Read and hear what Penn State coach James Franklin said following the Blue-White game

STATE COLLEGE — Penn State coach James Franklin held his final news conference of the spring on Saturday afternoon.

The ninth-year leader of the Nittany Lions met reporters after the defense beat the offense 17-13 in front of 62,000 fans at Beaver Stadium.

Below, you can hear and read what Franklin said during his chat with reporters. Some answers have been shortened slightly.

Opening statement

James Fraklin: “For the most part, we stayed healthy, got a ton of reps, managed a challenging situation with our offensive line based on numbers. I know today wasn’t exactly what the fans or the media wanted, but it was the best thing to do for our program and then still maximize the opportunity that we had.

“We answered some questions this spring, but we still have some questions going into fall camp.

“There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done between now and fall camp. I’m pleased with our progress. Manny Diaz being able to get here, being able to watch bowl practice and then get 15 practices of spring ball was very, very important. Year two under Mike Yurcich was very, very important. Getting a veteran quarterback like Sean Clifford, with the same offensive coordinator for two years and being able to mentor two, really three, talented underclass quarterbacks.

“All these things gain value. The last thing I would say is we probably have more new guys showing up on campus that have a chance to impact the roster as freshmen than maybe we’ve ever had. Maybe one other class that did that. So, I’m excited about that. Where I think this class may be different is, obviously we’ve all seen the increase in mid-semester grads. We’re getting more guys that are graduating early and coming in, learning the system and then going into summer with a chance to truly compete. So overall, I’m excited about it.

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Question: James, building on your last statement there. Could you speak to why it’s important to get kids in who are ready to play immediately?

JF: “I think the first thing I would say is we don’t pressure guys. I think some schools really are adamant about them having to graduate early and get here, we don’t but the numbers are just naturally rising. People see it as an opportunity to get ahead academically. As you guys saw, Micah Parsons was here. Micah graduated in three years. You’re talking about getting ahead academically in a semester. There’s also value in football, you have to show up and you have to adjust academically, athletically and socially all at once, all in the fall semester. Where maybe other sports, like basketball, you’re able to come in and adjust academically and socially and then adjust later in the semester or the second semester when it comes to basketball.

“So, there’s value from that perspective, and then obviously depth. You look around college football, everybody’s struggling with depth in spring ball based on some of the new rule changes, so it helps from that standpoint as well. There are a lot of reasons why I think it makes sense, but I do think it has to be the right kid in the right situation because you go from being a high school student on a Wednesday to a college student on a Monday, it happens fast. You got to be ready for that.”

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Question: Looking back at spring practices, who are the big standouts? Part one focuses on the offense

JF: “Caedan [Wallace], Sal [Wormley], and Olu [Fashanu], I think those three guys played really well. They took a ton of reps this spring. We have had a really good competition at guard. We’ll still have competition [at other] positions, but we’ll have really good competition at guard. Getting Saleem Wormley back from injury is really valuable.

“At wideout, with Parker [Washington] and KeAndre [Lambert-Smith] back, I thought Mitchell Tinsley came in and did some really good things that you’d expect out of a veteran wide out. Wide out, I think we got chance to have a legitimate two-deep that we probably haven’t had.

“At quarterback, Sean [Clifford] had his best spring. Christian Veilleux was able to build on the success that he had in the Rutgers game.

“Sean and Veilleux both had really good springs. And, the two young guys [Drew Allar and Beau Pribula] really flashed some potential.”

Watch video of James Franklin’s Penn State Blue-White news conference below:

Question: Looking back at spring practices, who are the big standouts [for Penn State]? Part one focuses on the defense and special teams

JF: “Ji’Ayir Brown, ‘Tig’, obviously led the nation in interceptions last year. But, I thought he built on it this spring and this winter workouts. I really feel like we got three other safeties that really flashed at times.

“I think we have a lot of positions, I’m not ready to say we’re as talented with the starters that we’ve ever been, but we have positions where our depth is as good as it’s been, where the drop off isn’t as significant to the number twos and number threes.

“At linebacker, I would say the move of Jon Sutherland to the field [line]backer, I think it has been very obvious to everybody that was the right thing for us to do and that was the right thing for Jon to do.

“I think he’s got a chance to have a big year.

“Defensive line, just having Adisa [Isaac] back,” Franklin said. “We felt like he had a chance to be a really special player and then missed last year. So having him back, it’s great to see that athleticism coming off of the edge.

“And, I would say the same thing at D-tackle that I said at safety. We have more depth at D-tackle without a significant drop-off than we’ve had in the past.

“I thought it was awesome to see Gabe Nwosu today punt the hell out of the ball. He hasn’t done that all spring to be honest with you. Some guys, when they get in Beaver Stadium in front of fans, the light goes on and they play well. I thought he did that today.

“I thought [punter] Barney Amor was great all spring. That’s important, obviously losing Jordan Stout, who will probably be the highest-drafted specialist in the country this year.”

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Question: In your opening remarks, you said that you have a lot of questions and a lot of work to do before now and the season. What are the questions [for Penn State]? What’s number one on the list?

