Penn State without injury answers ahead of Indiana: Notebook

Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media following his team’s midweek practice Wednesday. Continuing their preparations for Indiana this weekend, the Nittany Lions practiced until about 6:30 p.m. before Franklin took to the microphone.

And, in a week of big conversations about the program, coming out of an introspective press conference Tuesday, the session took on a decidedly different tone.

Flatly, Franklin offered few updates to some of the cliffhangers left open a day earlier.

Running through them all, here is a look at some of the topics discussed:

Sean Clifford

Tuesday, when talking about the quarterback position and Sean Clifford specifically, Franklin offered a short aside at the end of one of his answers. In it, he said that the sixth-year quarterback had sought a conversation with the head coach on Sunday, but it hadn’t yet happened.

“He did come up to me on Monday — excuse me, on Sunday and wanted to talk to me on Monday,” Franklin said. “We haven’t had that conversation yet.”

The first question out of the gates Wednesday night asked Franklin whether or not they’d had the conversation. And, if so, he was also asked if there was anything he’d be comfortable sharing from it.

The answer from Franklin was a flat “no.” But, that was at first. Franklin then followed eventually by clarifying that it wasn’t necessarily that the conversation hadn’t happened, but that he didn’t have anything he’d “be comfortable sharing” with the media from it.

In what amounted to a crystallization of what he’d implied Tuesday, Franklin also reported that the status quo remained at the position in terms of its starter and depth. 

“There’s nothing to really report in terms of changes,” Franklin said. “You guys hadn’t really asked me this the whole rest of the season. So obviously, if there’s any type of change, I probably still wouldn’t announce it until after the game obviously because the other team is watching everything we discuss. But I don’t have any announcements to be made.”

Penn State’s offensive line injuries

Twice Franklin was asked if there were season-ending injuries to starting offensive linemen who have been hurt in recent weeks.

Both times, with Olu Fashanu, and Landon Tengwall, Franklin answered definitively that there weren’t season-ending updates to report. 

“I don’t have anything specifically on Landon yet,” Franklin said. “To your point, I think you have a pretty good idea of how I handle things. If they’re season-ending, I’ll usually express that to you. But I don’t have anything new on that. 

The other, Fashanu, elicited a flat “no” from Franklin when asked if he had anything new to report in terms of it being a season-ending setback to the projected first-round NFL Draft selection. 

However, even in not providing details, Franklin acknowledged what is plain to see when discussing Bryce Effner’s usage moving forward.

“(He) has played all year long. We expect him to have a bigger role. Obviously, we got some bumps and bruises across the offensive line,” Franklin said. “So, he’s played a significant role all year long. And, he’ll play more, probably this week,”

Jerry Cross

It was a name Penn State fans had seen through the team’s winter workouts and spring practices, even as an early enrollee true freshman, but Jerry Cross hasn’t been heard from much in the time since.

Wednesday evening, Franklin offered a more detailed explanation of what’s happened to the sidelined tight end.

“I’m a big fan of Jerry. He got hurt in the summer. So, he had missed a bunch of time, but he’s getting close to being back full go,” Franklin said. “He’s been awesome. though. He’s got a huge smile on his face, he’s worked extremely hard, he’s changed his body. Our training staff loves him. The strength staff loves him. 

“He’s doing really well. He’ll be a guy that hopefully towards the end of the season, we’ll have an opportunity to get some work and get some reps. We’ll just see how that plays out.”