Some (long) thoughts:
- We have got to find some receivers who can create separation downfield and go up and get the damn ball. Defenses will give this offense one on one situations downfield and PSU’s receivers won a lot of 50/50 balls... Ours did not this year. Guidry, Jason, Heath, etc. need to come in ready to play because lord knows they will have every opportunity.
- Fitzgerald is a more dynamic player than McSorley. Much better runner and has a stronger arm. That said, Mcsorley is more accurate and throws a much better deep ball. I think Moorhead will put a greater stress on working on that part of the game than Mullen did, and you will see an improved thrower downfield in Fitzgerald next year. Or so I hope anyway.
- Barkley is amazing. We have nobody like him (neither does anyone else), but I like our backs a lot. Between our backs and Fitzgerald, we should be more dynamic, multiple, and all around more effective running the ball than Penn State was when Moorhead was there. Partly because...
- Holy hell, their O-Line is bad. The fact that Moorhead was able to consistently score 30+ points against elite defenses (Michigan and Ohio State) with those guys blocking is amazing. They were dominated up front but still found creative ways to put the ball in the endzone. Our OL is much better and should be really good again next year.
All in all, each team’s offensive personnel has its own strengths, which makes comparing the two teams tricky. Thus predicting what we will look like is tough. We need big improvement from our wide receiver position and Fitz needs to become more accurate downfield, but there’s no reason we why we shouldn’t be really good on offense next season. Penn State fans say it took their offense about 5-6 games to get rolling in Moorhead’s first year, but that was with a first year QB transitioning from a pro-style offense... Hopefully our learning curve isn’t so steep with a veteran QB who is very familiar with spread/RPO concepts. We’ll see.
- We have got to find some receivers who can create separation downfield and go up and get the damn ball. Defenses will give this offense one on one situations downfield and PSU’s receivers won a lot of 50/50 balls... Ours did not this year. Guidry, Jason, Heath, etc. need to come in ready to play because lord knows they will have every opportunity.
- Fitzgerald is a more dynamic player than McSorley. Much better runner and has a stronger arm. That said, Mcsorley is more accurate and throws a much better deep ball. I think Moorhead will put a greater stress on working on that part of the game than Mullen did, and you will see an improved thrower downfield in Fitzgerald next year. Or so I hope anyway.
- Barkley is amazing. We have nobody like him (neither does anyone else), but I like our backs a lot. Between our backs and Fitzgerald, we should be more dynamic, multiple, and all around more effective running the ball than Penn State was when Moorhead was there. Partly because...
- Holy hell, their O-Line is bad. The fact that Moorhead was able to consistently score 30+ points against elite defenses (Michigan and Ohio State) with those guys blocking is amazing. They were dominated up front but still found creative ways to put the ball in the endzone. Our OL is much better and should be really good again next year.
All in all, each team’s offensive personnel has its own strengths, which makes comparing the two teams tricky. Thus predicting what we will look like is tough. We need big improvement from our wide receiver position and Fitz needs to become more accurate downfield, but there’s no reason we why we shouldn’t be really good on offense next season. Penn State fans say it took their offense about 5-6 games to get rolling in Moorhead’s first year, but that was with a first year QB transitioning from a pro-style offense... Hopefully our learning curve isn’t so steep with a veteran QB who is very familiar with spread/RPO concepts. We’ll see.
