Here is the report card for the Penn State football team this year:

Offense The Penn State season started with an offensive explosion in Dublin, Ireland, ended with another in New York City, and in between, was consistently the biggest reason this team didn't do more. Behind a young offensive line, the Nittany Lions failed to consistently establish its trademark running game. Its start quarterback, Christian Hackenberg, was harassed into inconsistency by opposing defenders and young receivers who had great moments and bad ones. Overall grade: D+Quarterback The sky seemed to be the limit for Hackenberg after he threw for 454 yards against Central Florida in the Croke Park Classic, then torched Akron for three touchdown passes and threw for 309 to lead a comeback win over Rutgers. Unthinkably though, Hackenberg topped the 200-yard mark just twice the rest of the season. He threw eight touchdowns against 15 interceptions, and quite frankly, he's too good a player to be that bad, no matter the circumstances. That said, the circumstances were awful. He struggled to find a go-to receiver after Allen Robinson graduated, and the offensive line allowed him to be sacked a Big Ten record 42 times. Hackenberg took a beating but kept on ticking, as the only snaps backup QB D.J. Crook took came in the blowout of Massachusetts in September. All in all though, he was like the little girl with the lollipop: Very, very good, or very, very bad. Position grade: C+Running back Coming into the season, this was a pretty solid group all around. Zach Zwinak was a former 1,000-yard rusher; Bill Belton was a dual threat out of the backfield as both a starter-quality runner and a receiver; Akeel Lynch, the sophomore, might have had the most talent of the bunch. Until Lynch began to assert himself in the season's final month, this group just couldn't make a consistent impact with few holes to hit. Zwinak never rushed for more than 32 yards in a game before suffering a season-ending foot injury on the opening kick against Ohio State. Belton's 92-yard touchdown against Indiana was easily his biggest moment, as he faded down the stretch as a receiver. But Lynch showed the future at the position is potentially bright. He rushed for 130 yards against Temple, 137 more against Illinois and had 75 against Boston College at Yankee Stadium. The impact could have been bigger here, though. Position grade: CReceiver When head coach James Franklin said after the Pinstripe Bowl that freshman DaeSean Hamilton had been battling a hamstring injury for the final month of the season, it made sense. Hamilton had been the only Penn State receiver consistently able to break big plays, hauling in 57 balls in the first seven games, capped by a 14-catch, 126-yard effort against Ohio State in October. He had just 18 catches in the next five games afterward. Look, it's pretty simple: When Penn State had a vertical threat to compliment Hamilton's work underneath, this team was terrific offensively. Terrific. In the first four weeks of the season, when Eugene Lewis had 25 catches for 462 yards and was torching defenses, Penn State was 4-0, Then when he had seven catches for 82 yards and was making an impact downfield against Boston College, Penn State won again with big offensive numbers. But in the eight games between, there just wasn't anyone stretching the field, including Lewis, who had just 207 yards total in those games. In fairness, he wasn't 100 percent either, but Penn State badly needed more out of him in those games. Chris Godwin and Saeed Blacknall showed the ability to get open deep, but they were freshmen learning the system and grossly inconsistent. The tight ends were only so-so, including the massive Jesse James, whose production decreased as the season went on. Position grade: C-Offensive line Teams with mediocre talent at the skill positions can win a lot of games if they have dominant offensive lines. Teams with terrific talent at the skill positions can lose a lot if they have weak offensive lines. Penn State fell in the second category. There's no understating the impact the blocking had on the offense this season. The Nittany Lions averaged just 2.9 yards per rush during the regular season, which is about as bad a cumulative rushing performance as this program has ever gotten over the length of a season. Compounding that problem was the beating Hackenberg took, being sacked an historic 42 times. Position grade: D.Defense As bad as the offense was at times, the defense was as good. Maybe even better. Historically, the 2014 Penn State defense will go down as one of the best statistical units the Nittany Lions have had in decades. Only two teams Northwestern in September and Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl managed to gain more than 300 yards against this group, which was strong at all three levels. Defensive coordinator Bob Shoop amazed his players and fans with some accurate predictions of how the defense would play long before the games were finished, and while the Nittany Lions are losing star linebacker Mike Hull to graduation, a few potential stars of the future were established. That said, the defense allowed late field goals in both the Maryland and Illinois games to squander late leads. It wasn't a perfect season. But it was pretty close. Overall grade: A-Defensive line It's amazing, considering how well this group played as a unit, that Anthony Zettel kind of outshined everybody else. The junior who converted from end to tackle in the spring led the Nittany Lions in tackles for loss, quarterback sacks and interceptions, and he was dominant in the Pinstripe Bowl, putting his athleticism on display for the nation to watch. A lot of that is due to the play of Austin Johnson, who is so good that opponents could never