Picking out Penn State football positives from a wayward 2021 season: Roundtable

Penn State football fans are frustrated following a 2021 season that started with a lot of optimism and ended with a thud.

The Nittany Lions were a top-five team at the end of September following a 5-0 start that included a terrific road triumph at Wisconsin and a home win over Auburn in the non-conference slate. Things quickly went sideways in mid-October, however, and the team never recovered.

“Not what we had hoped for,” head coach James Franklin said following an Outback Bowl loss to Arkansas. “Obviously did some really good things early on, made some huge plays, had some big-time wins in tough environments on the road to start the season. We had some injuries that we weren’t able to overcome quick enough.

“But, yeah, I get it. It’s a fair question. We started out 5-0, did some great things, weren’t able to finish the season the way we wanted to. We’ve got some things to work on and we’ll get it fixed.”

With all of that said, there are still positives for Penn State to build on. In the latest BWI roundtable, senior editor Nate Bauer and reporters David Eckert and Greg Pickel give their picks for the positive developments in 2021 that they think will give the Lions a boost in 2021 as the offseason continues.

BWI roundtable topic of the day: What is your top positive for Penn State to build on from 2021?

Pickel:

Penn State had plenty of positives in 2021. They were just mostly overshadowed by all of the bad things that led to a 7-6 finish. By the way, many predicted something in the 7-5 to 8-4 range for this team, so on one hand, it went as expected. On the other, a 5-0 start can’t lead to the second half the program had.

At any rate, we’re not here to dwell on the negatives but rather to focus on the positives. My pick is the play of safety Ji’Ayir Brown. It wasn’t really all that long ago when the former Lackawanna Falcon was one of a few players battling for the spot next to Jaquan Brisker. It didn’t take long, however, to realize that the defender they call ‘Tig’ was by far the best option. He ultimately led Penn State with six interceptions and two fumble recoveries in addition to 73 tackles. He’s back in 2022 and will be the anchor of Manny Diaz’s first Nittany Lions defense. There will be more positives coming from No. 16 in 2022.

Bauer:

I think it’s hard to not acknowledge just how outstanding Penn State’s defense was this past season. The unit wasn’t so good to overcome the most egregious of offensive sins, but between the efforts of the defense and special teams, it was enough to make every game interesting and competitive, which is saying something.

I’ll go in a little bit of a different direction here, though. The top positive that Penn State should try to build upon for 2022 is winning the Wisconsin and Auburn games. I tend to think that there is a bad habit of turning “big games” at the start of the season into something less than that based on what transpires the rest of the way for the team involved. But I don’t have any real question that, for week one and week three, Penn State and Wisconsin, and Penn State and Auburn, put on quality performances. That should count for something to a group of players that is probably asking itself whether or not it can win tough games next season.

Were the results of Iowa, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Arkansas what anyone in the program wanted? No. But the competitiveness in all but the bowl, combined with those two wins, should signal clearly that with the right adjustments, there are players capable of making game-winning plays in the program.

Eckert:

This is an interesting question. Obviously, I think most of the positives for Penn State came on the defensive side of the ball this season. But, Penn State’s defense has been subjected to a bunch of turnover. The Nittany Lions lost defensive coordinator Brent Pry to Virginia Tech, and six of their opening day starters — plus Jesse Luketa — won’t return for next season. So, was it a positive this season? Undoubtedly. But building on it next year might be tough.

To get around to answering the question, though, one aspect of the defense that I do think Penn State can build on is takeaway creation. Penn State created 21 turnovers this season, which was tied for 29th in the country. That’s well up from last season, when Penn State had only nine takeaways in nine games. Ji’Ayir Brown’s return is big for Penn State’s outlook here next season. His six interceptions tied him for the most nationally in 2021. Manny Diaz is a defensive coordinator who values turnover generation. If he can make the pieces fit, I could see the Nittany Lions haveing another solid year from a takeaway perspective in 2022.