JF: “I don’t know if I have a number one. The things that jump out in my mind is who’s going to be the punter. You know after losing maybe the best specialist in the country. That’s a big question. Is it Barney (Amor), is it Gabe (Nwosu) or is it Mitch (Groh)? Or is it a really talented guy coming in, in (Alex) Bacchetta. Talking to Blake Gillikin, who I think we all had a ton of respect for. Blake says and he’s worked out with them. Blake says he’s the best freshman he’s ever seen. So, we’ll see how that plays out. But that was a big question, coming into the season, obviously after losing somebody.

“Offensive line, you know, who’s going to replace the guys that left? And can we take a step where you guys ask about the offensive line. I say something and then we back it up.

“On the offensive line, which has been a question. I think the other question is linebacker. We lost some horsepower at the linebacker position. I think we got a pretty good idea who the two outside linebackers are, and we had great competition as mike linebacker between Elsdon and Kobe. And I would say as the staff and managers will probably tell you this, they probably did better than we anticipated. So, we’re a little bit further ahead there than we thought. Those are probably the big things and then obviously hiring a new defensive coordinator. How is he going to fit and match after we have had so much stability at that position for a long time. But that’s been good so far.”

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Question: I want to go back to the [Penn State] safety room for a second. How does the versatility of his (Manny Diaz) defense and the versatility of the players who you have at that safety position… how does that mesh for you from what you’ve seen this spring.

JF: I think that’s one of the things that you hear all the time. It’s almost like a coaching cliche, right.

“We’re going to play to the strengths of our players, but then you watch a lot of times and coordinators don’t do that. They’ve always been an 11-personnel team, or 11-personnel coordinators, but then you have a really strong tight end room. Are you willing to go 12-personnel or are you going to be hardheaded?

“I see that with both of our coordinators, and I see that with Manny. That was part of moving Sutherland (Jonathan) to the field backer position, which is something we were talking about before Manny got here. But I think Manny was able to kind of lay a foundation. I don’t know if you’re necessarily going to see that this spring. We lay a foundation; you watch who makes plays. Not only in team settings, you watch who makes plays in one-on-one reps in practice. We watch everything, we tape everything, we chart everything. We got data on everything.

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“One of the things that I love to do preseason every year before the fall and every year before the spring, is let’s rank our 22 best players. And then based on that ranking, that should dictate how we play on offense and defense. Let’s rank our units. O-line through quarterback and everywhere in between and what’s our strongest units to our weakest units and then as coaches at the end of the year, let’s re-rank it and see if it plays out the same way.

“You got a chance as a position coach to fix your position group. Was yours the last ranked group on offense or defense? [If so], let’s fix it. So, feedback is really important. But to your question about Manny and flexibility and strength of our personnel, I think that’s hard because that was laying a foundation more than anything. And him figuring out who our team is and what our strengths are and then you kind of get into the specifics of game planning.”

Question: So, you thought this was Sean’s best spring…  I guess how and why do you feel that way?

JF: “Well, number one the data. What we try to do every day is we do daily data, and then I get a second sheet with cumulative data. So, it’s what your eyes tell you, what your experience tells you. And then you have the data to back it up to make sure your eyes and experience are driving you and leading you in the right direction.

“But you know, you talk about his interception ratio. You talk about his completion percentage. You talk about his explosive play percentage, and we track it all. We track drop percentage, adjusted drop percentage. All these different things. We track “MA’s” what we call missed assignments. So, we track it all. And that part of it is talking to defense, “Manny, what do you think about the offense?”

“So, it’s feedback and I think it’s also how his teammates responded. It’s also how he was with the young quarterbacks. I thought he was tremendous. And then what’s great is you hear that from the young quarterbacks but then I see the Pribula’s and I see the Allar’s, mom and dad and they talk about their sons talking about how great Sean was with them all spring.

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Question: Are you married to the concept of this being a game, a scrimmage or competition or would you consider it, since you don’t want to get guys hurt, it being a skills competition, maybe with fans interacting? Has that ever crossed your mind?

JF: “I would prefer it to be the spring game. Because number one like I mentioned when you step into the stadium and you got 60,000 fans, I want to know which young players can handle that. Some rise for the moment and play better than they did in the 14 other practices.

“Some are nervous and they’re dropping balls they haven’t dropped all spring or missing assignments or whatever it is. I think there’s also a part of it, let’s be honest, I want the fanbase excited going into the next year that there’s a buzz and they’re talking about it. I want you guys writing nice columns please. All these types of things. I think there’s value in it. I get it.

“Like anything, you know, there’s a cost-benefit ratio to everything. For us, we’ve done a pretty good job. You saw today some of the periods were thuds. Some of them were live. I can see us even in the future in a spring game setting doing both. The live work … this is still a game where you better block, you better tackle, you better be able to break tackles. So, it is needed I think in the overall evaluation of our program to know where we’re heading and maybe I’m old school. I’m still a believer that this game is built on toughness. And I want to know who’s taught when it matters most.”

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