Good evening everyone -
Penn State once again welcomed the media to practice Wednesday evening in advance of the Nittany Lions' first game of the season, set for Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m., BTN) at Beaver Stadium against Idaho.
It's a beautiful night in State College and there's buzz around town as students are back on campus and in classes and the first real weekend of the 2019 school year and the start of the football season is now just days ahead.
Let's go straight to video from James Franklin's post-practice press conference, which you guys can get started on, and then I'll move into my news and notes items to come from practice tonight. I should have updates coming in probably a half hour or so, which right now means about 8:00-8:15.
Two quick hitters though for you, which were really the biggest news items of the evening:
1) This was actually announced in the spring, but Franklin brought it up again that the team would be wearing its "throwback" uniforms for homecoming against Purdue, and will now feature the uniform once per season from here moving forward.
2) Cornerback Donovan Johnson has been suspended for a violation of team rules for the first game of the season. Asked (on the final question of the night) whether it could be longer than just the first game, Franklin shrugged and the press conference was over.
Johnson was practicing with the scout team tonight and was not on the first released depth chart of the season on Tuesday.
3) Onto the practice portion of what we saw.
First of all, now that the team has divided into scout team and first- and second-teams on offense and deference, with the scout team defense prepping the offense and scout team offense prepping the defense, the depth chart game that comes with each week of practice reports is again largely over.
Which is to say, we were stationed on the side of the practice fields in which the offense was working, with the defense one and a half fields away. So, for our purposes tonight, we really only got a good look at the offense, for about 10 minutes of red zone work.
Here’s a look at the depth chart on the offense, as best as I could approximate for what we were witness to. No surprises, but Shorter was again working with the first team tonight, as did Cam Sullivan-Brown at one point when we first came in.
QB Sean Clifford/Will Levis
RB Ricky Slade/Noah Cain/Devyn Ford
WR Justin Shorter/Cam Sullivan-Brown/Dan Chisena
WR KJ Hamler/Mac Hippenhammer/Isaac Lutz
WR Jahan Dotson/Daniel George
TE Pat Freiermuth/Nick Bowers/Zack Kuntz
RT Will Fries/Caedan Wallace/Rasheed Walker
RG CJ Thorpe/Anthony Whigan
C Michal Menet/Hunter Kelly
LG Steven Gonzalez/Bryce Effner
LT Rasheed Walker/Des Holmes
The short rundown of plays we were witness to:
Levis overthrow to George, touchdown from Levis to Chisena, touchdown to Dotson from Levis. Clifford incompletion, Clifford scramble, Clifford touchdown to Hamler.
4) Franklin has been effusive in his praise for his defense this preseason, and really even dating back to spring practices. So tonight, when he was asked whether or not this is the best defense he’s had since he’s been here (this being his sixth year at the helm), Franklin cautioned against taking it too far, but acknowledged what’s visually apparent to just about anyone that watches this group:
They’re pretty darn good.
“Well, it's hard to say because we haven't played a rep yet but at this point, you know, I feel pretty good about it,” said Franklin, highlighting individual pieces of the past that they knew would be good, like Carl Nassib. “We've had pieces, but in terms of really D-line, linebacker, and secondary, and feeling pretty good about all of them, I think we all knew, safety, you know, again, we feel really good about it right now. But game time is gonna be another evaluation. D-tackles, we feel really good about it right now, but game time is a different evaluation, obviously.
“But at this point of the season going into it, yeah, I would say so. I think our confidence is pretty high with how we're capable of playing on defense."
Later, Franklin was asked to describe how this group passes the eyeball test.
“We're longer and athletic, more athletic, and our body types, our guys have done a really good job of changing their body types. They're leaner, more athletic than they've been in the past. And then it also is our testing results. Our depth at defensive end. Although we're young, we're not relying on as many true freshman in significant roles like Micah was. So I think it's kind of a combination of all those types of things. And then when you got a guy like Jan Johnson, a veteran guy in the middle, that not only has really increased his overall athletic numbers and resume, but his instincts are so good, and he's so smart, and so intuitive with everything that he plays even faster. So I just think it's a combination of all the things that you know that you mentioned.”
5) One last note on a night that didn't involve much in the way of news, but Franklin detailed how the team selects its captains, of which there are eight this season.
He broke it down that typically they're going to have two offense, two defense, and two special teams, but this year the voting was close enough on offense and defense to have three on both sides of the ball.
The caveat, and point of interest, was that Clifford had an abundance of votes, but Franklin also felt it necessary to provide him with the support to be able to concentrate more on simply being the quarterback - and all that entails - than to have to carry half the burden as one of two offensive captains.
"It is. I'm also going to tell you though, that yeah, he has earned everybody's respect. There's no doubt about it. But I would also say back to your point, that was also part of the three captains deal," said Franklin. "I want Sean focused on being the quarterback but I didn't feel right because he dominated the votes, of not making him a captain, but I didn't want so much on his plate. With three captains, he doesn't maybe feel like he has to charge that unit. It takes a little bit off his plate so that was part of it as well."
_____________________
That's going to be it for the notes tonight. Photos coming.
I'm happy to try to answer any questions you might have.
