Progress Report: Assessing Penn State's offense going into conference play

And so it begins.

The Big Ten season will start for Penn State on Friday when it travels to Maryland. It’s one of the first games of the upcoming college football weekend, but not one of the first of the conference season, as Big Ten play began in earnest last week while the Nittany Lions were off. Already, some of the trendy preseason picks to meet in Indianapolis in December – we’re looking at you Michigan and Nebraska – have shown some serious signs of vulnerability, while two teams that by now could probably find Lucas Oil Stadium blindfolded – Ohio State and Wisconsin – appear to be as formidable as ever.

So where does Penn State fit into that mix? We really don’t know what to make of the Nittany Lions just yet. They’ve played only three games, and one was against a Football Championship Subdivision opponent that wasn’t equipped to compete at their level. The Lions’ season-opening 79-7 victory over Idaho was unrevealing and may actually have muddied the picture by making the team’s statistical profile look better than it really should.

But the Lions did play a Power Five opponent in week three, holding off a Pitt team that would go on to end UCF’s 27-game regular-season win streak a week later. So it’s not as if there aren’t any useful data points to consider. And consider them we will. Here’s a position-by-position look at the offense heading into Friday's Big Ten opener:

IN THE SPOTLIGHT Sean Clifford has had his ups and downs, as you would expect of a redshirt sophomore who’s starting for the first time. But there have been more of the former than the latter. The Lions are 12 for 12 in the red zone with nine touchdowns, and Clifford deserves his fair share of the credit for those excellent numbers.

KEY STAT Clifford has completed 58.7 percent of his passes for 781 yards and heads into Friday’s game ranked third in the Big Ten in pass efficiency with a rating of 172.5.

JAMES FRANKLIN SAYS “I just keep seeing [Clifford] getting better, getting more confident, getting more relaxed, getting more assertive in some areas. Because of the way he approaches things, he and Will Levis are just going to continue to get better. It’s going to be gradual.”

COMMENT Clifford’s numbers look good, but he struggled a bit in his most recent outing. Against Pitt, he finished with only 14 completions in 30 attempts for 222 yards. All seven of his deep shots fell incomplete. That’s not all on Clifford, but until the Lions show that they can throw the ball downfield with some consistency, they are going to see other people use Pitt’s defensive blueprint. Clifford has thrown six touchdown passes and no interceptions, although he caught a break vs. Pitt, as a pick at the goal line was negated by a pass interference call. It’s been a good start, but the Big Ten season will be the real test.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT Journey Brown is leading the Nittany Lions in rushing with 175 yards, and he gained 109 of those yards against Pitt, the best of their first three opponents.

KEY STAT Even though none of their players are ranked among the Big Ten’s top 20 rushers, the Nittany Lions are averaging 192 yards per game on the ground, fifth-best in the conference.

FRANKLIN SAYS “We’re going to play all four of those guys until somebody really separates themselves from the group. We’re comfortable playing with all four because we think all four can play, and the only way that would change is if somebody just makes it clearly obvious to everybody that they are the guy. Right now, we feel like we’ve got four guys who we can play with and win with.”

COMMENT Franklin admitted that the Nittany Lions probably shouldn’t have gone away from Noah Cain after the true freshman accounted for 53 yards (40 rushing, 13 receiving), including a 13-yard touchdown run, on a third-quarter drive vs. Pitt. It wouldn’t be surprising to see his role expand this week. Brown got his first career start vs. the Panthers, so the staff appears to like what it’s seen from him, too. Also, Devyn Ford has played in all three games to date, and there are no indications that the Lions have any intention of redshirting him. Where that leaves opening-day starter Ricky Slade is an interesting question. He lost the first-team spot after fumbling twice vs. Buffalo and has only 12 carries for 21 yards through three games. The sophomore has had a bigger impact in the passing game than in the ground game, catching three passes for 68 yards, including a 40-yarder vs. Pitt to set up a field goal late in the first half. Could Slade be evolving into a Mike Archie-type player whose primary role is to catch passes out of the backfield?

IN THE SPOTLIGHT K.J. Hamler is well on his way to leading the team in receiving yardage for the second season in a row. Through three games, he has 245 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 10 catches. Shout out to tight end Pat Freiermuth, too. He has 10 catches for 140 yards and came up especially big in the Buffalo game with two touchdown receptions.

KEY STAT The Lions are third in the Big Ten with an average of 281 passing yards per game. But take away the Idaho game, in which they threw for a season-high 342 yards, and that average dips to 250.5, which would rank eighth in the league.

FRANKLIN SAYS “We have to get the ball in [Hamler’s] hands a little bit more, and then we just have to do a really good job of managing all that, because when K.J. goes, there’s no three-quarter speed with him. That’s just how his personality is and how he practices and how he plays. We just have to manage that so that we’re getting the most explosive version of K.J. on Saturday afternoons.”

COMMENT Of the 14 players who have caught at least one pass so far this season, all but one – transfer Weston Carr – have either freshman or sophomore eligibility. The Nittany Lions are very young at this position group, and considering that their starting quarterback is also a sophomore, it can’t be considered a surprise that the passing game has had its ups and downs.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT It’s hard to narrow this one down. Maybe Mike Miranda? The 6-foot-3, 295-pound redshirt sophomore is listed on this week’s depth chart as a backup at two positions (left guard, center) and a possible starter at a third spot (right guard). That’s the sort of versatility that the coaching staff prizes. Rasheed Walker deserves some recognition, too. The redshirt freshman has gone largely unnoticed, and for a left tackle, that’s often a good thing.

KEY STAT The Nittany Lions have given up six sacks. That doesn’t seem like a lot until you consider that half of those sacks were against Pitt, the only Power Five team they’ve faced so far. Of the Big Ten’s 10 current sack leaders, Penn State will see four in the next five weeks (Maryland’s Keandre Jones, Michigan State’s Kenny Willekes, Michigan’s Jordan Glasgow and Purdue’s Anthony Watts), and they’ll see a fifth in November (Ohio State’s Chase Young).

FRANKLIN SAYS “[Walker] is growing up, and growing up fast. I think the fact that we haven’t talked about him a whole lot is a good thing typically with the offensive linemen. We’re also very happy with Des Holmes and getting him more reps in games, as well as in practice. Same thing with Will Fries. We think that group is doing really well. We need Caedan [Wallace] to continue growing up so that he can factor in for us as well. He’s a guy who we think is very talented. … Like all of them, I can sit here and critique areas and things that we want them to get better at, but overall, pretty good.”

COMMENT The Lions put it all together on their third-quarter TD drive vs. Pitt. They ran 13 plays (six passes, seven runs) and gained positive yardage on 11 of them. Only once did they have to convert a third down, and that was a manageable third-and-4 situation from the Pitt 25. In the process, they held the ball for nearly five minutes, allowing their defense to catch its breath. More of that would be welcome. Time of possession might be an overrated stat, but you don’t want to be ranked 127th in the country in anything, as the Lions are currently in TOP. If they aren’t able to put together sustained drives, it’s almost certainly going to catch up with them at some point. The defense was on the field for 90 snaps vs. Buffalo and 76 vs. Pitt. PSU can’t afford for that trend to continue. The offensive line will have an outsized role in whether or not it does.