James Franklin updates Penn State position battles, team health, more

Penn State head coach James Franklin met with reporters for the final time during the program’s preseason camp on Tuesday. Transitioning into game week preparation for Nevada on Aug. 30 at Beaver Stadium, the Nittany Lions have made progress in sorting out the team they’ll be this season, while committing to the continuation of that development in the days and weeks ahead.

Tackling a series of questions, Franklin offered insights into key position battles, player standouts, and more in his post-practice interview. Check out the transcript from the session, lightly edited for clarity, here.

James Franklin post-practice interview transcript

On what Xavier Gilliam has done to separate himself this preseason:

Franklin: He’s just super consistent. He’s very mature. He’s gotten bigger, stronger, faster. Obviously, he was a D-end in high school, a basketball player. He’s a really good 305 pounds. He’s productive in the run game. And he’s productive in the pass game. He’s come to work every single day. He’s football smart. So, he’s been really good. There’s been a lot of excitement within the program about him for a while, and he’s legitimately fighting for a starting job right now.

On the Big Ten’s proposed playoff expansion:

Franklin: Knowing Pat (Kraft), he’s giving you all the quotes you need. I’m focused on Nevada and Penn State. Those discussions are really good for the commissioner and really good for the athletic director. Obviously, I’m a part of those conversations in the offseason, but right now, I’m totally focused on Penn State and totally focused on Nevada.

On the QB2 battle:

Franklin: We’re close to making a decision. We haven’t sat down and talked to those guys yet. Probably a week ago, we were close to making a decision and then held off because we had a couple of inconsistent practices. But we’re close to making that decision again. The guy that we feel like is in the lead right now, we’ve started to adjust those reps, but not to the point where the decision has been made.

On the RG battle:

Franklin: Donkoh, Cousins, and Shanahan. All three of those guys are in the heat of it. And to be honest with you, it’s also how Rucci is playing. All those things are factored in together. But I’d say it’s similar to the quarterback. I think we’ve got a pretty good idea if we were going to play this Saturday, but it’s still close enough that we’re going to continue the competition. Different than quarterback, we’re still probably rotating all those guys equal reps, but it’s a battle. And it really includes all four of them, because how Rucci plays factors in, since we can move Donkoh to tackle, and then it’s a two-man race inside. So not ready to make that decision yet, but it’s a really good battle. It’s a really good problem to have. I think we could win with all of them.

James Franklin video

Transcript continued

On the overall health of the program through camp:

Franklin: Yeah, for the most part. I mean, this time of year, you’re going to have it. But I think the coaches have done a really good job. Nelly has done a really good job of making suggestions. We’re down—I want to say, it may not sound significant—but we’re down like 127 minutes from last year’s camp. We’re down a significant number of reps. And specifically when you talk about the proven commodities. Dani needs to get better, but we gotta be smart with him because we know who Dani is. Same with Zane. So guys like that. Singleton and Fat, guys like that, we’ve modified their reps even more so. And we’ve done that every year, but I think the combination of overall being a little bit more strategic with our reps and with time on feet, and then having specific plans for the guys that are proven commodities—that made a choice to come back and didn’t have to—being really smart and strategic with those guys. Very similar to what we did with Olu a few years ago.

On where they stand in camp:

Franklin: I feel really good about it. We’ve had a ton of reps. I don’t know if I said this to you guys before. It’s interesting—the old ball coaches, you talk about the days of the two-a-days are gone. In college, we did three-a-days the entire time. I wouldn’t go back if I could. I think the morning walk-through and the afternoon practice is enough. We get a ton out of it, especially the way we are walking through. Guys are doing a really good job being detail-oriented—footwork, pad level, all of it. So I think it’s been really good. I think we’re in a good place. Obviously, it’s very different in year two with Andy and very different in year two with Stig. Everything’s about putting our defense and putting Jim in the best position as well, so that we can come out from game one and play championship-level football. So I like where we’re at. We still got some work to do, but the good thing is, we still have time to get there.

On Andy Kotelnicki differences in year two:

Franklin: I think the biggest thing is he knows our program. He knows how we operate. So there’s a ton of value in that. Fewer questions he has to ask. But then the other thing is, he knows our personnel better. He knows our team better, he knows what our strengths are, he knows what our weaknesses are. We’ve gotten to a point now in camp, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what our identity is going to be. So I just think he knows our team better. He knows what Liam’s strengths are, and how do we play to Liam’s strengths? And Dinkins, and I can go on—Singleton. So I think that’s probably the biggest difference: how do we maximize our personnel, and how do we hide some of our deficiencies while we’re still working on them?

Personnel development

On the depth at defensive tackle:

Franklin: You’ll get a chance to see a ton of it during the first three games. We plan on playing a bunch of those guys to create depth, but also to evaluate them. Wafle is a guy that’s really been a nice addition for us and is playing some really good football. So I think he factors in, and those next couple of guys, there’s a battle. Enai has done some nice things since we moved him inside. I think he’s already up to 275 pounds. So you know he has the ability to carry the weight pretty easily. Randy Adirika is doing some good things. Cook is doing some good things. So there’s a group of guys. But I just think the development of the Wafles and some of those guys that you guys haven’t seen, it’ll be really important in those first three games.

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On how to maintain development during the season:

Franklin: I think there’s the aspect that there’s guys right now we think are going to be ready by game one. But then there’s also guys that we think may not be ready by game one, but we think they’re going to be ready by game four or five. And that should change. And we’ve had that every year—guys that were yellow at the end of camp, but then by game four or five, they turn to green. We’ve had guys that we thought were going to be green, and then slowed them down because they didn’t play as well as we thought they were going to. So we’ll have a better idea of where we’re at after game three. We have a bye week as well, so that’ll be helpful too, to kind of look at our roster and which of those guys that played in the first three games will continue to play, or which guys are we going to shut down and save their fourth game for later in the season when we need it? So we’ll know more. But we’re in a pretty good place. To your point, there are guys that are going to be held up on the varsity field and there are going to be guys that are down with the scout team, or what we call the developmental squad. But there have been guys that have been down there that keep flashing and then all of a sudden the coaches are like, “Hey, you need to take another look at this guy. He’s killing our starters.” So there’s still a chance for those guys. It’s not like they go down there and it’s the black hole—they fall off the cliff and they’re not watched again. They’re evaluated. So that development is all year long. What’s better than going against the starters every single day at practice, if you embrace it the right way?

On the transfer receivers’ progress and acclimation with Drew Allar:

Franklin: It’s been good. Hudson is Steady Eddie. Big, strong, physical, contested-catch guy. Very mature, very smart. Pena obviously was very productive. He’s been probably better than I thought he was going to be. And I thought it was going to be pretty good. I mentioned already that I do think he’s a guy that got faster and stronger and more explosive in our strength and conditioning program. And I think Ross, you guys saw in the spring, he’s got the ability to be kind of the guy in space that I think scares some people, just from a quickness standpoint. He’s so efficient with his movements. So those three guys, I like where they’re at. I would also make the argument with those three guys, I think it’s going to be really important coming out of the first three games that we feel like we really know what we have with those three guys and how we could use them. So just like Andy knows our team better, we know those guys too. But we’ll have a much better idea of who they are – who those guys are as well – after the first three games.

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