Penn State Football: Midseason Report Card for the Nittany Lions

The 2011 season has had its fair share of mixed results for the Penn State Nittany Lions through just more than half of the season, and there are plenty of concerns moving forward.

There have been some bright spots as well, though.

Here is a look at the midseason evaluations for the team. Feel free to share your own opinions on the offense, defense, special teams and the coaching in the comments section.

Offense

Let's touch on some positives first.

Silas Redd is an emerging running back who is starting to hit his stride, and Curtis Dukes has started to show signs of promise to supplement Redd. Derek Moye has largely been solid and dependable, and the offensive line appears to be getting better on a weekly basis.

But the quarterback situation is beyond ugly.

The combination of Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin has produced a passing offense ranked 80th in the nation and near the bottom of the Big Ten. The two have combined to complete fewer than half of their passes, by far the worst in the Big Ten and among the worst in the nation.

All of this nonsense has resulted in an offense that is averaging 21.7 points per game, good for 96th in the nation. Four times Penn State has been held to under 20 points, and that includes Temple, Indiana (allowing 31.7 points per game) and Iowa (Alabama is excused, and the Temple game is starting to look more acceptable by the week).

Offense Grade: C-

Goals for the Second Half

• Settle on a full-time quarterback
• Better pass protection
• Any impact from Stephfon Green would be an added bonus

Defense

Penn State's defense is leading the way this season, keeping opponents off the scoreboard long or often enough to allow the offense to find a way to put together a winning drive or a scoring drive at a critical time.

Penn State's defense has allowed just 11.6 points this season, and nobody has had the impact defensive tackle Devon Still has. Still has quickly become a player who is grabbing the national spotlight any chance he has, but the secondary and linebackers have more than held up their end of the bargain as well.

Each unit has suffered their share of injuries, but Penn State continues to play tough, physical defense. Even against Alabama Penn State played pretty well until they just ran out of steam with one of the best teams in the country wearing them down.

Defense Grade: A

Goals for the Second Half

• Bring more pressure to quarterbacks
• Continue causing turnovers
• Prepare for talented quarterbacks (Dan Persa, Taylor Martinez, Nathan Scheelhaase, Russell Wilson)

Special Teams

It took a while to get going with Anthony Fera having to work his way back in to the good graces of Joe Paterno, but now that he is, things are looking pretty solid on special teams.

You can almost forget about the first two games of the season now that Fera is being used on punts and field goal attempts, but you almost have to wonder how the first few games would have gone if he had been used to his full potential early on.

Chaz Powell has had a couple nice kick returns, showing some signs that there is good blocking ahead of him to work with, and you'd like to see that continue if you are Penn State. Maybe he can break one against somebody else this season.

But there have been some close calls, and opposing special teams are able to get close to blocking a punt from time to time.

This special teams unit may not be great, but they do not appear to be an area of concern that could lead to a loss in the second half.

Special Teams Grade: C

Goals for the Second Half

• Improve punt return average

Coaching

This is a tale of two sides for sure.

On one half of the staff we have a stellar defensive scheme that seems to be doing just fine despite losing a defensive end and a linebacker for the season, not to mention losing one of their top secondary players for a couple games.

As mentioned, the defense has carried the team through the first half of the season.

Then there is the offense.

Have they survived? Absolutely, but the offense has largely been a failure for a number of reasons this season, and it all points to the quarterback situation. Because the offense has failed to rely on one quarterback, the entire offense has failed to get on the same page.

Coaching Grade: C (Offense F, Defense A)

Goals for the Second Half

• End the quarterback situation
• Continue to plan defensive schemes to shut down opponents' strengths

Overall

Penn State has a defense that may be able to go up against any offense in the nation, and they will face a number of good tests in the second half of the season. The special teams appear to be heading in a positive direction, but the offense continues to struggle, and the coaching staff refuses to make a decision on one quarterback, which is holding the team back.

Yet, the Nittany Lions are 6-1, so it can't be all that bad, right?

Penn State is a good team. They are not a great team, and being left out of the AP Top 25 despite their record shows that they certainly have not impressed some.

If the offense can kick it up a notch or two, then perhaps that national respect will be right around the corner.

Grade: C+

Follow Kevin McGuire's Penn State updates and conversation on Google+,  Twitter and Facebook.