James Franklin details special playmaking of Daequan Hardy, potential offensive role

Daequan Hardy has been at Penn State since 2019, but is currently having quite the breakout season for the Nittany Lions as a redshirt senior.

Hardy hasn’t only been making an impact as a versatile defensive back in the Nittany Lions defense, but has also established himself as one of the best punt returners in the nation. So much so that Penn State head coach James Franklin was asked why Hardy wasn’t returning punts for the blue and white sooner.

“I think that the hard part and the challenging part sometimes is the number one priority when you put somebody back as a punt returner, no matter what, is gotta be the consistency of catching the ball. That’s gotta be priority number one,” Franklin said. “Number two obviously is the ability to make explosive plays. The challenge for coaches all the time, and for players, is how much live do you go on special teams with a punt returner who’s also our starting nickel and corner?”

It’s hard to be an effective returner without first catching the ball, which sounds like an area Hardy struggled in early in his career.

And with live special teams being rare in practice to avoid injuries, it is often hard to evaluate a returners playmaking ability in practice situations, which Franklin compared to trying to evaluate a dual-threat quarterback’s rushing abilities in practice when they can’t be tackled.

“I think it’s a fair question obviously the way he’s impacting games right now. But again, we had a guy by the name of Jahan Dotson before. And then in the past, it had been based on number one who was catching the ball most consistently in practice and there were guys catching the ball more consistently at practice,” Franklin explained.

Hardy has now more than proven he can catch punts and make magic happen with the ball in his hands, leading the nation with two punt returns for touchdowns and in punt return average with 23.3 yards per return.

He even had a third punt returned for a touchdown in the Nittany Lions’ last game against Indiana that got called back due to a penalty, as he continues to make dazzling plays that have some asking if he could potentially play some offense for Penn State.

“We have not done that, again it’s not that easy. It’s gotta be something you make a decision on very early on and somebody that has the ability to learn both and do both at a high level,” Franklin explained. “It’s not something you can just say okay this week we’re gonna make this guy an offensive player because if you do that then you’re probably just gonna use him on the pass plays and then everybody knows he’s in for just the pass play. You lose some of that, so it’s more complex than that.”

“We have guys on defense that just play defense that have missed assignments, we have guys that are on offense that just play offense and have missed assignments and that’s limiting their ability to play more. There’s too many missed assignments. So when you do both that obviously magnifies it and that’s something you gotta be working on more than just after he returns a punt for a touchdown,” Franklin added.

We may not see Hardy catching passes from Drew Allar anytime soon, but there’s no question he’ll continue to make an impact in the Nittany Lions’ return game.