Mis Welcome back into the Penn State Pulse. I'm your host, Dylan Dawson. I recently asked for y'all to drop your hot takes for the twenty twenty four Penn State season, and it's safe to say we got some blistering ones. Credit goes to my guy Josh Pate for this idea. I'm gonna read off ten of these hot takes that you guys submitted and rate them on a scale of one to ten, one being a cold and pretty common take and then ten being a white hot, highly unlikely one.

Mis Welcome back into the Penn State Pulse. I'm your host, Dylan Dawson. I recently asked for y'all to drop your hot takes for the twenty twenty four Penn State season, and it's safe to say we got some blistering ones. Credit goes to my guy Josh Pate for this idea. I'm gonna read off ten of these hot takes that you guys submitted and rate them on a scale of one to ten, one being a cold and pretty common take and then ten being a white hot, highly unlikely one.

So let's go ahead and dive right into it.

So let's go ahead and dive right into it.

Starting with Luke's take, he says amar Evans will be wide receiver one by the end of the year. Amaro is mainly competing with Trey Willis, Julian Fleming, Liam Clifford, and Caden Saunders for that top spot. A Mario has been a buzzy name this all season, and we'll compete for one of those three starting spots. He's a four to three guy as far as his forty yard dash goes, so his speed could separate him from the rest of the room if everything else were to come together.

Starting with Luke's take, he says amar Evans will be wide receiver one by the end of the year. Amaro is mainly competing with Trey Willis, Julian Fleming, Liam Clifford, and Caden Saunders for that top spot. A Mario has been a buzzy name this all season, and we'll compete for one of those three starting spots. He's a four to three guy as far as his forty yard dash goes, so his speed could separate him from the rest of the room if everything else were to come together.

I think this is a possibility, just not a likely one.

I think this is a possibility, just not a likely one.

So Luke's take to start us off gets a nine out of ten on the hot take scale. Next up, Anthony says Drew Aller will get benched, so you have to look at the room who would be pushing him for that starting role. Jackson Smollock out for the season, likely the whole season with an injury. Ethan Grunckmeyer, although he'll eventually be very good in my opinion, shouldn't be ready to go this season as a true freshman, So that pretty much just leaves Bo Purbulah. How bad does Drew have to perform though to actually get bench for Bo? I think that would require him to actually regress from last season, and that would come under a new coordinator who is planning to simplify the offense and build it around drew strengths. So I do think Drew takes a pretty good step forward this year, and I don't see this one happening at all. Anthony's hot take receives a nine and a half out of ten. Our third hot take comes from Roman, who says Drew Aller hits thirty five total touchdowns and Nick Singleton rushes for one thousand plus yards on the season, so this one's two pronged, which sort of automatically makes it less likely looking at last season's stats. Both of these milestones would be statistical improvements from last year. Drew had twenty nine total touchdowns, while Nick rushed for seven hundred and fifty two yards. Singleton did rush for over one thousand in a season before, though he went for one thousand and sixty one yards in his freshman campaign while averaging nearly seven yards per carry. And that's the important number that you need to look at here, in my opinion, which is the yards per carry, because in twenty twenty two he carried one hundred and fifty six times. Last year he carried one hundred and seventy one, So he's likely going to be right in that range again this season as he splits reps with k Tron once again. It all just comes down to how many yards of pop he's getting. Anyone who follows the team closely knows the explosive plays were severely lacking in the offense last season, and that shines through in Singleton's yards per carry averages as he went from six point eight to four point four last season. Kylin Nicky schemes are designed to break defenses down and open up those big plays, especially in the run game. That should be a run first offense that we see here in twenty twenty four, so we should see those yards per carry numbers rise as well this year. It will be close, but one thousand yards for nick is absolutely attainable, absolutely possible, assuming he can again stay healthy.

