Watch Penn State coach James Franklin's full media day news conference
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State coach James Franklin spoke with reporters for 35 minutes on Saturday inside of Beaver Stadium. The Lions are holding their annual media here, and the leader of the Lions led things off.
One position group that has stood out through the first four days of preseason camp is the receivers.
“The depth is not even close compared to last year,” Franklin said. “There was a significant drop off if we got into the second team guys last year, and I don’t think that’s the case this year.”
Franklin also praised defensive coordinator Manny Diaz’s start at Penn State.
“I think we’re in a good place,” Franklin said. “I’ve been pleased with how we play defensively. I love what Manny is doing in terms of what I just talked about, in terms of how he’s emphasizing getting your hands on [footballs] in terms of causing fumbles, interceptions, true interception, picked balls and turnovers.”
Below, you can watch the full video of Franklin’s news conference below.
More updates from Penn State media day
Additionally, BWI’s Nate Bauer is live blogging Saturday’s news conference. See some of the updates below and click the link for more.
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On USC and UCLA joining Big Ten and impact on recruiting: Pat Kraft called him a day or two before it was announced publicly. That was good to have that conversation. Had read and heard things at Big Ten media days where that wasn’t the case everywhere in the league. So that was great to be prepared for it.
With recruiting, when you’re able to add two teams from California to the conference, that should allow you to get into some conversations that you haven’t before from that region. Not having an international airport here in town has somewhat of an impact on that. But you look at this recruiting class, going more national. You have to take that approach, but when you add two schools like that to the conference, it should create more opportunities for kids. Will go out there for a few games and they’ll be coming here a lot.
LIVE UPDATES: James Franklin, coordinators speak at Penn State football media day
On the physicality of the defensive backfield: Outside of each positional meeting room, there are lists of standout players. And if you look at recent trends, that’s a shift historically at Penn State and Terry [Smith] gets a lot of credit for that. Depth at corner is really good. Johnny Dixon is having a really good camp, which is really important for them not only creating depth, but also guys that might be pegged as starters are pushed to keep starting job or could be replaced. That’s across the board. Hardy has done a tremendous job in nickel and could take next step there. He’s taken ownership of that spot.
