ALTOONA, Pa. -- Context is everything here. As we get set to enter the season, I want to tell everyone that the bulk of Penn State coverage will be centered around one thing: Making the College Football Playoff.
A large chunk of what you'll read over the next few months will be written with that in mind, and what will need to take place for it to happen.
So, for instance, even as you're reading coverage about the season opener Saturday against West Virginia, keep in mind that everything that happens with the Nittany Lions ultimately will be viewed through the lens of how prepared they will be to play Ohio State and Michigan.
Penn State has to beat at least one of those two, while holding serve against everybody else. Sure, the trip to Illinois in week 3 could be very dangerous, and there's always a chance the Lions could slip up against Iowa or Maryland -- but I don't see that happening.
With all that in mind, let's get to the inaugural midweek top five of the season.
1. The D-line has bulked up and is ready to be more physical
It should be obvious why I'm leading with this topic, but if not ...
Michigan destroyed the Lions for 400 yards rushing in last season's 41-17 blowout. Penn State's defense was not built to stop that fantastic Wolverine rushing attack. Why? Well, because for years, James Franklin constructed the roster to be able to compete with Ohio State, the king of the Big Ten, and to try and stop what the Buckeyes do well. But in having a roster built to compete against a dynamic Ohio State offense, the Lions didn't have what it took to stop Michigan's powerful running game a year ago.
Penn State has spent the better part of this year working to correct that problem.
Franklin has mentioned several times that the defensive line should be very good, both from a depth and size standpoint.
"I think the tackles are a really good example of that," Franklin said Tuesday. "When you look at Zane Durant (6-1, 285) and Dvon Ellies (6-1, 298) and Kaleb Artis (6-4, 319) and Hakeem Beamon (6-3, 290) and Jordan van den Berg (6-3, 310) and Coziah Izzard (6-3, 295), that's six guys there -- and there's others -- that there's confidence in.
"We are bigger at that position. I think we're more confident in fundamentals and techniques. And I think we much have a much better understanding of the defense and how Manny (Diaz) wants it executed and played.
"I think van den Berg may be one of the most improved guys on our roster, let alone at the defensive tackle position."
All of this stems back to what Franklin said after the loss to Michigan last season
"We got to get bigger. We’re undersized at some spots," he said that day in Ann Arbor. "Everybody thinks they’re Aaron Donald. They’re not. Everybody sees Aaron Donald playing undersized. Everybody thinks they’re that guy. And there’s been one of those guys in the last 100 years of football. We need to be more physical. Work on our technique, our fundamentals."
One of the players Franklin was speaking about at that time was Beamon, who weighed 264 last season. He's now up to 290.
"We got a group that is bigger," Franklin said Tuesday. "You look at Hakeem Beamon and Zane Durant, they're two guys that are significantly bigger than they were last year. And it's good weight. It's real good weight. They don't look that much bigger, but they are and because they put on lean mass."
One thing the West Virginia program has done well traditionally is run the ball. This week's opener should be a nice test for the Penn State D-line with regards to stopping various running formations.
No, it won't be like facing Michigan. There's really nothing a team can do to prepare for playing Michigan's size and determination to run the ball. But the one area Penn State needed to focus on was, as Franklin said, getting bigger up front, and that has indeed happened.
Now, might the D-line be a little too beefy to contend with what Ohio State likes to with its speed? You know, that's the other side of this whole discussion that we'll have to address later on.
The bottom line is it's very, very difficult to build a roster than can beat both what Ohio State does and what Michigan does. So, with what the Lions have done for this season, and with the Michigan game being at home as opposed to Ohio State on the road, one would think this Penn State team is better suited to knock off the Wolverines on their path to 11-1.
2. It sounds like Drew Allar was fantastic in preseason camp
No, Franklin did not name Allar the starting quarterback for the opener. No one should have expected that, since Penn State doesn't even do depth charts.
But Franklin did provide one great statistic about how Allar performed this preseason, going up against Penn State's outstanding defense in practice.