So Luke's take to start us off gets a nine out of ten on the hot take scale. Next up, Anthony says Drew Aller will get benched, so you have to look at the room who would be pushing him for that starting role. Jackson Smollock out for the season, likely the whole season with an injury. Ethan Grunckmeyer, although he'll eventually be very good in my opinion, shouldn't be ready to go this season as a true freshman, So that pretty much just leaves Bo Purbulah. How bad does Drew have to perform though to actually get bench for Bo? I think that would require him to actually regress from last season, and that would come under a new coordinator who is planning to simplify the offense and build it around drew strengths. So I do think Drew takes a pretty good step forward this year, and I don't see this one happening at all. Anthony's hot take receives a nine and a half out of ten. Our third hot take comes from Roman, who says Drew Aller hits thirty five total touchdowns and Nick Singleton rushes for one thousand plus yards on the season, so this one's two pronged, which sort of automatically makes it less likely looking at last season's stats. Both of these milestones would be statistical improvements from last year. Drew had twenty nine total touchdowns, while Nick rushed for seven hundred and fifty two yards. Singleton did rush for over one thousand in a season before, though he went for one thousand and sixty one yards in his freshman campaign while averaging nearly seven yards per carry. And that's the important number that you need to look at here, in my opinion, which is the yards per carry, because in twenty twenty two he carried one hundred and fifty six times. Last year he carried one hundred and seventy one, So he's likely going to be right in that range again this season as he splits reps with k Tron once again. It all just comes down to how many yards of pop he's getting. Anyone who follows the team closely knows the explosive plays were severely lacking in the offense last season, and that shines through in Singleton's yards per carry averages as he went from six point eight to four point four last season. Kylin Nicky schemes are designed to break defenses down and open up those big plays, especially in the run game. That should be a run first offense that we see here in twenty twenty four, so we should see those yards per carry numbers rise as well this year. It will be close, but one thousand yards for nick is absolutely attainable, absolutely possible, assuming he can again stay healthy.

Knock on, wood, I got wood over here. Hang on. I don't know if y'all could hear that.

Knock on, wood, I got wood over here. Hang on. I don't know if y'all could hear that.

Lock it in though, so Drew though, going for thirty five total touchdowns, I don't see that happening. This is gonna be a run first offense, as I said previously, so he probably isn't putting the ball in the air quite as much. He may make up for that on the ground, though, as he will be running the football. We're gonna see Drew running that football, especially down in the red zone. So I think he ends up probably right around thirty total touchdowns once again. But we probably will see a more explosive season from kiv one. Tina's all back to the take though from Roman. These are unlikely to both hit, so Romans take is going to be a nine out of ten for me. Right moving on, Mike says, Tyler Warren becomes first team All American. There's only one tight end that makes that first team All American list each season, unlike other positions like running back and receiver, where they have a couple or three. So Mike's basically saying that Warren would be widely recognized as the top tight end in college football this season. I certainly think that's possible, but that's a tough feat to accomplish. Tyler has the size, he's six six two sixty. He has the speed, athleticism hands, but so do some other guys around the country. You have Mitchell Evans at Notre Dame Colston leveland at Michigan, Justin Jolie at NC State, Ben Bromer at Iowa State, just to name a few. So Warren has a lot of competition for that top spot, but I wouldn't rule him out. I'm gonna give him Mike's take an eight and a half out of ten on the scale. Next up, we have Brian's take, who says James Franklin gets fired. So Brian's just going all in here. I thought this would be a good one to include, so I could give my thoughts on this and address a lot of the talking heads who say this should or could happen. First of all, it's not going to happen. This is a ten out of ten white hot take, and I'm gonna tell you why. No hate to Brian by the way, or anyone else who believes this.

