Better or worse? Setting expectations for Penn State's offensive line
Blue White Illustrated's Nate Bauer, Dave Eckert and Greg Pickel are taking stock of the Nittany Lions as the start of the 2021 season quickly approaches.
What are their expectations for each of Penn State's position groups, particularly set against the performances that marked the Nittany Lions' 4-5 campaign in 2020?
No overthinking permitted here: This is an up or down vote across the board.
So, will the Nittany Lions be better or worse on the offensive line this year from last? Find out their thoughts, below:
Greg Pickel: Better
It has become a rite of passage, in a way, to preview a new Penn State football season with a belief that the offensive line is going to be better.
Why should fans actually believe it this year?
Let's start with this: When was the last time the Lions had a Day 1 or 2 pick at both tackle spots as they appear to do in Rasheed Walker and Caedan Wallace? It's a fact that cannot be understated and should have position coach Phil Trautwein feeling pretty good.
The interior looks solid, too. Sure, the Lions must figure out who the guards are besides new center Mike Miranda, but options abound between Des Holmes, Juice Scruggs, Anthony Whigan, and Harvard transfer Eric Wilson, among others. Unlike some other seasons, there is a deep pool of talent to pick between.
Add in Trautwein getting to work with his players hands-on in the spring and summer, mix in Mike Yurcich's new approach on offense, and all the ingredients for a strong unit are there.
They'll have to prove it on the field, but there's almost no way this group will not be better this fall.
David Eckert: Better
Just by strictly analyzing the personnel changes on the offensive line for the Nittany Lions, it's difficult to argue that they're better — on paper — than they were a season ago. Penn State has to replace a pair of fixtures in the trenches for the last few seasons in Michal Menet and Will Fries, who were both selected in the fifth round of the NFL Draft last spring.
Sure, Penn State added Eric Wilson from Harvard, and true freshman Landon Tengwall is one of the most talented offensive line prospects the Nittany Lions have signed in a long time. But it's going to be tough for those guys to have a similar impact as Fries and Menet right off the bat.
With that in mind, why have I tabbed Penn State's offensive line to be better this season than it was in 2020?
The reasoning is pretty simple: Phil Trautwein had a full offseason to work with this group. Trautwein is raved about by the players and the other members of the coaching staff alike. A full preseason for this group to embrace and implement his ideas will help Penn State's offensive line take a step forward in 2021.
Nate Bauer: Better
I'll start just by saying that I don't think it's nothing for Penn State's offensive line to lose experienced contributors, some with a few years' worth of starts, in Will Fries, Michal Menet and C.J. Thorpe this offseason.
Fries finished as PFF's highest-rated pass blocker last season and Menet is coming off a run in which he finished fifth, first, and first for the total number of offensive snaps taken during the 2018, '19, and '20 seasons, respectively.
This is a drum I've been pounding since the spring of 2020, so I'd be remiss not to just keep it going now, that the storyline was and continues to be that Phil Trautwein is an effective coach who needed time to implement his instruction to the group. The group didn't get that opportunity to learn from him until it was too late in the process last year, then gradually demonstrated a week-by-week improvement that correlated to wins on the back half of the schedule.
Given a true offseason worth of work, with talented bookend tackles in Walker and Caedan Wallace, another anchor with experience in Mike Miranda at center, and options at guard and throughout the two-deep with both talent and experience, this is a group that I expect to have an improved performance not just on the 2020 season as a whole, but even on its solid stretch of play to close it out.
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