Bill O'Brien said the fans saw 10 percent of the offensive playbook Saturday.
Penn State quarterback Matt McGloin (right) said Penn State's coaches didn't hold back this spring.
His players said they saw all of it this spring.
"He threw everything at us," quarterback Matt McGloin said after the offense fell 77-65 to the defense. "We went over everything in the playbook, and he did it for a reason. It was just to see what sticks. Going into the summer, we're not going to have to worry about putting new stuff in. Everything's in. And we responded well to it."
It was difficult to get a read on exactly what changes O'Brien was able to install offensively -- and what defensive coordinator Ted Roof was able to get done defensively -- by watching the spring scrimmage, but players on both sides of the ball are confident they'll be able to continue to handle those changes when the Nittany Lions regroup for preseason workouts in August.
"That was like 5 percent (of the playbook)," wide receiver Shawney Kersey said. "Our offense is loaded. It's been a tough spring mentally because there's a lot of new stuff you have to learn, but as you see, it works."
Kersey caught passes for 42, 8 and 4 yards Saturday. One of the team's fastest players likes the way O'Brien's offense has given him and other Penn State targets more room to maneuver.
"It gets us open," the junior receiver said. "Our best abilities are displayed. Instead of like trying to make us be something that we're not, it's trying to put our best abilities on display."
The goal for the offense for the summer won't be learning the new plays as much as refining them. Saturday showed that they have some execution issues even with basic plays.
"It's just gonna be about getting consistent," McGloin said. "You could see some of the stuff we did today. We messed up a couple formations, had some bad reads. Quarterbacks sometimes weren't on the same page with the wideouts. We showed some flashes today, flashes this spring of the team we can be. We just have to put it together."
Defensive players talked all spring long about being "multiply aggressive" in Roof's new schemes. But, though it came up with several big plays Saturday -- eight sacks and five interceptions -- the defense didn't show much in the way of complex schemes.
"We knew we had people watching us," cornerback Stephon Morris said. "We weren't gonna give them too much."
Roof, whose Auburn defense allowed a school-record 405.8 yards per game in 2011, still has plenty of material to feed his players this summer but believed the defensive coaches were able to lay down a strong foundation during spring practices.
"We've put in a lot of different situations this spring," Roof said. "Because as we all know, the fourth quarter of football games is situational football. We were able to get a lot of that installed and what we did this spring, defensively anyway, was we taught concepts. That's going to allow us to be multiple and change some pictures but not reinvent the wheel for anybody as long as people understand concepts. Players grew a lot in that area."
Going against O'Brien's offense helped make a lot of those late-game situations challenging for both the players and the coaches.
"He understands defense, too. He knows offensively how to tweak things to make the defense adjust," Roof said. "It's been a lot of fun this spring going back and forth."