Lock it in though, so Drew though, going for thirty five total touchdowns, I don't see that happening. This is gonna be a run first offense, as I said previously, so he probably isn't putting the ball in the air quite as much. He may make up for that on the ground, though, as he will be running the football. We're gonna see Drew running that football, especially down in the red zone. So I think he ends up probably right around thirty total touchdowns once again. But we probably will see a more explosive season from kiv one. Tina's all back to the take though from Roman. These are unlikely to both hit, so Romans take is going to be a nine out of ten for me. Right moving on, Mike says, Tyler Warren becomes first team All American. There's only one tight end that makes that first team All American list each season, unlike other positions like running back and receiver, where they have a couple or three. So Mike's basically saying that Warren would be widely recognized as the top tight end in college football this season. I certainly think that's possible, but that's a tough feat to accomplish. Tyler has the size, he's six six two sixty. He has the speed, athleticism hands, but so do some other guys around the country. You have Mitchell Evans at Notre Dame Colston leveland at Michigan, Justin Jolie at NC State, Ben Bromer at Iowa State, just to name a few. So Warren has a lot of competition for that top spot, but I wouldn't rule him out. I'm gonna give him Mike's take an eight and a half out of ten on the scale. Next up, we have Brian's take, who says James Franklin gets fired. So Brian's just going all in here. I thought this would be a good one to include, so I could give my thoughts on this and address a lot of the talking heads who say this should or could happen. First of all, it's not going to happen. This is a ten out of ten white hot take, and I'm gonna tell you why. No hate to Brian by the way, or anyone else who believes this.

By the way.

By the way.

Everyone's entitled to their own opinions. And at the end of the day, it's a sport. It's meant to be fun shared with each other, especially those of us rooting for the same team. So when people ask me why Franklin shouldn't be fired, I like to break it down into three simple categories, which is resources, recruiting, and on field production. They all tie together pretty well. When you look at resources, Penn State is probably in the twenty to thirty range nationally as far as money going into their football program.

Everyone's entitled to their own opinions. And at the end of the day, it's a sport. It's meant to be fun shared with each other, especially those of us rooting for the same team. So when people ask me why Franklin shouldn't be fired, I like to break it down into three simple categories, which is resources, recruiting, and on field production. They all tie together pretty well. When you look at resources, Penn State is probably in the twenty to thirty range nationally as far as money going into their football program.

Program.

Program.

Excuse me, James Franklin and Penn State are turning those resources into recruiting classes consistently in the ten to fifteen or sixteen range. Now, sure they get the occasional five star or the top one hundred player. Penn State just landed Kevin Brown from Harrisburg. Actually, as I'm recording this, but the classes always shake out to that typical range. So talent wise, PSU is a top ten to fifteen team in the country most years. They are finishing right in that range every year in the rankings, the AP, the College Football Playoff polls, sometimes a little bit higher. So the idea is like Franklin waste talent, or that PSU underperforms every year. It's all just an agenda that's been brought to life by probably fans who are tired of going ten to two almost every year.

Excuse me, James Franklin and Penn State are turning those resources into recruiting classes consistently in the ten to fifteen or sixteen range. Now, sure they get the occasional five star or the top one hundred player. Penn State just landed Kevin Brown from Harrisburg. Actually, as I'm recording this, but the classes always shake out to that typical range. So talent wise, PSU is a top ten to fifteen team in the country most years. They are finishing right in that range every year in the rankings, the AP, the College Football Playoff polls, sometimes a little bit higher. So the idea is like Franklin waste talent, or that PSU underperforms every year. It's all just an agenda that's been brought to life by probably fans who are tired of going ten to two almost every year.

I get it.

I get it.

It's frustrating. I hate losing to the same teams every year too, but it all starts at the top with resources and donors. I hate that college football is the way it is right now with the pay for play going on, but you have to adapt to it or you will fall behind, and Penn State is currently a bit behind. PSU reported about seven million in donations last year, while Michigan was around thirty five million and Ohio.

It's frustrating. I hate losing to the same teams every year too, but it all starts at the top with resources and donors. I hate that college football is the way it is right now with the pay for play going on, but you have to adapt to it or you will fall behind, and Penn State is currently a bit behind. PSU reported about seven million in donations last year, while Michigan was around thirty five million and Ohio.