feel comfortable devoting a consistent double-team to Zettel. Johnson finished with 49 tackles, and almost too quietly, DE Deion Barnes almost matched that total in what was a wonderful rebound season for him (12.5 TFL, six sacks). C.J. Olaniyan had another steady season at the other defensive end spot, with 43 tackles and three sacks, to boot. But the key here was the development of the second stringers, who were able to play significant snaps, give the starters some rest and never offer a steep decrease in the quality of play. DT Parker Cothren looks like a future starter, and DT Tyrone Smith and three backup DEs Brad Bars, Carl Nassib and Garrett Sickels were formidable. Position grade: A-Linebacker Mike Hull did what everyone expected he'd do, and then some, after moving into the middle linebacker spot. He led the Big Ten with 134 tackles, won the conference's Butkus-Fitzgerald Award as top linebacker and became the face of maybe the best defense in the nation. But what was most impressive about him was how consistently present he was, week-in and week-out, against both the rush and the pass. He was a terrific example to a young group of linebackers, as well. Speaking of them, Nyeem Wartman looks like a star in the making. Admittedly an inconsistent player in his first full season, Wartman became a dominant force as the season progressed, developing into a hard-hitting, instinctual player in Shoop's system. It was not Hull, but Wartman, who paced the linebackers with 11 tackles in a dominant Pinstripe Bowl. Over the last three games, Hull had 29 tackles; Wartman, 28. Brandon Bell had a solid season at the other OLB spot, mostly utilizing his strengths making reads in pass coverage. He was exposed a bit, though, against Boston College. The linebackers also got contributions from former walk-on Gary Wooten and freshman Jason Cabinda, but the fact is, when one of the three starters missed a game, those were the times Penn State struggled defensively. Position grade: A-Secondary There is no position stocked with more young talent on this team than in the secondary, and that showed this season. Cornerback Jordan Lucas doesn't get near the credit he deserves as one of the Big Ten's best cover men, and while he led the team with nine pass breakups, he was also very solid against the run. Fellow corner Trevor Williams emerged after a season of inconsistency to provide a physical presence in the pass game, and freshmen Grant Haley and Christian Campbell are two of the fastest players on the team. Both emerged as the season went along. The Lions also got a boost at safety from another true freshman, Marcus Allen, who is a star in the making. A physical, aggressive performer against the run, he took over at midseason for the injured Ryan Keiser and tied with Lucas for third on the team with 58 tackles. Senior SS Adrian Amos was the C.J. Olaniyan of the secondary, a quiet, consistent performer who kind of helped make it all work. He tied with Zettel for the team lead in interceptions (three). Penn State got a lot of credit for finishing the regular season first in the nation in rushing defense, but it also ranked second in pass efficiency defense, behind only LSU. It's difficult not to think this spot is going to be a strength for years to come. Position grade: A-Special teams This season was really a tale of two types of special teams for Penn State. The kicking game, with senior Sam Ficken, was strong. The punting game, with freshmen Danny Pasquariello and Chris Gulla fighting it out, was not. Neither was the return game, as Penn State tried several freshmen before ultimately settling on the old standbys Jesse Della Valle and Von Walker to simply avoid the big mistake in the punt and kick games, especially. Imagine how bad Penn State would have been on special teams had it not had Ficken, who hit 24 of 29 attempts, won the UCF game with a 36-yarder, and tied the Pinstripe Bowl late with a 45-yarder. Pasquariello eventually seized the punting job from Gulla, but both averaged just a few tenths of a yard better than 37 yards per punt, and Penn State lost field position battles all season. The problem in the return games for Penn State was that it never really presented a threat to take one to the house. Grant Haley has the speed, but he averaged just 20.7 yards per kick return. Della Valle was what you'd expect, averaging 7.9 per return. But other than the occasional decent return, he worked best as a player who would simply catch what was kicked to him. This is an area Penn State has needed to improve on for several years, and once again, it didn't. Overall grade: C-Coaching James Franklin's first season as head coach was nothing if not interesting. The offense showed plenty of promise at times, and plenty of futility at others. The defense was fairly consistent, which led plenty of fans to make the easy conclusion that defensive coordinator Bob Shoop was a coaching genius, while offensive coordinator John Donovan was a fool. The truth, obviously, is probably not near those extremes. Franklin has built a fine staff that worked well together at Vanderbilt and largely came with him to Penn State. Defensively, Shoop took the group that underperformed under John Butler in 2013 and turned it into one of the best in the nation in 2014. Donovan, meanwhile, didn't have a reliable offensive line that could protect his best asset, which was Hackenberg. So, that led to some game plans and play calls that fans didn't like. The buck, Franklin has insisted, stops with him, and at the end of the day, Penn State finished 7-6, its highest moments coming in August in Dublin and December in New York City. There are improvements to make and hopes to be had, and this staff has had a say in developing all of that. Overall grade: C+