Column: Critical challenge faces Penn State receivers ahead of 2020 season

Most of the conversations about Penn State’s wide receivers occurred during and following the Nittany Lions’ 2018 season.

The numbers were stark and undeniable, especially following a 2017 Fiesta Bowl campaign that saw the Nittany Lions own the nation’s No. 23-ranked passing offense, averaging 290.2 yards per game in the air. Instead, in Trace McSorley’s final season, played without Mike Gesicki or DaeSean Hamilton, the Nittany Lions produced the 76th-ranked passing offense at just 218.1 yards per game.

The advanced analytics at Pro Football Focus demonstrated the disparity as well. Rather than 15 combined drops through the course of a 13-game season, Penn State’s receivers were charged with nearly double that amount at 29.

Position coach David Corley was let go, head coach James Franklin welcomed Gerad Parker to fill the vacancy, and the marriage lasted one year before Parker recently moved on to an offensive coordinator position at West Virginia. Upon Parker’s arrival, though, the Nittany Lions were initially hopeful that progress would be made for the group coming out of its struggles from the year prior, though then-offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne insisted that multiple elements went into the final results.

“That's a team thing. As quarterbacks, we've gotta put it in a place where they can catch it, get it in the best possible spot. It's protection. It's all those sorts of things. They all work together for us to get the flow,” Rahne said last spring. “Coach Parker is going to say we've gotta make every catch. I'm going to say we've gotta make every throw. But again, I thought this spring we did a really nice job with that. We've made some major contested catches, and I've been incredibly pleased with the wide receivers and how they've grown, having a plan every play, it's been awesome.”

Penn State’s passing performance for the 2019 season, incidentally, was less so.

Though the total team drops reduced from 38 to 31, between K.J. Hamler (12), Daniel George (4), Jahan Dotson (4), Dan Chisena (3), Justin Shorter (2), and Mac Hippenhammer (1), the Nittany Lions still were charged with 26 drops by PFF. Further, Penn State again finished No. 76 in passing offense nationally, averaging just 221.3 yards per game through the air.

Anecdotally, but driving home the point further, is a review of Blue-White Illustrated's “Highs and Lows” content that accompanies every Penn State game through the season. Written during the game, with categories predetermined and laid out in a way to quickly fill in “best” or “worst” plays in real-time as they happen, the plays can then be replaced in their categories if anything supersedes them as the game continues. Written for a Penn State audience, the results are overwhelmingly generated from that perspective in the sense of how each play - be it best pass, best run, best sack - impacts the game.

Somewhat remarkably, Penn State’s opponents earned the nod for “best catch” on six separate occasions this past year, including the Pitt, Michigan State, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio State and Rutgers games. Even when Penn State’s receptions were the best of the day, against Buffalo and Purdue, the Nittany Lions’ tight ends were singled out, and the category wasn't included for Penn State’s game with Michigan as a result of lack of inventory.

In reflecting on the season as a whole, some of the biggest passing plays of the year were, in fact, made by Penn State's opponents.

The issue came to a head following Penn State’s loss at Minnesota in November, an issue that hid itself well thanks to the program's unblemished record to that point but could no longer be ignored given the receivers’ performance in Minneapolis. With Hamler, Freiermuth, and Dotson leading the way for receptions, followed by a big drop-off in production, Franklin was asked to assess the performances beyond those three in the passing game.

“We've got to be more consistent. There's no doubt about it. We have to be more consistent,” Franklin said of his receivers. “K.J. is obviously making plays and made some tough catches on Saturday. But we've got to be more consistent at that last position, there's no doubt about it.

“But that gets spread around. I mean, we've also missed some throws. We threw some balls into the ground. We threw a post to open the game; that we've got to lead the guy so he can run away with a corner on his back hip. That gets spread around. We've got to find ways to get those guys involved in a little bit more early in games, as well. I think it's all of it.”

All of which leads to Taylor Stubblefield.

Penn State announced the hire of its new receivers coach Sunday, welcoming the former Purdue wideout and journeyman coach that most recently directed Miami’s position group after stops at Central Washington, Eastern Michigan, Illinois State, Central Michigan, New Mexico, Wake Forest, Utah, the Toronto Argonauts, and Air Force. Certainly, the Nittany Lions will be counting on his expertise to help continue to lift their wide receivers to higher levels of success and productivity for a 2020 season brimming with potential.

But his presence alone cannot and will not bring into existence success over the biggest challenge confronting this group of receivers at Penn State.

Including in the calculus Clifford’s performances, the plays that new offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca will install and call, and the pass protection Penn State’s offensive line, running backs and tight ends provide, the brunt reality for the Nittany Lions is one of making plays. Because too often against the best competition on the schedule, outside of Hamler and Freiermuth, the Nittany Lions did not.

No doubt, the right scheme can help create open receivers. The right call at the right time can generate the guessing-game defensive breakdown that makes a passing touchdown a matter of pitch and catch. And Stubblefield will have an opportunity through his coaching to further create conditions in which even the slightest advantage can help create game-changing plays.

But at the level Penn State is kicking and clawing to reach, the differentiating factor will always be quarterbacks making the right reads and throws, and receivers that can make tightly contested catches. The successful execution of those plays, winning more of those one-on-one matchups than are lost, speak to the core of Penn State’s offensive philosophy and the generation of explosive plays central to its success.

It's a drum that can, should, and will be pounded for the duration of the Nittany Lions' offseason given its importance to the program's successes or failures.

With Hamler off to start his NFL career, the question is who among Penn State’s returning and incoming receivers can fulfill that integral quality for the Nittany Lions moving forward. Whether it’s Dotson, a healthy Cam Sullivan-Brown, Daniel George, Mac Hippenhammer, Isaac Lutz, redshirt freshmen John Dunmore and T.J. Jones, or an incoming class that includes four-stars KeAndre Lambert and Parker Washington and three-stars Norval Black, Jaden Dottin, and Malick Meiga, the proposition for Penn State’s passing game to reach its potential is an uncomplicated one.

“At the end of the day, when the ball comes,” Franklin said in November, “you've got to make the plays. And we have all of the faith and confidence that we can do it and that they can do it. We've just got to bring it out in them more.”

With Stubblefield on board, he’ll have seven months to help prepare the Nittany Lion receivers to do exactly that. From there, once the games begin and the opportunities arise, the execution will be dependent upon the players.

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