Penn State’s loss to Northwestern was another frustrating moment in what has become one of the worst Big Ten seasons we have ever seen. The patience with the program’s rebuild is done at this point for most fans.
From the start of the year, head coach Mike Rhoades has spoken about growth, development and trying to get these youngsters to be something in the future. The messaging has been centered around youth, a tough reality for a roster that entered the season as young as it did.
However, after months of horrible play, some believe that Rhoades' talking about how young his team is doesn’t hold much weight.
Mark Brennan of 247Sports dropped that opinion following Penn State’s latest loss, arguing that Rhoades can’t lean on youth as an excusefor these results.
“Rhoades has spent the entire season saying he would not use youth as an excuse for his team, only to not-so-subtly use youth as an excuse consistently,” Brennan wrote. “EVERY television play-by-play person and analyst has pushed the narrative. OK, everyone gets it, Penn State BEGAN the season as the youngest team in the Big Ten.”
Early in the year, I don’t think this was the worst thing to say. Penn State’s roster featured multiple true freshmen, and the learning curve was obvious. The struggles and mistakes were expected, and Penn State was at least competing.
“Which was fine through, say, 16 games,” Brennan continued. “In early January, the Nittany Lions were 9-7 overall and 0-5 in the Big Ten. BUT … they were coming off three really strong showings in much-closer-than-expected losses to Illinois (neutral site), Michigan (home) and Purdue (road). All three teams remain in the NCAA NET top 11 and they've combined to post a 53-8 record.”
“It was impressive stuff for a roster with six active true freshmen, the best of which — guard Kayden Mingo — missed two of the three games with a broken nose,” Brennan added.
Despite the losses, Penn State competed and actually showed that it had a chance to win. Now, it is losing games by 21 points to Northwestern! I don’t care if they only have 17-year-old freshmen on the roster; it’s been inexcusable.