How many factors go into creating Penn State's explosive offense?

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Last season’s theme of playing from behind in the first half and ripping off explosive play after explosive play propelled Penn State to new heights.

Scoring at will and doing so in an exciting fashion, complete with 16 percent of the team’s offense coming from receptions of 16-plus yards and rushes of 12-plus yards, became the identity of the offense. Most teams couldn’t stop the chunk plays, at least not consistently, which begs the question of whether or not those types of lofty yards per play can be duplicated.

Defenses will scheme all offseason to try and stop the Nittany Lions’ playmakers, but it’s possible that in every area that goes into creating one of these explosive gains this team will be even better and deeper than it was a year ago.

“To be honest with you, I think it’s a combination of factors that allowed it to happen and a lot of those factors we still have,” James Franklin said this spring during the coaches caravan. “An improved offensive line, which is what we had last year and what I think we’ll have this year, helps us hold onto the ball longer. An improved running game, which allows us to suck people up and create one-on-ones with a guy like Saquon Barkley in the backfield. [Tight end] Mike [Gesicki] is kind of a unique tight end. I’ve been doing this for 23 years and I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a guy like Mike.

“It has to do with a lot of factors,” Franklin continued. “A quarterback that has mobility and can buy time. Some quarterbacks they have mobility but as soon as they step up they’re done looking down field.”



Let’s look at the many factors that go into making these explosive plays successful:

OFFENSIVE LINE

Everything starts up front and with chunk plays needing time to develop this means the offensive line has to sustain their blocks longer than usual in order to give Trace McSorley time to get the throw off and to give his receivers time to run their routes to the correct depths.

Gone is center Brian Gaia and in his place is sophomore Connor McGovern. While McGovern spent the winter and spring working with McSorley – and getting used to operating out of the shotgun for the first time in his career – the interior of this line should be better than a year ago.

There’s a reason why the Lions had some short yardage issues last year and with McGovern, Brendan Mahon and Steven Gonzalez the likely starters inside – and with McGovern becoming a starter last year at guard and Gonzalez gaining valuable experience down the stretch because of injuries, there shouldn’t be any confusion up front. That's a big boost and adding depth there will be equally important. After all the injuries this line overcame last year, it should only be better and healthier from the get go.

QUARTERBACK

Penn State will continue to be smart about how and when they practice their deep shots. McSorley can’t come out and fire off deep ball after deep ball in practice and expect to have a live arm on Saturday. He said that key detail made the team understand during last year’s practices that they better be zoned in when they were running their shot plays during the week.

“We knew we had to kind of hit them,” McSorley said this spring. “We’re not just out there chucking balls .… We had to be meticulous and make sure we were running routes at the right depth.”

Having a mobile passer gives the offense a chance to extend plays, but one of the better, perhaps more underappreciated aspects of McSorley on the run is that he’s not looking just to keep the ball. Sensing the rush and having the presence to step up and get rid of the ball is one thing, but keeping his eyes downfield to keep the deep shot alive is something he does really well.



 

Eyes downfield: Check.

McSorley said he was a little too jumpy at points last season, particularly early on, but with a year in Joe Moorhead’s offense under his belt and a full arsenal of weapons on the outside, there shouldn’t be any change with the deep ball or his touch on it.

Oh, and don’t forget that he can take off and run quite well too. Certainly Minnesota fans won’t forget the 26-yard run late in the game that put the Lions in field goal range to force and then win in overtime. McSorley had 11 rushes of 12-plus yards last year (17, 13, 13, 26, 17, 13, 25, 12, 13, 16, 14) all numbers that again should be in play. And, if the Lions work Tommy Stevens into the fold at times for a different look, he too has shown the ability to be a true dual-threat as well. Stevens had seven rushes of 12-plus yards last season.

RUNNING BACK

Last season, Barkley was tops on the team in explosive gains with 36 rushes of 12-plus yards and 13 receptions of 16-plus yards. The Lions had 155 chunk plays using these measurements and Barkley accounted for 49 of them.



The jukes, hurdle and spin move make the human joystick capable of breaking explosive rushes, but equally important is the pass protection coming from Barkley and the rest of the backs. Hanging in to pick up a block is something this backfield prides itself on and there’s a reason why Barkley and running back Andre Robinson were regulars when it came to hitting the sled after spring ball workouts.

They’d take a few reps trying to run past one another with cuts and speed, but then it was right back to the sled. That’s part of becoming a complete running back that Barkley talks about so often.

