Ouch. Penn State 2027 Recruiting Decline?

[Cyinthenorth]

In games we gave up 20+ points in, opponents consistently had 100+ rush yards and often more than that. That's not acceptable when your own team plays ball control, limit possessions football like we did.

KSU: 21 points, 110 rushing
COLO: 24 points, 140 rushing
ASU: 24 points, 290 rushing (We let Jeff Sims run for 200+ yards...)
CIN: 38 points, 260 rushing
BYU: 41 points, 103 rushing (outlier here, since they threw for 300+ instead)

We were 12th in the conference in Rush D per attempt, giving up 4.4/carry on the season. That's not a great job at all, that is way below average for CFB. We were right in the middle of the conference in pass yards/attempt, which I would guess was more related to just having fewer attempts put on us overall. We tended to let teams pass if they wanted to pass even at the height of our defense teams, opponents often couldn't score in the red zone instead. That was still mostly true last season from a passing perspective.

Good pull on the stats. Seems like Heacock's scheme was really played out especially the last 2 seasons. By that point, half the league was running it and everyone had seen it over the previous half decade. We were still great at keeping teams out of the end zone, but it was a very pure definition of bend but don't break defense. I'd warrant a little grace due to the injuries on that side of the ball the last 2 seasons, but I think it was also simply played out.

 

[BCClone]

Good pull on the stats. Seems like Heacock's scheme was really played out especially the last 2 seasons. By that point, half the league was running it and everyone had seen it over the previous half decade. We were still great at keeping teams out of the end zone, but it was a very pure definition of bend but don't break defense. I'd warrant a little grace due to the injuries on that side of the ball the last 2 seasons, but I think it was also simply played out.

It works well when you have a good linebacker corp. Our LBers were our weakest position group for the last several years. Not much after Vance graduated. We did well against some blocking teams but man blocking teams we struggled.

Are there still medical redshirts or are they gone? Campbell had one 6th year player he took and I wonder if the 5 for 5 may give a few of the players he took to help with culture have another year and that’s not really what Campbell wants.

 

[madguy30]

Nothing ugly about beating iowa ever in my opinion. At least not in football. The game in Kinnick 2 years ago was a thing of beauty.

Basketball wins against them can feel hollow for sure, much like the game last season.

Regardless CMC didn't do 'pretty good' against them and it's not like they were some dominant force.