James Franklin on Joey Porter Jr: We show film on how he erases one side of the field

On3 imageby:Andrew Graham09/29/22

AndrewEdGraham

The value of a lockdown corner is more pronounced than ever and Penn State has one of the best in America in Joey Porter Jr. His head coach, James Franklin, knows not to take this for granted.

On top of his ability to make a play snap-to-snap — Porter has nine passes defensed through four games — he can basically eliminate a whole side of the field for a passing attacking. This, Franklin knows, is an invaluable asset for Penn State.

“But there’s some examples that we showed the team and we showed the defense of really Joey just eliminating a guy and a play — it’s not even an option for the quarterback,” Franklin said. “So yeah, there’s a ton of value in that. Schematically, there’s a ton of value in that. There’s a ton of value in that as a defensive coordinator. It may be what you are able to do, maybe to stop the run that if he didn’t have the confidence, that maybe you were limited in. So those things.”

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Penn State has an array of pieces that complement Porter on defense, too. The pass rush is fearsome featuring the usual crop of high-end recruits that the Nittany Lions have consistently brought in. And the rest of the secondary is full of exceptional players like Ji’Ayir Brown, Johnny Dixon and Daequan Hardy.

It’d be one thing if Porter was forcing quarterbacks to one side but that side was poorly defended. Instead, he’s helping the Penn State defense force the hand of their opponent, to their own advantage.

“I think where we’re a little bit different is we have size, speed and experience,” Franklin said. “Where, sometimes you may have a combination of those traits but not all of them. So, it’s extremely valuable. And we don’t take it for granted at all. I think those guys that we are fortunate to be playing with right now, we don’t take them for granted one bit. We talk about them all the time in our staff room. And don’t get me wrong, they still need to develop as well, but they’re doing some really good things.”

The only time Porter has really been gone after repeatedly was the opener against Purdue — and he held up fine. Franklin chalks that aggression up to Purdue sticking to its guns. In that case, getting the ball to wideout Charlie Jones, who leads the country in receptions with 41.

“But I think more times than not, people are going to say, ‘Look, if everything is even, we’d like to go away from this guy.’ Or whatever it may be,” Franklin said.