Penn State once again welcomed the media to practice Wednesday evening in advance of the Nittany Lions' first game of the season, set for Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m., BTN) at Beaver Stadium against Idaho.
It's a beautiful night in State College and there's buzz around town as students are back on campus and in classes and the first real weekend of the 2019 school year and the start of the football season is now just days ahead.
Let's go straight to video from James Franklin's post-practice press conference, which you guys can get started on, and then I'll move into my news and notes items to come from practice tonight. I should have updates coming in probably a half hour or so, which right now means about 8:00-8:15.
Two quick hitters though for you, which were really the biggest news items of the evening:
1) This was actually announced in the spring, but Franklin brought it up again that the team would be wearing its "throwback" uniforms for homecoming against Purdue, and will now feature the uniform once per season from here moving forward.
2) Cornerback Donovan Johnson has been suspended for a violation of team rules for the first game of the season. Asked (on the final question of the night) whether it could be longer than just the first game, Franklin shrugged and the press conference was over.
Johnson was practicing with the scout team tonight and was not on the first released depth chart of the season on Tuesday.
3) Onto the practice portion of what we saw.
First of all, now that the team has divided into scout team and first- and second-teams on offense and deference, with the scout team defense prepping the offense and scout team offense prepping the defense, the depth chart game that comes with each week of practice reports is again largely over.
Which is to say, we were stationed on the side of the practice fields in which the offense was working, with the defense one and a half fields away. So, for our purposes tonight, we really only got a good look at the offense, for about 10 minutes of red zone work.
Here’s a look at the depth chart on the offense, as best as I could approximate for what we were witness to. No surprises, but Shorter was again working with the first team tonight, as did Cam Sullivan-Brown at one point when we first came in.
QB Sean Clifford/Will Levis
RB Ricky Slade/Noah Cain/Devyn Ford
WR Justin Shorter/Cam Sullivan-Brown/Dan Chisena
WR KJ Hamler/Mac Hippenhammer/Isaac Lutz
WR Jahan Dotson/Daniel George
TE Pat Freiermuth/Nick Bowers/Zack Kuntz
RT Will Fries/Caedan Wallace/Rasheed Walker
RG CJ Thorpe/Anthony Whigan
C Michal Menet/Hunter Kelly
LG Steven Gonzalez/Bryce Effner
LT Rasheed Walker/Des Holmes
The short rundown of plays we were witness to:
Levis overthrow to George, touchdown from Levis to Chisena, touchdown to Dotson from Levis. Clifford incompletion, Clifford scramble, Clifford touchdown to Hamler.
4) Franklin has been effusive in his praise for his defense this preseason, and really even dating back to spring practices. So tonight, when he was asked whether or not this is the best defense he’s had since he’s been here (this being his sixth year at the helm), Franklin cautioned against taking it too far, but acknowledged what’s visually apparent to just about anyone that watches this group:
They’re pretty darn good.
“Well, it's hard to say because we haven't played a rep yet but at this point, you know, I feel pretty good about it,” said Franklin, highlighting individual pieces of the past that they knew would be good, like Carl Nassib. “We've had pieces, but in terms of really D-line, linebacker, and secondary, and feeling pretty good about all of them, I think we all knew, safety, you know, again, we feel really good about it right now. But game time is gonna be another evaluation. D-tackles, we feel really good about it right now, but game time is a different evaluation, obviously.
“But at this point of the season going into it, yeah, I would say so. I think our confidence is pretty high with how we're capable of playing on defense."
Later, Franklin was asked to describe how this group passes the eyeball test.
“We're longer and athletic, more athletic, and our body types, our guys have done a really good job of changing their body types. They're leaner, more athletic than they've been in the past. And then it also is our testing results. Our depth at defensive end. Although we're young, we're not relying on as many true freshman in significant roles like Micah was. So I think it's kind of a combination of all those types of things. And then when you got a guy like Jan Johnson, a veteran guy in the middle, that not only has really increased his overall athletic numbers and resume, but his instincts are so good, and he's so smart, and so intuitive with everything that he plays even faster. So I just think it's a combination of all the things that you know that you mentioned.”
5) One last note on a night that didn't involve much in the way of news, but Franklin detailed how the team selects its captains, of which there are eight this season.
He broke it down that typically they're going to have two offense, two defense, and two special teams, but this year the voting was close enough on offense and defense to have three on both sides of the ball.
The caveat, and point of interest, was that Clifford had an abundance of votes, but Franklin also felt it necessary to provide him with the support to be able to concentrate more on simply being the quarterback - and all that entails - than to have to carry half the burden as one of two offensive captains.
"It is. I'm also going to tell you though, that yeah, he has earned everybody's respect. There's no doubt about it. But I would also say back to your point, that was also part of the three captains deal," said Franklin. "I want Sean focused on being the quarterback but I didn't feel right because he dominated the votes, of not making him a captain, but I didn't want so much on his plate. With three captains, he doesn't maybe feel like he has to charge that unit. It takes a little bit off his plate so that was part of it as well."
_____________________
That's going to be it for the notes tonight. Photos coming.
I'm happy to try to answer any questions you might have.
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