Look for Barkley, Robinson and sophomore Miles Sanders to be in line to see a little more action catching the ball out of the backfield. Getting Barkley in space is always the goal and while Franklin hinted a few times this offseason about the team’s desire to get Barkley the ball more consistently in the second half — something it struggled with at times last year and which of course was dependent upon what the defenses were doing – they have explosive threats everywhere on this offense.

TIGHT END

Gesicki turned the corner and then some last season. The 6-5, 250-pound target developed into a sure handed matchup nightmare for opposing teams and his size, speed and tracking ability will be difficult to stop.

As Franklin put it this spring: “He’s got wide receiver athleticism in a big body.”

Someone that big just isn’t supposed to be able to move that well. With one of the top vertical leaps on the team – and now an improved blocker too – Gesicki’s 16 receptions of 16-plus yards last season were second only to Chris Godwin (24). Seven of Gesicki’s grabs were for 30-plus yards, including five that went for 40-plus yards.

He’ll be a focal point for opposing defenses, but where this team potentially could get even more explosive is if tight end Nick Bowers is healthy and ready to see the field. Bowers redshirted as a freshman and then missed all of last season with an injury and wasn’t full go during spring practice.

Should Penn State give some occasional two tight end looks Bowers, who went viral last summer when he dunked over a teammate – at 6-4, 264 pounds – could be a nice complement to Gesicki.

WIDE RECEIVER

It’s no secret that it’s going to take several players to make up for Godwin’s departure, but the Lions are still extremely deep at receiver. If Saeed Blacknall can stay healthy and on the field there’s no telling what kind of numbers he could post.

Consistency has been the problem for Blacknall, who has one final year to turn in more big-time performances like he’s done in some primetime games in the past, particularly in the Big Ten title game.

But, there’s also an element to this, or any offense, where it’s more about the system and the interchangeable parts than having one weapon.

“There were a couple schemes that we ran that everybody knew we were running at some point during the game and I know they work like crazy to stop it and they still have a hard time defensively,” Franklin said during the caravan. “We did a lot of stuff with corner routes and posts and kind of combinations of both and Trace throws the corner route pretty good so now if you’re able to throw the corner route really good we also have the post as a complementary route off of it so it makes it difficult. If you don’t throw the corner route real well then the post is less of a threat.”

While Franklin said before that he doesn’t believe in the term '50-50 balls' because his receivers should be in a position to come down with them, there are some snags – like Godwin’s Rose Bowl circus catch that potentially couldn’t be duplicated. There’s a little bit of luck mixed in with all of the execution and focus, but with the depth, talent and size on the outside the Lions have to like their chances with even those jump balls.

“The fact that we still are explosive at the wide receiver position, we have a running back that is going to cause problems for people so they have to make a choice, do we play a two shell and stop the pass game or do we drop a safety in the box to stop Saquon Barkley?” Franklin said. “Well, now you put our wide receivers and tight ends in a spot where they’re in situations to be one-on-one.

“I think we’re still in a situation to be pretty explosive this year because of all those factors are still returning. We don’t have Chris Godwin, but I think we have enough other wide receivers including Juwan Johnson to help us there.”

Yes, Johnson who was the darling of the spring, will take on a big role this season. His explosive catches of 27 and 43 yards last year will be topped this season unless something goes really, really wrong.

EARLY AND OFTEN

Yes, there are times where any team will try and bait a defense to disguise one look and then burn them with a shot play off of a similar variation. That’s why offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead and McSorley were licking their chops at the end of the first half of the Big Ten title game, knowing they would have a shot to go deep on the Badgers early in the second half.

Getting to these shot plays earlier this season rather than in the second half after the Lions made adjustments, and at times were playing from behind, could make a difference. Those slow starts were attributed to youth and Franklin said during the caravan that he stands by that notion.

“When teams game plan they’re going to show you things that they’ve been planning all week long to use against you that you haven’t seen before and the older, veteran team you can adjust,” he said. “Those guys can adjust quicker on the fly kind of during the game where our guys we kind of had to get them in the locker room and settle them down. That’s probably the biggest difference and then there were other times where I thought we were able to get the ball into Saquon’s hands a little bit more consistently in the second half, which kind of opened things up for us in a variety of different ways.”

The mention of getting the ball more consistently to Barkley in the second half will be something to watch this year. With more experience and with so many key factor back the Lions should be even more explosive and more balanced too.