STATE COLLEGE — A decade ago, Penn State’s offense struggled through one of the worst seasons in the memory of many who followed the program.
The Nittany Lions won just four games that season. In six games, they scored 10 points or less. In an infamous loss to Iowa, they scored four.
Three times, they turned the ball over five times or more. Twice, they amassed less than 160 yards of total offense.
As Penn State struggled to an unheard-of second-consecutive bowl-free season, Joe Paterno repeatedly asked for patience from fans tired of watching the offense bumble.
“We’re a play or two away from being pretty good,” he said that year.
James Franklin knows the feeling now.
Even in the wins, like last Saturday’s 13-7 triumph over Indiana, the Lions’ first-year
coach has had to answer questions about the offense’s struggles. Typically, they’re questions that revolve around the struggles of the young offensive line, or the ups and downs of sophomore quarterback Christian Hackenberg. But Tuesday, Franklin perhaps unknowingly channeled Paterno’s 2004 thoughts when asked if the program is as far along nine games into his first season as he hoped.
“I think we’re really close,” Franklin said during his weekly press conference. “We watched film, as a team, of a number of plays that were that close to making it. You make those plays, and things feel a lot different right now.
“I think in general we’re a lot closer than maybe it seems, the way maybe it seems right now. I know it could probably be frustrating at times to watch. I know everybody has the answers. If you do, please e‑mail them, specifically what they are and how they work.”
In their losses to Michigan, Ohio State and Maryland, the Nittany Lions lost by a combined 13 points, and all but one of their four losses this season was in doubt late in the fourth quarter.
Their win over Indiana was hardly a dominant effort, but it snapped a four-game losing streak and drew the Nittany Lions within one win of bowl eligibility for the first time since the 2011 season.
Franklin downplayed the potential of reaching bowl eligibility Saturday at Beaver Stadium against Temple, saying Penn State will prepare this week the same way it has in each of the first nine. But for a team using as many true freshmen as seniors, Franklin said he is happy where it stands heading into the home stretch.
Improvements, he said, are coming in increments, if not in explosive patterns. That, he said, is obvious enough to the coaching staff.
“That’s why I wake up every morning, do a backhand spring out of bed and get excited about what we’re doing,” Franklin said. “That’s why I can come into the press conference after the game and have my chest up and my chin up, because I know where we’re going and I know what we’re doing. It may not be as obvious to people on the scoreboard. It may not be as obvious to people in the statistics. But I see. I see the foundation being laid.”
Letting it rip
Punter Daniel Pasquariello’s resurgent performance against Indiana, which Franklin again credited for being pertinent in the win, may have been as much due to strategy as it anything else.
Franklin said the freshman left-footer benefitted from getting both better protection and more game experience, but he also noted the coaching staff changed its philosophy on directional punting once his punters’ struggles became too much to bear.
“We’ve gone away from kicking to specific areas of the field, and just saying, ‘Kick it as far as you possibly can, anywhere within the 53 ⅓ yards of the field, and put the pressure on the coverage guys,” Franklin said.
Led by true freshmen gunners Grant Haley, Troy Apke and Christian Campbell, the Penn State punt coverage unit has been stellar as of late — the Hoosiers actually lost 15 total yards trying to return Pasquariello’s punts. Franklin said that has allowed for the philosophy shift.
Injury report
The big injury is the one that has kept Donovan Smith off the field the last two games, and Franklin sounded optimistic the Nittany Lions could have the junior offensive tackle back against Temple.
“It’s up to the medical staff,” Franklin said. “We were hopeful that there was a possibility of that last week, and it didn’t happen. Obviously, the chances and the likelihood go up a little bit.
“He’s going to have to get reps in practice to have a chance to play well on Saturday. We want to put him in a position to be successful.”
Smith didn’t participate in the Lions’ lone practice this week, on Sunday.