State at fifty six million.

State at fifty six million.

So you can't expect to beat teams consistently every year who are spending five or eight times more than you on their programs.

So you can't expect to beat teams consistently every year who are spending five or eight times more than you on their programs.

It's just not realistic. Believe me.

It's just not realistic. Believe me.

I want nothing more than to see a Penn State football championship in my lifetime. I'm frustrated too, but you have to take those things into account and set realistic expectations with this program, because you're just letting yourself down every year. If it's Natty, your bust in your head. So bringing this back to Franklin, Patcraft and the other higher ups in the university are aware of all of this, and there's just no way Franklin's fired unless he steers the program completely off the tracks. Dozens and dozens of teams would kill to be npsc's current position. Yeah, that concludes my rant. Hopefully that can open at least one person's eyes to what's been going on behind the curtain here at Penn State. So moving on, we have a take from Nathan who says Penn State will be top ten in FBS rushing yards this season. As previously mentioned, the expectation is that new offensive coordinator Andy Katto Nicky will try out a run first offense with the Ninny Lions. So this is definitely a possibility. We all know PSU has the horses in that running back room to make this happen. So this sort of comes down to the offensive line. In my opinion, that's an offensive line that is replacing three starters with both tackles and the center. Heading to the NFL Draft after last season. They have some nice depth at those positions, just depends if a handful of names could actually separate themselves, which we won't know for sure until we see it in game. I currently have Drew Shelton penciled in as the starter at left tackle, and Anthony Dunko, who I mentioned as a breakout candidate in my last episode, starting at right tackle, and then I think Nick Dawkins is able to win that center job. Cooper Cousins will probably play in the interior maybe a little bit at center as well, and he'll be good depth, but I think Nick beats him out at the center. So if those guys can excel, we shouldn't really see a drop off from last year's OOH line, which was a very good and underappreciated unit on that team. This can absolutely happen, So I'm giving Nathan's take a six and a half out of ten on the hot take scale. Next up, Mark says Caden Saunders breaks out and has seven hundred and fifty plus receiving yards this year, So when you look at that number, seven hundred and fifty yards would usually land you in the wide receiver one or two territory. So that's the assumption that we're making here. Similar to Amuri Evans, Cayden possesses that speed, also a four to three guy to separate himself from the rest of the room if he was able to put everything else together. He's probably gonna share starting reps with Liam Clifford in the slot.

I want nothing more than to see a Penn State football championship in my lifetime. I'm frustrated too, but you have to take those things into account and set realistic expectations with this program, because you're just letting yourself down every year. If it's Natty, your bust in your head. So bringing this back to Franklin, Patcraft and the other higher ups in the university are aware of all of this, and there's just no way Franklin's fired unless he steers the program completely off the tracks. Dozens and dozens of teams would kill to be npsc's current position. Yeah, that concludes my rant. Hopefully that can open at least one person's eyes to what's been going on behind the curtain here at Penn State. So moving on, we have a take from Nathan who says Penn State will be top ten in FBS rushing yards this season. As previously mentioned, the expectation is that new offensive coordinator Andy Katto Nicky will try out a run first offense with the Ninny Lions. So this is definitely a possibility. We all know PSU has the horses in that running back room to make this happen. So this sort of comes down to the offensive line. In my opinion, that's an offensive line that is replacing three starters with both tackles and the center. Heading to the NFL Draft after last season. They have some nice depth at those positions, just depends if a handful of names could actually separate themselves, which we won't know for sure until we see it in game. I currently have Drew Shelton penciled in as the starter at left tackle, and Anthony Dunko, who I mentioned as a breakout candidate in my last episode, starting at right tackle, and then I think Nick Dawkins is able to win that center job. Cooper Cousins will probably play in the interior maybe a little bit at center as well, and he'll be good depth, but I think Nick beats him out at the center. So if those guys can excel, we shouldn't really see a drop off from last year's OOH line, which was a very good and underappreciated unit on that team. This can absolutely happen, So I'm giving Nathan's take a six and a half out of ten on the hot take scale. Next up, Mark says Caden Saunders breaks out and has seven hundred and fifty plus receiving yards this year, So when you look at that number, seven hundred and fifty yards would usually land you in the wide receiver one or two territory. So that's the assumption that we're making here. Similar to Amuri Evans, Cayden possesses that speed, also a four to three guy to separate himself from the rest of the room if he was able to put everything else together. He's probably gonna share starting reps with Liam Clifford in the slot.

