Penn State Football: Offensive line problems started years ago
61Fans have been clamoring for answers about what went wrong with the Penn State offensive line all season. So now that the dust has settled, host Thomas Frank Carr takes a historical look at Penn State recruiting along the offensive line to find answers. He's joined by recruiting insider Ryan Snyder to help give context to some of the information that T-Frank found.
T-Frank starts with the class of 2016, the first and only class assembled by James Franklin's first offensive line coach, Herb Hand. He does this to show how things developed through different line coaches to try and find common themes. While former Penn State offensive line coach Matt Limegrover was instrumental in keeping that class together, Hand selected and recruited those players to Penn State.
That class is also important because several of the players in that class made up the bulk of the starts at critical positions for four years under Franklin and Limegrover at Penn State.
After that, T-Frank and Ryan go through each class to examine the players that Penn State was able to land and give context to the players that Limegrover missed. Again, a common theme emerged from studying those classes. Penn State could not recruit a significant position along the offensive line.
Along with some bad luck in the class of 2018, that set the scene for offensive line coach Phil Trautwein and his current tenure at Penn State. Development along the offensive line is a slow process so understanding what caused the coaching change in the first place is essential.
Has Trautwein been able to change things on the recruiting trail? Is Penn State pointed in the right direction? It hasn't all been smooth. Some critical misses in the class of 2021 and a late flip in 2022 have given Penn State a rocky road, especially at the start of Trautwein's tenure. Development may be going slow, but T-Frank and Ryan discuss the signs pointing in the right direction of Penn State under the third-year line coach.
Finally, they take a look at Penn State's evolving use of the transfer portal and how that can affect the Nittany Lion's ability to field a complete line each season.
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