the heart of that dreamlike week was a truly surreal night for the love of the game at Tiger Stadium with one of the world’s greatest gunslingers.

It was Summit High School assistant football coach Rob Gannon who looked at his iPhone on a Tuesday in July to see an Indianapolis phone number he didn’t recognize. He let the call go to voicemail. When he listened back, he heard the voice of a 31-year-old who also enjoys skiing in Summit County: retired Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck.

Gannon had initially met Luck the previous winter through mutual friends at a ski patrol cabin at Breckenridge Ski Resort. Luck told Tigers defensive back coach Gannon that he would love to come and practice one day.

That day manifested itself last month when Summit coaches told players the day before a Thursday practice that the former No. 1 overall pick would come to practice the next day. This sent Tigers junior starting quarterback Jack Schierholz into an analysis of the NFL’s No.1 draft pick list. The names included the likes of three generational quarterbacks drafted by the Colts: Denver Broncos legend John Elway, in 1983, Broncos Super Bowl winner Peyton Manning, in 1998, and Luck, in 2012.

“And then I remembered hearing something about Andrew Luck skiing at A-Basin,” Schierholz said. “So I thought, ‘Maybe it’s him.’ It would make sense, but as soon as I walked in it was surreal.

What was especially surreal for every Tiger athlete and trainer in attendance was how gracious and attentive Luck was. Tigers offensive coordinator Sean Mase had never met Luck before that day, however, a former Arapahoe Basin ski area employee Mase had met other members of Luck’s family on the ski area, where they have enjoyed skiing for decades.

“I’ve never seen Andrew Luck ski, but I guess he rocks,” Mase said.

Once in practice, as Luck sat with the coaches near the whiteboard, Mase and Wagner quickly saw that Luck was in no rush to do anything other than discuss football. Organically, the conversation turned to luck – a retired superstar in his prime that many NFL teams would love to have in training camp right now – helping them schematize pass protection. and rotate their ball carriers to improve their fast offensive play.

It was far from the end of Luck’s contributions. As the quadruple Pro Bowler and 2018 NFL Returning Player of the Year began chatting with the assembled Tigers in the team’s locker room, Mase and Wagner soon realized that the planned 15 minutes of kids asking questions might end up taking all the practice.

Luck was honest and thoughtful in all of his responses, whether it was Center Tiger Graham Kalaf asking him to choose between skiing or snowboarding (skiing, although Luck said he snowboarded) or his thoughts on the fact. to play at Mile High Stadium (Luck told the Tigers it was one of the loudest, noisiest environments he’s ever seen).

For Wagner, seeing Luck asking every player’s question all the time in the world was a reminder that football unites – whether you’re a 15-year-old who’s brand new to the sport or a superstar quarterback.

“That’s the great thing about football is that it brings us all together and you have a level playing field, that middle ground to be in that locker room and for it to just be the one of the boys, ”Wagner said. “Football is football no matter where you are. I think he was so happy to be on the pitch again and to be around the game. And it was really cool for me to see that in him.

Luck then joined the Tigers on the training ground. He shared tips with Schierholz, such as holding football with a looser grip to improve consistency. For senior wide receiver Aidan Collins and other Tigers, luck made it clear that the eagle claw grip was the only way to carry the football.

Wagner even looked up at one point in the first team defense practice to see Luck being the scouts offensive quarterback for the junior varsity team, throwing passes on all the ground.

“The kids are all trying to have choices about Andrew so they can tell,” Wagner said. “We almost had one.

As for Kershaw, the 33-year-old, eight-time all-star and reigning world series champion, found his way to the Tiger weight room while he and his family stayed in town during the All-Star break and the series that called against Colorado. Rockies at Coors Field in Denver. Like other vacationing fathers, Kershaw needed to find a place to do extra work outside of family time. His doctor asked Wagner if the future Hall of Fame could continue to recover from an injury at the Tigers’ weight room.

Wagner said the common element of the sport also stood out for his team in this setting, as the young Tigers saw the Los Angeles Dodger go through some of the same drills they did.

Wagner said that when he asked Kershaw to talk to the boys, he said they wouldn’t believe how many players get to majors purely on talent. But talent, Kershaw said, doesn’t get them far. It’s the guys who work and compete every day who maintain the highest level.

Schierholz – who has said his compatriot left-hander Kershaw is his favorite baseball player – saw Kershaw’s work ethic firsthand, as he changed his typical lifting position to display next to the player with the most useful of the National League 2014.

“It just shows it’s the work ethic,” Schierholz said. “It’s nothing crazy that they’re doing to reach this level. It has shown that he is at a high level and accomplished a lot, but he still has that drive to improve.

