Penn State's season report card filled with great grades taken in Altoona, Pa. (Penn State)

Paul Burdick / Penn State

James Franklin and Sean Clifford lead the team onto the field for the Rose Bowl.

ALTOONA, Pa. -- You know how sometimes you can sit through a boring movie, but if the ending is fantastic, you walk out of the theater feeling happy and fulfilled?

A great ending can change everything.

The Penn State football team had a great ending to its season, turning in a terrific showing in a 35-21 win over Utah. Because of that ending, we have to view the entire season through a different lens, as I discussed in this column about how the team was better than we all realized.

Now, it's time for the season report card. And because of the great ending, I'm in a very generous grading mood, probably giving everybody on this list at least a half-letter grade higher than I would have before the Rose Bowl.

See if you agree.

MANNY DIAZ: A+

Wow, what a job this guy did. I wrote when he was hired last year that there was plenty to love about the move, and that was an understatement.

The only question I had about Diaz would be how his ultra-aggressive style would balance out when it came to giving up big plays. That was hardly an issue all season, save for the highly disappointing game at Michigan.

Diaz's defense came up clutch time and time again forcing key turnovers, while also holding up the Penn State standard of being tough in the red zone.

Most importantly, the defense kept the team in every game, even when the offense was struggling and needed time to figure things out. Case in point, even that Michigan game saw Penn State leading 17-16 in the third quarter despite the Lions' offense looking inept.

The Wolverines wound up running away with the game -- literally -- through quick touchdown runs of 67 and 61 yards in the third quarter. At that stage in the season, Diaz and the defense were still kind of figuring some things out with regards to personnel, scheme and gap protection, as he explained last week before the Rose Bowl.

I'll tell you what, it would have been awesome to see Penn State and Michigan play again later in the season, after Diaz had figured everything out. I don't know if the Lions would have won, but I'll guarantee you it wouldn't have been anything close to 41-17 again.

DEFENSIVE BACKS: A+

In the great history of Penn State football, we can make the case that this was the best collection of talent EVER in the defensive backfield.

Wow, that is saying something.

We'll see how some of these guys fare in the NFL before we can make a final judgment. Still, the way they performed collectively as a unit was really a game changer for the team.

Joey Porter Jr. was second-team All-American and will be the first Penn State defensive back to go in the first round of the NFL draft. Kalen King actually might have been the team's best cornerback by the end of the year, even better than Porter. Ji'Ayir Brown has been terrific the past two years at safety.

All the role players also performed at a very high level.

JAMES FRANKLIN: A

He did it. He brought Penn State football back to national prominence for a second time, which proved that the first time was no fluke.

Franklin deserves a tremendous amount of credit for what happened beginning in 2016, when Penn State won the Big Ten title a good five years before anyone would have expected after the scandal and sanctions. Three more strong seasons followed, then the bottom fell out with the 0-5 start in 2020 and collapse to 7-6 in 2021.

I remember how Penn State fans were furious at me when I wrote early last year that Franklin had plenty of reasons to leave for USC. Then, by the end of the season, absolutely nobody would have minded at all if he had left.

Instead, he got a new 10-year contract worth $85 million, despite an 11-11 record over the previous two seasons. It made no sense at the time, and it was up to Franklin to bounce back and prove that he was worth that kind of commitment.

Now, I don't believe any college coach outside of Nick Saban is worth a 10-year contract, because it puts too much financial risk on the university. Regardless, what Franklin was able to pull off by going 11-2 and winning the Rose Bowl showed that the university was indeed wise to stand behind him and lock him up as head coach for a long time.

Franklin is a phenomenal college football CEO, maybe even the best there is in the country. He is exactly the kind of person a major program such as Penn State needs to oversee a professional college program because he excels in every area you need during this modern era.

The knock on Franklin has always been the sheer football stuff that we see on game days, as he's never really been all that great in that regard.

What Franklin needs to do -- and he did it tremendously this year -- is surround himself with good coordinators and let them do their jobs without interfering too much or micromanaging. Penn State has good ones in Diaz and Mike Yurcich, and you can tell by my grades here that both performed very well. The way Franklin handled those two coaches and the entire staff was a big reason for all of the success this season.

RUNNING BACKS: A

We just saw the most impressive freshman running back duo in Big Ten history as Nicholas Singleton rushed for 1,061 yards and 12 TDs, while Kaytron Allen had 867 yards and 10 TDs. They averaged 6.8 and 5.2 yards per carry, respectively.

If Penn State can keep these two together and happy for two more years, the offense will be capable of big things. It will be very, very interesting to see how the carries are split up next season, because that would determine if one of them -- most likely Allen -- may seek to go elsewhere in order to be the No. 1 guy in 2024. Because you know somebody will come along and offer a ton of NIL money trying to pry one away.

TIGHT ENDS: A

The three-headed monster of Brenton Strange, Theo Johnson and Tyler Warren deserve a lot of credit for being outstanding overall at their positions. No, these guys aren't as good of receiving tight ends as Mike Gesicki or Jesse James, but those two former Penn State stars were never all-around tight ends because they never really wanted to block much and frankly were never very good at it.

