It wasn’t something Penn State was used to. For just the second time in Jeff Tambroni’s 11 seasons as Penn State head coach, and after avoiding the undesirable result for six straight years, the Nittany Lions finished with a losing record. So, after a 4-7 overall record in 2021, Tambroni and his program leaders reflected on what happened, what went wrong and how to return to where they wanted to be.

They’ve since attempted to implement what they’ve learned from their critical assessment. Will it help in 2022? Who knows for sure? But there’s at least a pragmatic plan in place.

After taking a step back in a reflection period in the early portion of the offseason, Tambroni said he recognized that there were factors not in the team’s control that contributed to results, like, obviously the pandemic and some major injuries. But, he said, he also realized in a critical view that there were things the Nittany Lions could control that contributed to last season’s results, too. The point of looking back was to better build a sustainable future. There’s not much interest on his end, he said, to “have success in one year and then pop back and struggle in the next.” Therefore, he revisited the foundation of the program’s culture. The idea was to get back to where Penn State was just a couple years ago, when they were a serious national title contender.

That all sounds great in theory, but how does it get accomplished? And especially after the graduation of Mac O’Keefe, the best goal scorer in the history of NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse? Not to mention now being two years removed from the graduation of another all-time program great, Grant Ament, the Big Ten’s all-time assists leader? Allow Tambroni to explain.

It’s a monumental task to replace generational stars, Tambroni said, but at the same time, there are takeaways to be learned from their imprints — perhaps not entirely with productivity, but more so with approach and impact.

“Certainly, with Grant two years ago, we weren’t gonna be able to take Grant out and put somebody else in, and we certainly learned that — we had some different changes to our offense where we had some positional changes, moved some guys, but then when guys started getting hurt and now you’re looking at third and fourth options; it was such a drastic drop off that it really made it challenging,” Tambroni said. “And the same thing with Mac this year. What we learned from last year is — and I think this is kind of an age-old theory — you don’t replace generational players with just one person. You adapt. And that’s what we’ve learned as well. Adapt a little bit more tactically.

“But I think we have more depth this year that will need to be used more often early in the season. And it’s an approach that … it’s not going to be just Dylan Foulds, Grant Ament and Mac O’Keefe, three attackmen for two or three years in a row. It’s going to be five or six or maybe even seven guys playing at the attack to help us stay fresh, to help create different looks, to help us maybe look a little bit different, play a little bit different. But maybe in some way, shape or form.”

Two relatively new members of that depth to keep eyes on are freshman Will Peden and redshirt freshman Jeb Brenfleck. In Tambroni’s view, both young players have “popped right away.” They were steady contributors in the fall, and Penn State will likely count on them as contributors in some way this season.

At the midfield is where Penn State probably needs to grow the most. To complement and help veterans such as Jack Kelly, Dan Reaume and captain Brian Townsend, one under-the-radar player to monitor is Mark Sickler. Between Sickler, sophomore Luke Mercer and freshman Kyle Aldridge, there’s potential for younger players to make a fairly significant impact.

Defensively, Penn State ranked 52nd nationally and fifth in the Big Ten in scoring defense (13.45 goals per game) last season. They do, however, return a few defenders worth getting excited about in in fifth-year defenseman Brayden Peck, senior Brett Funk and junior Sutton Boland. Beyond that, there’s some newness. Short-stick defensive midfielder Tate Gallagher, a transfer from Richmond, has received positive reviews for his leadership. And there’s, of course, a new defensive coordinator in Mike Murphy, who takes over for former longtime Penn State assistant Peter Toner, who left to take the head coaching position at Gettysburg (Division III). Early reports from the fall indicated that Penn State was playing with a tough demeanor. A good sign. They want to continue to play a tough, collaborative brand, and under Murphy, they’ve benefited from how he has stressed the finer details of defending one on one.

From the building of more depth to the idea of an improved defense, the hope is that it all adds up to the kind of play, culture and results that are more familiar to Penn State.

“We really felt like we have a really proud tradition here at Penn State and we wanted to get back to the building blocks of what really created success in some of the earlier years,” Tambroni said. “So as much as we did analyze film, it was more the realization that in our approach, in and of itself, we were just not investing, committing to the process as much as we’d had in past years. Those teams were very talented, but at the same time, they worked extraordinarily hard every single day and didn’t take shortcuts or compromise anything.

“We kind of felt like we got away from that a little bit in 2021 and kind of relied on talent alone in some cases. And were outmanned against some of our Big 10 opponents, and quite honestly just got outworked against others. So, we’re working on everything we can to try to build back up the identity of our program.”