Lion's Share: Ethan Grunkemeyer Takes the Reins at Quarterback

It didn't take James Franklin long to lock up the next Virginia Tech signal caller. Over the opening transfer portal weekend, reports emerged that rising Penn State sophomore, and 4-star transfer, Ethan Grunkemeyer was Blacksburg bound, made official yesterday. Grunkemeyer took over for an injured Drew Allar and led the Nittany Lions to a 4-3 record against Big Ten competition. The transition from Kyron Drones to Grunkemeyer signals a significant change in offensive philosophy based on Grunkmeyer's ability to stretch the field via the intermediate and deep passing game. After struggling in his first meaningful action, against Iowa, he completed well over 60 percent of his passes against stalwart defenses for Ohio State, Indiana, and Clemson. However, Penn State's offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki relied heavily on the running game, limiting the volume of his throws.

Finding Holes in Zone Coverage

Grunkemeyer's film revealed two particular strengths. First, despite not being much of a threat to run, he executes run game mechanics and fakes very well, which aids in setting up the play-action passing game. Kotelnicki relied heavily on running backs Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton and then leveraged Grunkemeyer effectively on play-action to stretch the field. Penn State didn't have particularly elusive receivers outside of Trebor Pena, so Grunkemeyer's most impressive throws tended to come on slow developing play-action passes where receivers could work open deep against zone coverage, and some of those happened against Indiana. The Hoosiers were in Grunkemeyer's face all day, and he stood up to the pressure.