Our OL will not be great. No way. They were pretty poor last year. Most hope that they gel a bit and at least become good. But no way will they be great. We just don't have the talent + experience to be great. 3 years from now, we expect them to be there, but no one expects them to be great this season. The question is, will the improvement be enough to give Hackenberg the confidence to perform up to his potential. The bowl game vs BC was very encouraging. If the OL is better, then he will be too. Most of us also think that all of the other units will be better on offense and ST. RB, WR, TE, punting and return teams should all be improved. On Defense, we need to replace both DE and the leading tackler in the conference at MLB. We feel better about the replacements there, and our dbacks will be a real strength. Our offense pretty much lost the games we didn't win last year. If the OL improves enough, we feel pretty good about the upcoming season.
I've been waiting such a LOOONG Time for RU to BEAT PSU
- Thread starter rutgersal
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Our OL will not be great. No way. They were pretty poor last year. Most hope that they gel a bit and at least become good. But no way will they be great. We just don't have the talent + experience to be great. 3 years from now, we expect them to be there, but no one expects them to be great this season. The question is, will the improvement be enough to give Hackenberg the confidence to perform up to his potential. The bowl game vs BC was very encouraging. If the OL is better, then he will be too. Most of us also think that all of the other units will be better on offense and ST. RB, WR, TE, punting and return teams should all be improved. On Defense, we need to replace both DE and the leading tackler in the conference at MLB. We feel better about the replacements there, and our dbacks will be a real strength. Our offense pretty much lost the games we didn't win last year. If the OL improves enough, we feel pretty good about the upcoming season.
I can live with this prediction but based on spring game I think there is a touch of Fandom in that prediction.
I think last year's performance had to do with lack of experience and needing to learn a whole new system. They were thinking more than playing. If you know what I mean. The reason that people feel an improvement will happen is that they now know the system much better and can rely on and trust each other and just play. Rely on instincts....and instincts come with experience. But, again, none of this will yield an excellent OL. With converted DL still playing on the OL, I think that's a bit unrealistic. But we have a bunch of 4 star kids waiting their turn....learning the system and lifting a lot.
I clearly illustrated my point citing PSU from 2004 to 2005 so what the heck are you talking about?
Well than let me give you some info you aren't aware of. Andrew Nelson was an All-Freshman 1st team pick in the BIG Ten whom Coach O'Brien said would play in the NFL one day, and Paris Palmer's Junior College Coach who has coached many NFL players in his career has stated that Palmer will start one day in the NFL. Also was named the top Oline prospect last year in Junior College. I hope this info helps.
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Never said they would be great just that they would be vastly improved.
To expect the 2015 OL to be dramatically improved because the 2005 line dramatically improved over 2004, is a stretch, to say the least.
Think depth will be a problem and you might be looking at that talent more like a fan, then someone just evaluating the strength and weaknesses of the Penn St starting OL players.
Honestly, thoughts on the progression of our OL amongst PSU fans are pretty mixed. I am on the optimistic side but many are not.
The depth along the OL will be much, much better than it was last year.
Joe Pa's pet Zack Mills graduated and Michael Robinson finally got a chance to play Quarterback.
At worst:
3/5 have seen significant action
1/5 has seen some action
1/5 will be seeing his first action
Look, I think they can be real good, but they haven't done anything yet. Just pump the brakes a bit.
W
I have no problem defending my position I will be very surprised if the line doesnt perform well, the talent is there, they got their exoerience, last year was a perfect storm, any Penn State fan will tell you that. Most on the PSU boards are predictong 9-3 or 8-4, you cant do that with a poor line.
With your schedule you can. To me, anyrhing less than 9 wins is a disgrace. You have two "guaranteed" losses and I'll give him one WTF game. That's 9-3... less than that and you lost to two teams you were favored to beat.
While I agree our schedule is abysmal, perhaps you should remember the old saying about people in glass houses throwing stones. RU isn't exactly facing murderers row this season either.
How much Penn St's OL improved from last season really won't be known until the season starts and RU might be their first real test.
Don't know if Temple or Buffalo have Ds that would be a challenge for the Nit OL, but how Penn St handles the Owls and Bulls
will be an indication of improvement or needs a lot of work
Naturally, I'm hoping for the lots of work needed :victory:
Temple should actually have one of the better defenses that we will face, believe it or not.
you're predicting a Rutgers victory because of our poor OL, soooo.....i guess the WTF game is against Rutgers?
With the close game in 2014 where RU should have won the game at High Point Solutions Stadium (if the RU offense was a bit more ready for prime time) and all the question marks on both sides fan base it seams the rivalry is on! Go RU!
Actually, the guys that I know who bet heavily and are NOT Rutgers fans (except when they cover the spread and win them money) like Temple to upset the Nittany Lions this Fall.
Yeah, I wouldn't go that far. They still are going to have problems on offense... for as bad as PSU was, Temple was worse (120th in total offense).
Depending on the spread, Temple might be a good pick. A straight up upset though... not very likely at all.
Temple won't be easy...but an upset? The line opened -6 and now it's up -7.
it wouldn't surprised if Temple covered, but everyone's betting heavily on PSU thus far.
The one thing Temple has going for it is that it returns all 11 on defense and 8 of 11 on offense. Still, we had our best rushing performance of the year against Temple (Lynch averaged 7.2 ypc) so it's not like they were a handful last year.
We should have gotten rid of it by the time we got to East Lansing (where the crowd wasn't even much of a factor). Believe me, no one hates State Penn more than me, but it's hard to be too confident in a win there.
These PSU fans act like they were blowing out Temple. It was 6-6 with 6 minutes left in the 3 qtr. 20-13 going in to the 4th qtr.
PSU was not having great success until halfway thru the 3rd qtr rushing the ball. The reason...Temple had a grad total of 6 drives in the 1st half and the longest possession time was 3 minutes and 13 seconds. I expect Temple to be able to sustain some drives this year with Robbie Anderson back at receiver and Zaire Williams back from injury at tailback. PJ Walker has a former NFL QB coach this year as well.
Still, it is going to be a very tough game for Temple to win. I see it like the 2011 game.
Haven't thought about that before. What kind of avatar would you like to see?
Honestly, I left the Akron game very, very concerned. If we can run against anyone it will be an improvement over last year.
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