Everything Penn State coach James Franklin said after spring practice No. 7
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State coach James Franklin met with reporters for the thrid time during spring practice on Tuesday night. The Nittany Lions are at the midway mark of spring practice with seven days of drills in the books and seven more to go before the Blue-White game closes things out on April 13 at Beaver Stadium.
“I hate to keep saying the same thing to you guys over and over and over again, but I feel [spring practice] is about a foundation,” Franklin said. “I think we’ve laid a foundation where most of the offense, defense, and special teams are in right now. And then you got a chance to kind of evaluate. There’s still that aspect of ‘okay, we’ll put all this stuff in, and then we’ll go through all this stuff in the summer, and then we got to kind of really figure out what our identity is.’
“Like, okay, these are the things that we have in the playbook. What’s going to be the identity of our defense this year? What’s going to be the identity of our offense this year? And play to those strengths and then work on our weaknesses. But I don’t mean to keep answering that way. But that’s really kind of where we are in spring ball is laying a foundation and I feel good about what we’ve done up to this point.”
Here’s everything else Franklin said during his 10-plus minute Q&A.
On new receiver Julian Fleming as a recruit versus now as an experienced player
JF: “To be honest with you, he’s been great. And the way that ended the first time, I wasn’t necessarily sure how it would all play itself out, even during the recruiting process. I’m talking about the second recruiting process. When we had our first conversation. I didn’t know how it was going to play itself ou. But, the guys love him. He’s been awesome as a teammate. He’s been really coachable. I think he has been able to kind of move on. We’ve moved on. There’s been no talk about the past. He has just been really good. His grandfather has been up in practice. The other day his uncle was up at practice, which is obviously a huge advantage of a local guy staying home. He has been really good. I think for both parties. I don’t want to speak for Julian, but it seems like it’s been really good in terms of just energy, morale, and expectations. He has been great. He has been a really good addition. I know that he’s earned the coaches’ and the players’ trust and respect pretty quickly.”
On how Trey Wallace has looked this spring and the Penn State receivers room overall
JF:” I think the whole group, from what I’ve seen, is improved. Trey’s always been kind of super athletic. Losing him last year for a period of time like we did, I thought that hurt us. I still would like to see a group of guys really kind of separate themselves from the pack. I think the whole group has improved. But, I’d like to see a couple guys kind of kind of separate themselves and you know, make it clearly obvious to everybody.
“I think we need a little bit more of that. But, Trey has been good. He’s been one of our guys that we viewed as the starter now for a while. And like I already mentioned, losing him last year, that was a significant blow.”
On the idea of building championship habits during spring ball
JF: I think more than anything, it’s a foundation of habits. It’s a foundation of offense, defense, and special teams. Not just for the players, but for some of the [Penn State] coaches that are new, so that we can literally come into summer and feel really good about having a chance to compete legitimately for jobs. Right now, this is great, but there’s going to be no decisions made now. I think guys are going to want to know where they’re at at the end the spring. There’s so many things that are going to change between now and the first game. And everybody’s just kind of got to understand that.
“It wouldn’t be right or fair for anybody for us to make decisions at this point. But a lot can change between now and West Virginia. I think it’s just the foundation of all those things: habits, understanding of the offense, defense and special teams, so you truly have a chance to compete in the summer. And then there’s going to be some guys that obviously are going to get here in the summer that are going to factor in. We don’t know who those guys are right now, because after signing, the recruiting rankings and the stars go out the window, and what shows up, we’ll have a better chance to evaluate that and see if any of those guys that haven’t been here yet, if they got a chance to help us. Not necessarily by game one. Maybe they’ve showed us that they got a chance. But then by game four or five, they’re ready to really contribute, especially when you talk about the possibility of 17 games. That’s a long season.”
On the recruiting dynamics at Penn State with three new coordinators
JF: “Yeah, I think because we’ve had pretty good stability on the recruiting staff, I think that’s helped. I think you guys saw, some of the recruiting staff was on the road recruiting when we had some turnover and some open positions while we were waiting for [NCAA] clearance. So I think that helped. Depending on how people do it, some people, the coordinators don’t have as active a role in recruiting. We do. But I still think the assistant coaches did a really good job. And then we always take kind of a layered approach in recruiting, where it’s not just one guy. Because, you lose that guy, then then you’re in trouble. So we always have multiple guys, whether it’s the position coach, whether it’s the coordinator, whether it’s the area recruiter, and then the recruiting staff. So that’s what’s really been pretty good.
“And when you think about the last recruiting class, it’s somewhat unusual, the last recruiting class, and then even the kids that committed to us early in this class, we had three changes in the coordinator position. But, I don’t think we lost a recruit during that period of time, which is very unusual.”
On the younger Penn State quarterbacks
JF: “It’s been really good. I think there is clearly a real healthy competition and back and forth between [Penn State starter] Drew [Allar] and [backup] Beau [Pribula]. That’s been really good. Both have kind of stepped their game up. And then [Ethan] Grunkemeyer is really flashing and doing some nice things right now for a true freshman quarterback. What I’m most excited about is, he’s shown flashes right now. How is he going to be in the summer, when he’s had really all spring, and all of the early summer, to kind of grind on the playbook, grind on the installs, watch a ton of Kansas tape, watch a ton of Penn State tape? Where will those guys be? But it’s been good.”
On the energy at practice from the three new coordinators
JF: “Andy [Koltenicki], I think, has been been really good. I think he’s approaching it like I’d like it to be approached in terms of being the head coach of the offense. Not just running plays, [but] talking about what we have to do big picture wise to be successful and understanding the why. Tom [Allen], there’s a big difference between being a head coach in the Big Ten and a coordinator. And I think kind of getting back into the rhythm of that, he’s done a really nice job. The one thing he’s struggling with right now is the whistle. He’s still blowing the whistle in practice, more than what he’s supposed to. I went up to him today, I go, ‘did you just blow your whistle?’ He goes, ‘I may have.’ Obviously, that’s changed a little bit, but he’s been awesome.
“And then [Justin] Lustig, I’ve been a fan of for a long time. So, to be able to get him back in Pennsylvania and here at Penn State has been really good. We’re still running the same special teams that we have under the last two special teams coordinators. He’s had a few tweaks. But for the most part, still a lot of similarities with what we’ve done in the past.”
On the Penn State linebacker room to date
JF: “They’re good. We’re just starting to get some live work where you really got a chance to evaluate linebackers. It’s hard to do it unless you’re flying around. I do think some of the things that we’re doing offensively, that is different, it’s been challenging. It’s been challenging for the safeties, specifically, and the linebackers, those two groups. But I’ve been pleased with them. I really have. Obviously, we have a group of guys who have played a lot of football for us. And then we got a group of guys that need to take the next step that we’re excited about. You think about guys like Ta’Mere [Robinson] and [Kaveion] Keys and those next young guys that need to continue to grow up and evolve and we’re seeing signs of it. So hopefully, they’ll finish out the spring on a real positive and have a really good spring game and go into the summer with some confidence.
“And then again, a couple of weeks into summer camp, feeling like we have depth there. Because right now, we got to create some more depth there to feel good about. Moving Abdul [Carter] to defensive end, everybody’s excited about it, but it has an impact on our linebacker room, too.”