Franklin said Allar didn't have any turnovers until the 13th or 14th practice. That is just ... wow, especially considering the defense he was facing every day. I mean, it's common for quarterbacks to throw an interception here and there during live periods, but for Allar to protect the ball the way he did sounds extremely impressive.
Penn State cornerback Kalen King, a preseason All-American pick, on Drew Allar's ball security:
— Tyler Donohue (@TDsTake) August 29, 2023
"That whole camp, I think he threw maybe two picks. .. He was protecting the ball like crazy, not doing anything to damage the offense. Making the right choices, making smart moves." https://t.co/99xYygU31h
"He's been really, really good," Franklin said of Allar. "His decision making has been good. His completion percentage has been really good."
3. The decision to have Mike Yurcich in the booth rather than on the field
The offensive coordinator spent his first two seasons calling plays from the sldeline, but this year Yurcich will be up in the press box.
"It's probably one of the things I'm most excited about," Franklin said. "As an offensive coordinator, specifically, there's no better place to call the game than in the booth. Controlled environment, you've got your notes out. You can see it all. You're not relying on somebody else to echo information to you that maybe you can't see across the field. The corners' alignment, the far safety's alignment. You're able to rely on your vision and your information. There's still going to be people up there helping him."
Franklin also added, "It's ultimately Mike saying, 'Where can I be the best offensive coordinator? Where can I call the best game?' It's from the booth. It's not like we talked about it and then he came back to me. He came to visit with me about it. He said, 'This is what I'm thinking, what are your thoughts?' I was on board because as an offensive playcaller, I don't think it's even close. I think it's the best place to call the game from."
Another reason why Franklin is comfortable with the setup, he noted, is because Danny O'Brien will be down on the sideline working with Allar and the quarterbacks. There's a lot of respect in the program for O'Brien, an offensive graduate assistant who played QB at Maryland when Franklin was the offensive coordinator there and played professionally in Canada.
"Danny, now spending over a year with Mike, knowing how Mike wants to do things, playing for me, coaching for me, there's a lot of alignment there," Franklin said. "He's built a ton of respect with our quarterbacks."
4. Franklin addresses Big Ten rule on player availability report
Teams have to release an availability report two hours before each game, under a new rule announced last week. This is all for gambling purposes, of course.
Franklin had this to say about the rule.
"To be honest with you, I don't really care what the rules are, just as long as everybody's following the same rules. Whether that is reporting injuries or whether that's playing a nine conference-game schedule or an eight conference-game schedule, there should be more consistency across the board.
"This (new rule) has been something that's been talked about for a long time. I think one of the reasons that I'm fine with it, too, is we don't really get into the specifics of the injury, it's just who's available and who's not, for the most part. I think you're going to see that happen to some degree across college football. I do think it's important, like most things, again, it should be consistent. Everybody should be doing it the same way."
The thing about this new rule, though, is that the Big Ten is the only conference that has adopted it. So, when a Big Ten team plays a non-conference game, only one of the teams will have to release a player availability report.
5. How will shortened games impact Penn State's strategy?
There no longer will be a clock stoppage after first downs, until the final two minutes of each half. That's expected to shorten the game a bit with regards to the total number of plays.
Franklin said he expects it to remove about 5-6 plays on each side of the ball, or about 10 plays overall each game. The coach then was asked if that will impact what Penn State does with its rotations, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, where there's usually a lot of personnel movement.
"No, because again it's outside of our control," he said. "We're going to do whatever it is to win the game and continue to develop our roster, stay fresh for a fourth quarter and a long season.
"But yeah, it makes it more difficult, right? You're going to have less opportunities, less plays. I know we'd like to fit the football game into a tight, neat box. The NFL is fascinating that it's almost exactly the same time every single game, which I think helps.
"But I also don't hear anybody complaining about football and watching football and enjoying football. I think there's reasons why we're doing it other than maybe specifically what we're stating we're doing it for."
