Penn State shows emphasis on running game during final spring practice

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State lined up for its first three plays of its final spring practice Saturday with the same decision, one that’s been emphasized over the last two months.

They were going to run.

The three run plays went for 11 yards, but more importantly they answered emphatically a question that had been set asked before spring — just how much were the Nittany Lions going to run?

“The whole spring we’ve been pounding the ball, running the ball,” sophomore running back Keyvone Lee said. “But you know it don’t matter until the spring game. … We ran the ball just how we was all spring. …. It just gives (the running backs) confidence. We gotta step up. We get the chance to put the offense on our backs.”

While the frequency of runs set the tone for the offense, there’s still work left to be done for the Nittany Lions.

At the conclusion of spring practice plenty of questions had been answered, but a few important ones lingered for the team heading into the 2022 season.

“We answered some questions this spring,” Penn State coach James Franklin said after the annual Blue-White game. “But obviously we’ve still got some questions going into fall camp. There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done between now and fall camp. … I’m pleased with our progress.”

Defensive players to watch

The positives that arose are the type of things that can change the tenor of a season for a team. A defense in flux after losing coordinator Brent Pry to Virginia Tech and replacing him with Manny Diaz looks to be among the nation’s best once again.

The two most crucial parts of the unit have arguably the two best players on the team entering the season. Senior safety Ji’Ayir Brown is setting the tone on the back end, and redshirt junior defensive end Adisa Isaac is coming back from injury.

Brown was one of the many players Franklin singled out for having standout springs, and the senior safety attributed that to his growth in leadership.

“The reason why I came back was I wanted to be more of a leader,” Brown said. “I wanted to be that second guy, that player-coach that coach is looking for. The challenge for me this spring was ‘How well can I lead?’ I took that challenge, and I feel like I did a great job connecting with my players on and off the field.”

Isaac, on the other hand, was more of an unknown. Brown played at an extremely high level in 2021, but Isaac hadn’t seen the field for game action since 2020 after tearing his Achilles.

He’s been active this spring, with Franklin saying the team had limited reps but not drills for the redshirt junior. He’s out to prove he’s not just the player he was before he left but an even better version thanks to the work he put in.

“Ultimately I knew that, without me doing this work, I wouldn’t be back where I was,” Isaac said. “So I knew I had to go through the work first. So I just tried to take the work with a positive mindset.”

Those two players have answered the bell, but the second level of the defense is more hazy — especially at middle linebacker.

Franklin cited the linebacker group as one he still has questions about after his team’s 15 spring practices. Sophomore Tyler Elsdon and redshirt freshman Kobe King battled it out during the spring for time at middle linebacker, but Elsdon did not take any reps during Saturday’s final practice.

“We lost some horsepower at the linebacker position (to the NFL),” Franklin said. “I think we’ve got a pretty good idea of who the two outside linebackers (will be). I think we had a great competition at Mike linebacker between Elsdon and Kobe. I would say as a staff, and Manny would probably tell you this, they probably did better than we anticipated. So we’re a little bit further ahead there than we thought.”

Quarterback remains biggest unknown

The biggest remaining question — one Franklin didn’t cite — is just how good the team will be at quarterback. Redshirt senior starting quarterback Sean Clifford is back for his fourth year at the helm, and Franklin said it was his best spring yet, a sentiment with which the quarterback agreed.

Despite that, positive offseasons haven’t always translated to the field for Clifford, who had a good start to the 2021 season before an injury that proved to be the pivot point for a downturn in his play.

Franklin said plenty of the data backed up that his quarterback is having his best spring — citing the numbers they track which include interception rate, completion percentage, explosive play percentage and other statistics — and so was his leadership with freshmen quarterbacks Beau Pribula and Drew Allar.

“We track (all of the statistics),” Franklin said. “Part of (evaluating Clifford) is talking to the defense. … I think it’s also how his teammates are responding, it’s also how he was with the young quarterbacks. I thought he was tremendous. Then what’s great is, you hear that from the young quarterbacks, but then I see the Pribulas and the Allars, mom and dad, and they talk about their sons talking about how great Sean was with them all spring.”

While Clifford may have been at his best, it still must translate to the field for the Nittany Lions to have success in the coming season. For the time being, there are mostly positives at play.

Brown and Isaac are ready to thrive under Diaz and once again produce one of the best defenses in the country — one Brown believes can be the best in program history. Clifford has the same coordinator for the second year in a row for the first time since he became the starter in 2019. He has weapons on the outside and a coaching staff dedicated to running the ball to alleviate stress on the passing game.

They can hang on to those positives and carry them into fall camp as a foundation for the team.

But between now and then, they also have to find the answers to the lingering questions that will determine what the 2022 season will be.