Penn State football: Will James Franklin give opportunities to young offensive linemen?
Penn State football’s offensive line finds itself under the microscope once again this week, following a poor performance against Michigan.
The Nittany Lions surrendered seven sacks, and head coach James Franklin estimated the Wolverines hit quarterback Sean Clifford another five times.
Franklin praised Clifford’s toughness, acknowledging that he was “beat up” following the defeat to the Wolverines.
So where does that leave Penn State’s front five? A reporter asked Franklin Tuesday afternoon how close he has come to making changes with the personnel on the offensive line.
Specifically, could Landon Tengwall, a true freshman and top-100 On3 Consensus prospect, see some time?
“We’d like to get Landon some experience these last couple games,” Franklin said.”I think you guys have seen [Bryce] Effner has played, we’d like to get him some more experience as well. Olu [Fashanu] is another guy that we’re very high on and would like to get him some experiences.”
Effner has seen the most action of that trio by far, playing in eight games and taking 175 snaps. He’s also the oldest of the group — a redshirt junior.
Fashanu, a redshirt freshman, has 21 snaps to his name this season. Tengwall is yet to see the field. With two regular season games and a bowl game remaining on Penn State’s schedule, Tengwall’s redshirt is secure, so the Nittany Lions could play him freely without that concern.
Franklin said there have been times when the Nittany Lions intended to get those players into the game, only to be thwarted by an injury somewhere.
“Some games we’ve planned on doing that but an injury has not allowed us to do that, whether it’s with our starting five or whether it’s with one of the backups that we planned to get in,” Franklin said. “We’d love to be able to get those guys some experience, especially in these last three games.”
The state of Penn State’s run game
Penn State’s running game has fallen well short of expectations this season.
The Nittany Lions averaged 3.5 yards per carry against Michigan last Saturday, their fourth-best mark of the season.
Still, Penn State ranks 13th in the Big Ten with 106.7 yards rushing per game this season, ahead of only Purdue.
Fielding a question about the offensive line’s role in the run game, Franklin expressed confidence that the players and the coaching staff are putting in the hours necessary to right the ship.
“We have gotta be more physical in the running game,” Franklin said. “There’s nobody that works harder at it than Coach [Phil] Trautwein, all off-season, all in-season — the players as well. I think at times we’ve done some pretty good things against some of the better defenses in college football, but we gotta be better, I get it. I understand the questions. We gotta be better.”