The fact that the tight ends were very good at blocking helped the running game immensely. And they also were very good receivers, combining for 62 catches and 12 touchdowns. Put another way, their 12 touchdown catches were more than the top three receivers combined (11).

MIKE YURCICH: A-

Penn State did not have a great offense this year, ranking just 34th in the nation in total offense. There were still things about the quarterback and wide receiver spots, in particular, that held the overall until back to a degree, and all of it showed up in the losses to Michigan and Ohio State.

But Yurcich proved this year that he is not the issue, and he still deserves a very good grade. If anything, he showed that he can find ways to help maximize an offense that has some glaring weaknesses just through his Xs and Os and sheer creativity.

Yurcich had a bad offensive line and no running game at all last season, so he got a lot of blame. But to his credit -- and the credit of all the offensive coaches -- the O-line and running game were much better this year, and that opened things up for the entire offense. Yurcich's T formation in short-yardage situations pretty much became a thing of legend by the end of the season, because it always delivered.

The biggest thing Yurcich did, however, was get the tight ends more involved in the passing game. Once that happened, it took a lot of pressure off the wide receivers and running game to make everything happen on offense.

PHIL TRAUTWEIN: A-

He didn't like it when I pestered him in the preseason with several questions about last year's horrid running game. He replied at one point, "I know how to run the ball."

And he proved it this year, developing a line that was strong even after starters Landon Tengwall and Olu Fashanu went down with injuries.

OFFENSIVE LINE: B+

Well, whad'ya know! The O-line turned out to be one of the strengths of the team.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

In all seriousness, congrats to the big uglies upfront for shutting up all of us who have questioned them for years.

Keep it up next year, fellas.

SEAN CLIFFORD: B+

This grade would have been a B for the regular season. But Clifford ended his career on a great note in the Rose Bowl, so I'm feeling a bit sentimental and will bump him up to a B+.

It's a little hard to justify this grade statistically, because Clifford was once again pretty average all season. But when we do see good Sean Clifford, he can be really good, so I'll give him some benefit of the doubt.

DREW ALLAR: INCOMPLETE

We never saw Allar throw one meaningful pass after the opener at Purdue, when Clifford had to miss one series.

I have no idea how good Allar is, and neither do any of you. I'll have much more on this in a day or two.

The good thing is the freshman QB got on the field for a whole bunch of snaps and showed a lot of poise. All of that will help him a great deal next year.

The bad thing is he never faced any real game pressure -- again, outside of the limited action at Purdue -- and that was a mistake by Franklin. This team still could have finished 11-2 with a Rose Bowl victory had it gotten Allar a series or two here and there at strategic times.

DEFENSIVE LINE: B+

Outside of the Michigan game, this group was physical and tough against the run all year.

Teams couldn't throw on the secondary, and the line made things even tougher by stuffing the run. Adding those things together made this defense really good.

WIDE RECEIVERS: B

I just wasn't all that impressed. If you think my grade is too low, try and convince me otherwise in the comments. Because I actually gave stronger consideration for a C+ than I did a B+.

Parker Washington is a good college receiver, not great. I cannot believe he is turning pro early, because I think he still could prove a lot in college. He had 46 catches for 611 yards and only two TDs in 10 games before injuring his leg. He was tremendous against Ohio State (11 for 179 and a TD) but was kind of ho-hum against everybody else.

Mitchell Tinsley caught 51 passes for 577 yards and five TDs. Early on in the season, he looked more like the team's No. 1 wideout, not Washington. Still, I just expected more from him, fairly or not.

The wide receivers behind Washington and Tinsley, collectively, were average at best. KeAndre Lambert-Smith finished with a bang as he caught an 88-yard TD in the Rose Bowl. He finished with 24 catches for 389 yards and four TDs.

If not for the emergence of the tight ends in the passing game, the offense would have had a lot of issues because the wide receivers just weren't dynamic or consistent enough.

There is hope for the future with KLS and youngsters Harrison Wallace III and perhaps Kaden Saunders. Since it doesn't appear the Lions are going to land a big-time wide receiver in the transfer portal, those guys will have to be big factors next season.

LINEBACKERS: B

Abdul Carter gets an A- individually, but I just can't go much higher than this for the overall group. The unit was a tad better than I thought it would be -- it was the biggest question mark entering the season -- and these guys played their roles well in the overall strong defense.

I guess the main thing I would say is that, aside from Carter, I just didn't really see a lot of game changers with this group.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B

Punter Barney Amor got off to a great start and was a really good story, but he came back down to earth a bit the second half of the season.

Jake Pinegar started off slowly, was great for much of the season, then ended on a rough note.

Singleton did have the one kickoff return for a touchdown, which was a thing of beauty, and Washington was a solid punt returner. I could see someone arguing for maybe a B+, but I'll stick with the B.

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