Watch: Penn State head coach James Franklin recaps first week of spring practice
The Penn State football team is one week into spring football, and head coach James Franklin has an update on the team. Franklin spoke with the assembled media after the team’s Tuesday evening practice, where Blue White Illustrated was on hand. The team opened the first ten minutes of the session on Tuesday for us to view, which you can read and watch here on the site. Catch all of Franklin’s comments on the Blue White Illustrated YouTube Channel, or in the embedded video in this article.
Not a subscriber? Now is a great time to join Blue White Illustrated. Get detailed information from leading Penn State football and recruiting insiders, plus commentary from the top team covering Penn State Football. You can also subscribe to the Blue White Illustrated YouTube Channel for free! Enable notifications to get press conferences, interviews, and live shows faster than your friends. Be in the know this spring season with Blue White Illustrated!
Penn State progressing with installation in all three phases
One of the top conversations this offseason has been Franklin’s insistence that the team takes a smarter approach to the installation of new systems under three new coordinators. How are things going after the first week? Something that came up several times after practice was the staff’s commitment to teaching. Franklin mentioned it when discussing new Penn State OC Andy Kotelnicki.
“I think he’s done a really good job of that there’s a ton of time of explaining the why, which in 2023 I think is really important. I think student athletes and young people will do the same things that we did in the 90s in the 80s. They just wonder why. And I think Andy’s doing a really good job of explaining the why. And teaching football and really getting everybody pulling the rope in the same direction and excited about what we’re going to be able to accomplish on offense this year,” Franklin said.
Franklin also discussed the team’s usage of helmet radios during spring football. Has the team been able to tinker around with who will get the helmets on defense? He gave a surprising answer about how few helmets they have to work with.
No. Because what happened is this rule got changed. So late, that the company couldn’t really get it out to all the schools in the country, they can only get out three. You gotta decide how you’re using those three. So we were doing two quarterbacks and one guy on defense. Typically a middle linebacker, one day it’s Kobe [King] the next day it’s [Tyler] Elsdon. So it’s not ideal.”
Spring Football culminates with Blue White Game on April 13
Franklin confirmed that the team will have a traditional spring game this year when he kicked off the season last Tuesday. Penn State is especially deep at this time of year, which he noted last week.
“I think last year we were at 106 or something at this time, and I think we’re at 125 right now. That also I think is going to be exciting for practice. I think we’re going to be able to practice in terms of reps in a little bit of a different way.
Then the same with the spring game. We’re hopeful that we’re going to be able to have more of a traditional spring game, which I think has become more and more challenging the last couple of years, and to be honest with you, in college football, it’s been more and more challenging. Seeing a lot of people go away from spring games and have kind of had more of a practice or skills type activity in front of the fans.”
The spring season concludes with the Blue-White Game on April 13, with a start time slated for 2 pm.
