James Franklin explains why Penn State is in a better position to succeed in 2022

Penn State is coming off back-to-back disappointing seasons on the field. Head coach James Franklin isn’t worried, though. At Big Ten Media Days, he was asked about how the 2022 team is positioned for the season. He explained why Penn State is in a better spot than they were at this time last season.

“Our testing numbers in terms of the things that you’ve been doing for 100 years in football,” James Franklin said. “Bigger, stronger, faster. Obviously having some of the technology like Catapult, which actually gives you specific data about how they’re running outside on the field, that’s valuable as well.”

James Franklin identified depth as one of the biggest issues that Penn State faced. Because of that, injuries were more devastating to them than they otherwise should have been. He says those issues were addressed.

“As we all know, we had depth issues last year where when we were healthy we could play with anybody in the country. We showed that. But when we had some injuries at key positions we weren’t able to sustain it the way we need to sustain it. And a game that is physical like the game of football, that’s going to happen and you have to prepare for it and you have to be ready for it. I just think we’ve had more depth at more positions that we’ve ever had  — excuse me, not that we’ve ever had but that we’ve had in the last few years — but I think the other thing, like I mentioned, is based on testing numbers and feedback from the players and things like that.”

Can new talent help Penn State?

James Franklin pointed out that Penn State brought in a lot of new talent. They did this through their recruiting class, which was seventh in 2022. The Nittany Lions also took advantage of the transfer portal. This should have given Penn State more top-end talent and depth.

“Although our recruiting class was ranked highly, that sounds great but once everyone shows up to campus no one cares whether you’re a five-star or a two-star, and we all know there’s exceptions to that every year. There’s the five-star that doesn’t pan out, there’s the two-star that ends up going to the College Football Hall of Fame.”

“So once they show up you get a better feel. And right now it just seems like we have more players that have a chance to help us after just arriving on campus, and that’s a combination of high school prospects, transfers and a junior college player, but there’s probably more players that we feel like can impact us this year than maybe we’ve had in years past,” James Franklin explained.