This season, at least to open up the season, so.

This season, at least to open up the season, so.

He'll be given his fair share of opportunities, just kind of depends if he takes it. Caden's going into his third year now Penn State, so we are entering now or never mode for him. Seems like a very possible outcome in my opinion, but again, we can't say for sure until he actually goes out there and produces on the field. So I'm gonna give marks prediction a seven and a half out of ten on the hot take scale number eight. Moving on, Sohn says Penn State beats Ohio State and goes undefeated twenty four So when you break down the schedule, OSU should be the only team that Penn State is actually an underdog two, so this isn't as far fetched as it may seem. But regardless of the game by game point of view, going undefeated in college football or any other sport for that matter, is such a hard thing to do for PSU. That would mean that with injuries and everything else taken into account, you're still able to get past teams like Ohio State, Wisconsin, USC, Washington, West Virginia, UCLA pretty much have their schedules at least decent opponents, and not to mention, they actually have a stretch where they play four of those five teams that are just listed in a row. Beating Ohigh State alone is gonna be tough. They haven't done it since twenty sixteen for a reason, But as of now, the buck Eyes are I think two or three point favorites in Happy Valley. I don't think this one happens, but you can't rule it out. Sohans take grades out at a nine out of ten on the hot Take scale. Our ninth take of the podcast comes from Lewis, who says the passing offense in receivers will look just as bad as last year, and the offense will also look just as boring and stale. So I can go ahead and say right away that the second part of that about the offense being boring and stale.

He'll be given his fair share of opportunities, just kind of depends if he takes it. Caden's going into his third year now Penn State, so we are entering now or never mode for him. Seems like a very possible outcome in my opinion, but again, we can't say for sure until he actually goes out there and produces on the field. So I'm gonna give marks prediction a seven and a half out of ten on the hot take scale number eight. Moving on, Sohn says Penn State beats Ohio State and goes undefeated twenty four So when you break down the schedule, OSU should be the only team that Penn State is actually an underdog two, so this isn't as far fetched as it may seem. But regardless of the game by game point of view, going undefeated in college football or any other sport for that matter, is such a hard thing to do for PSU. That would mean that with injuries and everything else taken into account, you're still able to get past teams like Ohio State, Wisconsin, USC, Washington, West Virginia, UCLA pretty much have their schedules at least decent opponents, and not to mention, they actually have a stretch where they play four of those five teams that are just listed in a row. Beating Ohigh State alone is gonna be tough. They haven't done it since twenty sixteen for a reason, But as of now, the buck Eyes are I think two or three point favorites in Happy Valley. I don't think this one happens, but you can't rule it out. Sohans take grades out at a nine out of ten on the hot Take scale. Our ninth take of the podcast comes from Lewis, who says the passing offense in receivers will look just as bad as last year, and the offense will also look just as boring and stale. So I can go ahead and say right away that the second part of that about the offense being boring and stale.

Will not be true at all.

Will not be true at all.