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The return of the NFL regular season is upon us, which means players in the league will react – normally in shock and with great disappointment – to their ranking in the latest installment of the Madden video game franchise.

In descending order, pave the way for The Washington football team is made up of Kyle Fuller (89 total), Terry McLaurin (89 total), Jonathan Allen (88 total), Brandon Scherff (87 total), Da’Ron Payne (87 total) ) and Chase Young (86 in total).

Impressively, the football team saw several other players fall into the 80-89 threshold, including Matthew Ioannidis (86), William Jackson (86), Curtis Samuel (83), Tress Way (82), Antonio Gibson (82) and Sweat Montez (82).

We could take a tangent on how some players deserve higher ratings – where’s Logan Thomas? – but let’s focus this conversation on Jamin Davis, who turned 73 in total, just below Erek Flowers and just above Steven Sims.

Needless to say, Davis thinks better of himself than a 73, and the rookie delivered a perfect answer when he heard the news.

LB football team Jamin Davis is not happy with his Madden rating.

Look what you did, Madden. Davis’ comments prove that he is going to cast his frustration on his opponents, for whom we must now pray.

Cincinnati is the lead on Saturday, so it’s up to them to decide whether to bench Joe Burrow ahead of time. They must have had a preview of the notes before they were posted and responded accordingly. I’m just kidding!

It should be noted that Davis scored superb in the athletics department, receiving 90 in speed, 92 in acceleration, 84 in agility, 87 in endurance and 86 in pursuit. He also received a respectable score of 85 tackles.

However, it’s clear Madden has questions about his other intangibles, as the first-round pick got 68 in game recognition, 66 in block shedding, 61 (!) On men’s cover, 69 in zone coverage, 73 in force and 74 in change of direction.

We know Davis is far from a finished product, but we’re talking about a player who recorded 102 tackles (four for a loss) 1.5 sacks and three interceptions in his last year at Kentucky. It’s as ready as it gets for the NFL, guys.

It helps that Davis is tied with fellow LB Zaven Collins and top rusher Kwity Paye, but it’s still insulting that he finished just ahead of Kadarius Toney (72), Rashod Bateman (72) and Mac Jones (71) .

We already know Davis had an elite mentality, but these comments only hammer home that point and prove that he’s going to use it as bulletin board material.

Come back later in the season when Davis flies all over the field to play and become a star in the midst of Washington’s defense. At this point, Madden will know better than to underestimate overall pick # 19 again.

The Washington football team’s defensive line is getting all the applause and headlines in the media, and it’s understandable, but Ron Rivera’s side wouldn’t have accomplished anything in 2020 without their stable offensive line.

Like countless teams, Washington will welcome new faces to its OL this season. Charles Leno was brought in to fill the left tackle hole and Sam Cosmi was drafted in the second round to replace longtime right tackle Morgan Moses.

The left guard post could also have a new starter come week 1, as Wes Schweitzer and Ereck Flowers battle for the starting position.

Speaking strictly in Cosmi’s terms, however, the No. 51 overall pick turned heads in his first two preseason games after a slow start to camp.

While undeniably a small sample, he seemed to be part of WFT’s great tackle of the future. It turns out that we’re not the only ones feeling this.

In his last column for NFL.com, Gil Brandt (!) The Hall of Fame executive cited Cosmi as one of 11 players drafted out of the first round who “may appear” this year.

Hall of Fame Director Gil Brandt thinks highly of Sam Cosmi

Here’s what Brandt had to say about Cosmi and how he can be critical to the success of the football team this campaign.

“The offensive line was a relative beacon of hope for Washington in 2020, placing sixth in Pro Football Focus’s end-of-year hierarchy,” Brandt wrote. “

“So the fact that Washington released right tackle Morgan Moses – a solid veteran who didn’t miss a start last season – shows you how much the team appreciates Cosmi, who has PFF’s highest overall rating. among all Washington rookies in Game 1 of the preseason. while occupying the old position of Moses. Cosmi is fortunate enough to play an important role in this team’s attempt to defend the NFC East title.

It is a great praise for one of the most decorated frames in NFL history. When it comes to talent assessment, very few are at Brandt’s level. Seriously, check out some of the players he drafted with the Cowboys.

We won’t reveal any names, but let’s just say he chaired nine Hall of Fame Cowboys players. So yeah that’s a big deal, Brandt is planning big things for Cosmi as a rookie.

While the football team has yet to name its starting right tackle – this will probably happen after the last preseason game – Cosmi has gone out of his way to prove that the job is his.

Whatever happens, Brandt giving Cosmi his proverbial endorsement proves the Texan product has a bright future.