Blue-White Game propels Nittany Lions into critical summer months

Dan Chisena began the Blue-White Game as a walk-on receiver but ended it as a member of the scholarship roster. Late in the third quarter, Chisena sprinted past cornerback Keaton Ellis and pulled in a 59-yard touchdown pass from Will Levis. As he trotted out of the end zone, his teammates greeted him with the news that he had been put on scholarship.

A 6-foot-3, 203-pound senior from Downingtown, Pa., Chisena had come to Penn State in 2015 as a walk-on out of Downingtown East but then decided he wanted to try running track. After changing teams, Chisena became a mainstay among the Nittany Lion sprinters, contributing to a school-record time in the 4x100-meter relay in 2017. But in his mind, he had never really given up on football, and last year he returned to the sport, making his Beaver Stadium debut in September against Ohio State.

On Saturday, Chisena was responsible for the most memorable moment in a game that was otherwise devoid of big plays. His touchdown catch helped lift the Blue squad over the White, 24-7, as Penn State wrapped up spring drills before an estimated crowd of 61,000.

“He’s one of the fastest guys on our team,” coach James Franklin said. “He legitimately, before he left [to run track], ran in the 4.3s. He’s catching the ball confidently. He’s a guy who we’ve always had bright hopes for, and he just had a really good, consistent spring. He’s mature, he’s smart, he’s strong. He’s got a lot of work to do from a technique and fundamentals standpoint, but we like where he’s at.”

For obvious reasons, the Nittany Lions didn’t want to commit anything too revealing to film in the spring game, and several players who figure to have major roles in the fall either saw limited action or were held out entirely.

“Obviously, it was vanilla on offense and defense,” Franklin said. “But I thought it was really good work.”

Here’s a look at the good and the bad:

THE GOOD

• Sean Clifford’s numbers were relatively modest – 11 completions in 19 attempts for 118 yards – but some catchable passes were dropped, and he did more than enough to make you think that he’ll continue to push Tommy Stevens in preseason camp. With the August drills still months away, Franklin said he wasn’t ready to anoint anyone the favorite for the position.

“We’ll see how this thing plays out,” he said. “We’d like to name one as soon as we can. But based on how things have played out, I don’t know when that will happen.”

• You could see why the coaching staff has been talking about a committee approach in the backfield. Ricky Slade and Noah Cain both did good things in the spring game, and what’s more, they did different things. Slade caught three passes out of the backfield for 20 yards, while Cain ran hard between the tackles. In addition, Journey Brown had a nice 8-yard run in the third quarter.

Cain, a January enrollee, played for both the Blue and White teams and had success with both. He finished with a game-high 45 rushing yards and also caught an 8-yard touchdown pass for the Blue in the fourth quarter in which he shrugged off a couple of tackle attempts en route to the end zone.

“Noah Cain did some nice things today,” Franklin said. “We’re going to watch the tape, and probably there were some times when he rushed his cut, but he was decisive. He stuck his foot in the ground and got downhill. A lot of times his runs aren’t overly sexy, but he’s just breaking tackles and falling forward and is very productive. He had 41 yards, a 5.1-yard average [for the White] – pretty good. And he did a lot of that with the second O-line against the [first-team] D. I thought that was impressive.”

• Defensive tackle Fred Hansard was back in action for the first time since suffering a season-ending leg injury against Michigan State last October. Franklin doesn’t discuss the specifics of players’ health problems, so the severity of Hansard’s injury was never disclosed. But if he’s back on the field six months later, it feels safe to say it wasn’t a worst-case scenario.

• Brenton Strange showed off some sure hands for the White team. The true freshman tight end caught three passes for 19 yards in his first appearance in Beaver Stadium.

• It was great to see Matt Millen back in the BTN broadcast booth just four months after undergoing heart transplant surgery. Millen told broadcast partner Lisa Byington that he had hoped all along to be healthy enough to travel to University Park for the game, and he eventually received medical clearance to do just that.

The Penn State community had rallied around Millen, and well-wishers were everywhere on Saturday, including the Nittany Lion sideline. Said Franklin, “Having our brother back, Matt Millen, is awesome. It’s special to us.”

THE BAD

• Stevens was dressed for the game but didn’t play, as the coaching staff continues to bring him back cautiously from off-season surgery. His absence wasn’t surprising, and it did give Clifford and Levis a chance to see action in a gamelike environment. But the staff is eager for Stevens to get back to full participation in practice. Said Franklin, “Having Tommy back is going to be huge for us. We’re excited about that.”

• Despite eliciting praise throughout spring practice, Brown only got three carries on Saturday, finishing with 10 yards. Of course, with 10 players receiving at least one carry, it was hard for any single ball carrier to put up big numbers.

• After a 2018 season in which dropped passes were a persistent problem, the Blue offense got off to an inauspicious start in that regard. Pat Freiermuth and K.J. Hamler both dropped catchable passes from Clifford on the Blue team’s first series, then Justin Shorter dropped a pass on the second series. At the end of the first half, Jahan Dotson wasn’t able to pull in a well-thrown pass in the end zone.

“There were too many drops on offense,” Franklin said. “We’ve got to get that cleaned up between now and the first game.”

• Hard to say whether this item belongs with the bad news or the good, but there were no turnovers on Saturday. The coaching staff has emphasized takeaways this spring, but the defense didn’t intercept any passes or cause any fumbles. On a more upbeat note, that also means that the Nittany Lions, who were one of the more fumble-prone teams in the country last year, didn’t drop the ball even once, nor did they throw any picks.

LOOKING AHEAD

With spring practice in the books, the Nittany Lions are getting set to enter the quietest months of the football calendar. We’ll get a progress report on their summer workouts at Lift for Life in July, but we won’t see them in Beaver Stadium again until Aug. 31, when they face Idaho in their season opener.

This coming week, the position coaches will conduct individual meetings with their players to discuss pathways to improvement, and over three weeks that follow, Franklin will meet with all of his players one at a time.

There remains a lot of work to do before the 2019 season begins. The quarterback position will get much of the off-season scrutiny, but as Franklin noted, the coaches haven’t named any starters anywhere. And why should they? Their goal is to elicit competition, not shut it down.

But even though there are still plenty of questions remaining to be answered, the staff did not come out of spring practice feeling dissatisfied with the team’s progress. To the contrary. Said Franklin, “I thought we got a lot accomplished.”