The stops New oc Andy, Kattle Nicky is run an exciting and explosive offense. So I can confidently say that even if this product some all ends up bad, it will not be boring, it will not be stale. It'll be a lot of fun to watch. I don't think it'll be bad, by the way, but we'll see if it can reach that elite status. So does the passing game essentially make no progress? The receivers make no progress at all this year. It wasn't bad at all last year. They just had two main issues in general. The first was obviously lack of explosive plays, which in the past game ties back into Lewis's comment about the wide receivers. They struggled to create separation and get open all season long. I believe that's a big focus for Ak this year, as he's putting a ton of time and effort into making the scheme much easier for the receivers to work out of the offense should be much more explosive this year, both in the past and run game. The fact that this take is no improvement at all instead of at least a bit of improvement is highly unlikely to happen. So this is going to get a nine and a half out of ten on the hot take scale. I think that passing game, those wide receivers do take a step forward, and the offense is far from stale.

The stops New oc Andy, Kattle Nicky is run an exciting and explosive offense. So I can confidently say that even if this product some all ends up bad, it will not be boring, it will not be stale. It'll be a lot of fun to watch. I don't think it'll be bad, by the way, but we'll see if it can reach that elite status. So does the passing game essentially make no progress? The receivers make no progress at all this year. It wasn't bad at all last year. They just had two main issues in general. The first was obviously lack of explosive plays, which in the past game ties back into Lewis's comment about the wide receivers. They struggled to create separation and get open all season long. I believe that's a big focus for Ak this year, as he's putting a ton of time and effort into making the scheme much easier for the receivers to work out of the offense should be much more explosive this year, both in the past and run game. The fact that this take is no improvement at all instead of at least a bit of improvement is highly unlikely to happen. So this is going to get a nine and a half out of ten on the hot take scale. I think that passing game, those wide receivers do take a step forward, and the offense is far from stale.

Far from boring.

Far from boring.

So we've reached our tenth and final hot take of the episode, which will come from kJ who says Abdul Carter and then identis Sudden both reached double digit sacks ten plus sacks for each. Now these are these two are going to be one of the better DN duos that we've seen at Penn State, but ten plus sacks each is a very lofty prediction.

So we've reached our tenth and final hot take of the episode, which will come from kJ who says Abdul Carter and then identis Sudden both reached double digit sacks ten plus sacks for each. Now these are these two are going to be one of the better DN duos that we've seen at Penn State, but ten plus sacks each is a very lofty prediction.

Last season, DDS split starting.

Last season, DDS split starting.

Reps and Abdul was obviously playing a linebacker, but they collected a combined eight sacks.

Reps and Abdul was obviously playing a linebacker, but they collected a combined eight sacks.

Believe it was.

Believe it was.

Four and a half for a dual and three and a half for Deny. But they'll both have increased opportunities to act you rush the passer this year, but again that's quite the bar to set. So although we should see an exceptional and productive season. Out of both guys, I don't think ten sacks each will happen. Kj's take grades out at a nine out of ten on the hot take scale. I would say one of those guys hitting double digits, though, can certainly happen. I'd probably say that's about a seven out of ten that at least one of those guys gets to ten sacks.

Four and a half for a dual and three and a half for Deny. But they'll both have increased opportunities to act you rush the passer this year, but again that's quite the bar to set. So although we should see an exceptional and productive season. Out of both guys, I don't think ten sacks each will happen. Kj's take grades out at a nine out of ten on the hot take scale. I would say one of those guys hitting double digits, though, can certainly happen. I'd probably say that's about a seven out of ten that at least one of those guys gets to ten sacks.

So there you have it.

So there you have it.

Ten of your hot takes, ranging from the firing of James Franklin to the Nitney Lions going undefeated in twenty twenty four. Thank you so much for watching. This has been episode three of the Penn State Pulse. I'm Dylan Dawson signing off.

Ten of your hot takes, ranging from the firing of James Franklin to the Nitney Lions going undefeated in twenty twenty four. Thank you so much for watching. This has been episode three of the Penn State Pulse. I'm Dylan Dawson signing off.

Have a goodwin.

Have a goodwin.