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Penn State enters week three of spring practice with James Franklin looking for something specific; here's what it is

Greg Pickelby:Greg Pickel•03/28/23•

GregPickel

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Penn State coach James Franklin watches practice.

STATE COLLEGE — Penn State football is at the halfway mark of spring practice. Its 15 days of drills started earlier this month and continue through the Blue-White game on April 15.

Back on March 14, hours before the team put pads on for the first time as a 2023 unit, head coach James Franklin talked about the many things he hoped to learn over the month of practices ahead. The list included everything from finding leaders following the loss of every captain from last year’s team to a third receiver, fourth tackle, and more. He’s given positive soundbites on all of those over the last two weeks. But, with week three underway, the 10th-year leader of the Lions shared what he’s looking for now that the calendar is all but ready to flip to April.

“I’d like to see some of the young guys kind of take the next step,” Franklin said Tuesday night following spring practice number seven.

“We’re halfway through right now, and a lot of them are still kind of hesitant and not as aggressive as they need to be.”

Penn State’s young players are not alone in that regard. After all, head coaches across the country undoubtedly feel the same way about many of their newcomers. Yet, one unique factor in State College is how many of them will need to contribute this fall. Franklin did not name any names. But, we know there will be a first-time starter at some spots and numerous young players in critical roles for the first time.

Picking out the Penn State positives

While the above features areas for improvement, there are plenty of signs of progress, too.

“Defensively, I think we’re we’re playing actually pretty well right now,” Franklin said. “That’s been good to see.”

Positive movement is also being made on special teams, albeit at a slower pace than maybe expected due to the number of indoor spring practices to date, with new starters needed at longsnapper, place kicker, kickoff specialists, and punter.

Franklin also said quarterbacks Drew Allar and Beau Pribula are “cerebral” and “working like crazy” and that their competition to replace Sean Clifford has been “really good.” Caedan Wallace and Drew Shelton also continue to push each other at right tackle. KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Harrison “Tre” Wallace, then, have separated themselves at receiver. And, things are looking up in terms of formulating a two-deep at safety.

All told, then, it’s fair to say that things are pretty much probably where one might expect them to be at this stage of spring. But, for Penn State, there is still plenty to accomplish before the team exits Beaver Stadium on April 15.

“Overall, we still got a ton of work to do before the spring game,” Franklin said. “I do think we’ve done a good job of laying a foundation in terms of what we’re going to do in fall camp. But, we still got a lot of work to do.”

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