It should come as no surprise that the Penn State offense is doing things differently this season. With Andy Kotelnicki calling the shots at offensive coordinator, this offense is a far cry from how Penn State operated under Mike Yurcich.
That being said, through two games there’ve only been 25 total completions for Penn State quarterbacks Drew Allar and Beau Pribula. Allar has 24 of those while Pribula has the other. As a unit, Penn State has thrown the ball 38 times this season for a 65.7 completion percentage.
Of those 25 completions, 11 have got to tight end Tyler Warren, two have gone to running back Nicholas Singleton and both tight end Khalil Dinkins and running back Kaytron Allen each have one a piece.
That leaves the remaining 10 completions for the wide receivers in which five have gone to Harrison Wallace III, four have gone to Omari Evans and the remaining completion went to Julian Fleming.
Overall, Wallace, Evans and Fleming have amassed 209 yards or 47.6 percent of the passing yards for Penn State this season. The tight ends, Warren and Dinkins have hauled in 41.7 percent of the yardage while the running backs have brought in 10.7 percent.
Percentage wise, the receivers are bringing in the yardage while the targets haven’t quite been as high as many might think. This is in large part due to splash plays and big gains made offensively. Each pass catcher outside of Dinkins and Fleming have a reception that’s gone 14 or more yards including Wallace and Evans who’ve hauled in passes for 50 and 55 yards respectively.
While it would be nice to see more targets divvied out to the receivers, there just has not yet been a need for more.
At almost a quarter of the way through the season, Penn State will continue to improve on the offensive side of the ball and should begin to see different players get receptions as the ball is spread around.
There’s no need for alarm as far as receptions and targets go … yet. It’s important to note conference play begins next week and Penn State has yet to fully unleash its new-look offense.
It is telling that seven Penn State players have hauled in a reception this season. This is the offensive distribution Penn State would’ve benefitted greatly from under Yurcich’s tutelage. Getting running backs involved in the passing game has paid significant dividends. Allen and Singleton being on the field at the same time, something which was a rarity with Yurcich.
There are still multiple layers to this offense awaiting to be peeled back for the world to see. That’s not going to be the case against Kent State solely because it’s not necessary and if it becomes necessary then there are a lot more problems facing Penn State than receiver targets.
For now, the offense is in good shape and will start to ramp up as the conference slate begins and becomes more difficult. As the season wears on, more and more of this offense will reveal itself and if only the aforementioned receivers are still the only ones getting the ball and targets, then it will provide a time for concern.
Until then, enjoy seeing a confident Drew Allar and a two-headed monster backfield that can disrupt the game a multitude of different ways.
