James Franklin media day press conference: Live updates
Penn State head coach James Franklin is meeting wth reporters on Saturday afternoon from Beaver Stadium, just weeks away from the start of the Nittany Lions’ 2025 season. Follow our live updates from the session, here:
James Franklin preseason media day press conference: Live updates
(Updates will appear in reverse chronological order. Page does not automatically refresh. Press conference has ended at 12:48 p.m.)
Backup quarterback
08/02/2025 11:45:04 AMTightly contested in the spring. Thought Smolik would be rusty in the spring and he wasn’t. Thinks this will go down to the wire. If it finishes like it did in the spring, could continue through the year. If there’s a gap, there’s a gap. But if it’s close, competition could go throughout the year. Whoever is thebest that week, will be backup that week. Have the data to back that up for completion, third down, TD/INT. Could go into next year. They’re critical conversations to the season. Who is third RB? Fifth and sixth DE? Will play a huge part in the season. Then getting those guys reps in first three games to evaluate them is important as well.
Tight ends/Rapp/Reynolds
08/02/2025 11:42:05 AMNot enough people talk about Khalil Dinkins. Did all the dirty work last year. Every time he got thrown the ball it was a touchdown. Big, strong, physical, and his improvement in so many areas is dramatic. Bright future. Will have a great year and could play in the NFL a long time. Rapp is another one. In position to play a ton last year, so losing him was significant. But did really good job developing that position and Luke has flashed at times. Rapp is hungry as heck to get back out there. In a position like the last few years to have three TEs they feel they can win with. Big believer in true tight ends and value to the offense. When your TE is a big wideout, not as valuable. When your TE is a slug blocker and not a receiving threat, not as valuable. But Ty Howle and staff have done a good job identifying recruiting, and developing true tight ends critical to what they want to do on offense. Those guys will continue to play a major part in the offense. But will play to strengths. Will be in the personnel that matches that. Competing with guys at position, but who will be 11th player on the field – WR, TE, or RB? Important to figure out identity and what puts them in best position to be successful week to week.
Amare Campbell and Tony Rojas
08/02/2025 11:38:43 AMTony played wth an injury all season last year. Not 100 percent. Having offseason surgery and getting him right, he’s strong and fast, confident. In a really good place and anticipated to have a big year. Still has to do it. Intentional all summer, impressive so far in camp. Then Amare, he’s been a pleasant surprise. Played a ton of football at his last school and thought they would translate here, but you never know. A mature, older player taking the right approach since he stepped on campus. Some excitement about him. Another level of competition they hoped to get, but you never know until on campus. Tested well this summer. Explosive, powerful, compact. He can cover ground and has good instincts. Can tell he’s played a lot of football and will create good competition. Rojas, DeLuca, Campbell, Nelson, Wiley, Jackson, and some of the freshmen, too. Creates another level of competition.
Offensive line then vs. now
08/02/2025 11:36:18 AMIn a different spot now. Not just good for the offense, it’s good for the defense. Iron sharpens iron every day. All the weapons they have, trying to get them all on the field, also saw six OL sets last year, that’s helpful from scheme and development standpoint. Allows those guys to get playing time. Reason to put two QBs on the field at the same time. Get them significant time instead of late game blowout. Tremendous competition. Not sure how it’ll work out. Donkoh playing as well as anyone in the country before injury. Rucci playing as well as anyone in the country before end of the season. Then young guys, too. Guy like Donkoh can play inside. How do they get five best on the field? How to create depth with backup options? All those things, trying to figure out in training camp.
Handling the expectations
08/02/2025 11:33:45 AMIt hasn’t changed this year. It’s always high. Big reason he came here. Why players chose to come here. Are there heightened conversations happening nationally? Yes. But last year a perfect example. A drive away from playing for the national championship last year and 99 percent of the programs would be jacked about that season and how it went, nad not sure that’s the case here. One 13 games and a few points away from playing for a national championship and people were pissed. That’s what you sign up for at Penn State. Have been to a bunch of New Year’s Six games and a bunch of programs would die for that chance, but it doesn’t necessarily feel that way. Not sure it feels any different with players and coaches in the building. All the work they’ve done, the guys that have come back, they’ve earned that attention and conversation. But would also say, no one cares about preseason ranking. No one. Will not frame the preseason rankings and put it in the man cave. No one cares. It’s wonderful. Want to spend time working on the things that allow them to do what they want this year, starting with Nevada, not talking about goals and those types of things. A place for it, but focused on what they need to do to have the season they want.
