Penn State Football: Can Nittany Lions Win Big Ten's Leaders Division?

Possibly.

No, wait. Maybe.

Winning the Leaders Division will be difficult, but it will certainly be made easier by a couple of factors.

No 1: Ohio State cannot go to the Big Ten Championship Game because it's on probation.

No. 2: See No. 1.

This fact will give the Nittany Lions an undeniably easier route to the Big Ten Championship Game, although it still won't be easy. A win or loss against Ohio State still counts against the Lion's win total in the Leaders Division, and despite being ineligible for the Championship, Ohio State could still be a significant factor in the Leader's race. Even so, its probation eliminates one possible competitor.

However, a critical look at the Nittany Lion's roster brings up one weakness that will be difficult to hide against stronger passing teams: the secondary.

Curtis Drake, who had converted to cornerback to help with the razor-thin depth, was recently lost for the 2012 season due to academic ineligibility. As new Penn State coach Bill O'Brien said, the problem in the secondary isn't talent, it's depth.

It's my opinion that the performance of the secondary will determine the Nittany Lion's winning or losing of the Leaders Division. A look at the two-deep in the secondary (and the whole depth chart) is available here.

At the left CB position, Stephon Morris has seen significant action since his freshman year and is talented and experienced. At the other CB spot, Amos and Thomas have been excellent in the time they've played.

No problems there.

Similarly, Malcolm Willis has shown flashes of excellence and will likely do great at safety. Beyond these guys, however, the Nittany Lions are either inexperienced or walk-ons.

Being a walk-on or being inexperienced doesn't necessarily doom anyone to failure, but it does make it harder to succeed. Obviously, with the arrival of new coaches, the defensive scheme will be changing to some degree. It's likely that former defensive coordinator Tom Bradley's Cover 3 scheme will be going out the window. New DC Ted Roof has been known to run an aggressive, man-to-man cover scheme. With fewer players to sub in-and-out, this kind of a scheme is very difficult to run for fatigue reasons.

A cornerback covering someone man-to-man requires a lot more running and hustling than your typical Cover 3 scheme. This will require the Nittany Lions to have lots of depth and lots of players to sub in-and-out to relieve tired defensive backs.

Unfortunately, the Lions don't have them.

Assuming that Roof runs his scheme as he has at every stop he's coached at, I feel that the secondary will struggle.

Fortunately for the Nittany Lions, the strongest passing team they will face in the Leaders Division (according to last years statistics) is Wisconsin, which ranked 61st in passing. Of course, this doesn't take into account the departure of quarterback Russell Wilson, who was drafted in the 3rd round of the NFL Draft by the Seahawks.

New Wisconsin transfer quarterback Danny O'Brien will have a new offense to learn for the third time in his collegiate career. Whether Wisconsin will improve or regress is anyone's guess, but for my money, I don't think they'll be as strong of a passing team as they were last year.

Rounding out the rest of the Leader's schedule for the Nittany Lions in passing rankings are the following teams: Illinois (91st), Ohio St. (115th), Purdue (83rd), and Indiana (80). Not particularly strong passing teams, although again, these are last year's rankings. But if these hold true, maybe having a weak secondary isn't as big of a chink in the armor as previously thought.

And of course, there's always a chance that incoming freshman defensive backs Da'Quan Davis, Jordan Lucas and Malik Golden could contribute immediately. O'Brien has been quoted as saying that the further you are from the ball, the easier it is to contribute immediately.

For the Nittany Lion's sake and depth, let's hope that they're ready to play immediately. Otherwise, winning the Leaders Division will be a tough task.