Your Penn State Nittany Lions had a booming first year dealing with NCAA sanctions, but things will simply get more difficult within coming years as scholarship restrictions enter into play. It's for that justification that non-scholarship players will be important to future success.
Walk-on is the term used in college football to describe a gamer who doesn't have a scholarship. Then again, things are a little different at Penn condition.
Head coach Bill O'Brien prefers to employ the term "run-on" to identify the non-scholarship players. Based on Bob Flounders of PennLive. com, O'Brien proclaimed,
"These guys don't hike, they run on that field, they sprint on the field, they bust their butts over the field. These guys may not be walk-ons, they are run-ons. Now I know that will goes against everybody's term for non-scholarship players during the last 100 years of college football but that's our term for your children. "
While non-scholarship players are often not expected to be key contributors, that may not be the case at Penn State. Starting in 2014, the Nittany Lions will be limited to just 65 scholarship grant players, causing depth issues to the roster.
Linebacker and quarterback are generally two positions that Penn Declare is already thin at likely into 2013. If wounds hit, freshmen and "run-ons" might needed.
With the reduction of Steven Bench, the Nittany Lions are going to have either Austin Whipple and D. J. Crook, either "run-ons", as the third string quarterback. Though it's rare your team gets that far down on the depth chart, those players must be ready.
Recent history has revealed that "run-ons" can shine at Penn State. Last season, quarterback Matt McGloin led the Big Ten with passing and was key to your Nittany Lions' success. McGloin started his career in Happy Valley and not using a scholarship.
There's no doubt that O'Brien will have to get creative in reference to his roster moving forward. He's already hinted that some "run-ons" could possibly be asked to play multiple position.
"They have their principal position so maybe you're going to be a corner but maybe if you possibly can do some things being a slot receiver or being running back or maybe you can run a few reverses? If you can chuck the ball maybe we could toss it to you or like that? … I definitely see that for us going frontward. "
While losing free college funding is tough for a power team to overcome, it's not really impossible. It just means of which under-the-radar guys have to step up and every man on a roster will be needed to ensure success.
Current and future "run-ons" can be key to the Nittany Lions' ability to get through the lean years caused by the NCAA sanctions.
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