Player understanding contracts
08/02/2025 11:30:44 AMAs you can imagine, it’s day three of practice and wuold love to talk about practice. Don’t get a lot of interactions in the offseason to talk about these things. But have very structured in-season plans of when to do football and when to do NIL and other things. NIL is a part of college football. Prepares them for their futures. Did this a few years ago with Saquon. Now with Micah. Talked to him yesterday. But in the season right now, and based on how calendar stayed the same, will have to deal with it again at the end of the season, but that was a big part of success. Other programs haven’t handled it well and it has become a distraction with coaches and locker room.
Blending defenses
08/02/2025 11:28:07 AMThe majority of it is having a list of guys that philosophically believe in playing defensive football the way Penn State plays it. Every coordinator has had a top 10 defense. That helped. And Jim saw the things that already existed that aligned. The other thing is, he installed the defense at Duke, OK St, Ohio State – and now this. Every time you do it, you get better at it. Pretty far along, but it’s day three. Some tweaks and changes in the secondary and up front too. Have been predominantly since Manny an attack front defense and man cover team. Will still do those things, but some technique changes up front for how to play blocks. Some changes with the linebackers. Were gapped out, responsibilities. Now requiring LBs to read things out a little more. And in secondary more coverage diversity, which will be important. Two or three games a year you can’t just line up and play man. Those were a lot of the things he discussed with Jim before he got here.
WRs Hudson, Ross, Pena
08/02/2025 11:25:23 AMThey are veterans and it shows. Hudson is mature and savvy. Pena is a sixth year guy. Captain at last school. A lot of maturity and experience. Compares college football to college basketball when one-and-dones started and you could have a veteran team to make a run. Talent and experience matters. Ross didn’t play in Big Ten or ACC, but saw what he did against Iowa. They’ve been great. Some young receivers they’re excited about. This closes the gap hopefully for a year to allow those guys to mature and step up. More depth at receiver than they’ve had. Need more playmaking at the receiver position for them to go where they want, in critical moments and games. Ty Warren and running game, most of offense was built around those things. In a lot of ways, if they trend the way they’re headed, they’ll be more difficult to defend. Going into last year, it was stop the run and Tyler Warren. Having to make defenses stop the full field will help the offense and run game. Drew with more people making plays for him is more valuable. That playmaking production from the WR crew, from TEs, and then being able to use the running backs in more ways – grew dramatically as receivers last year and want to get them the ball in space. A lot of weapons to use that they have to build on every day.
Injury list
08/02/2025 11:21:10 AMNot great right now. Played late into the year and required surgeries afterward. They’ll be limited until they’ve had a padded practice to show they’ve done it. Some guys would say they could play in a game right now. But trainers and docs holding them in “limited” category until they’ve done it. Need to get through first day of hitting before cleared. List is longer than he’d like, but not something he’s overly concerned with.
Opening statement
08/02/2025 11:06:57 AMExcited and privileged to be entering 12th season coaching at Penn State. Chuck Losey and staff continue to do a phenomenal job.
When you look at all of personnel, not just players, staff and players it’s the best combination in 12 years. Depth, experience and talent is impressive. Fun to be a part of.
Proud of the 19 lettermen on staff, spanning five decades going back to the 1980s. Testament to the program, the culture they’ve built, what it means that these guys want to come back to the program, and it’s invaluable. So important for today’s players to have those resources. Tremendous experience and value coming from that.
Focus is on training camp. Everyone knows they’l host Nevada here in a few weeks. Beaver Stadium may look different, but will be rocking. Impressive already seeing what they’ve done already with the renovation.