Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media Tuesday afternoon at Beaver Stadium in advance of his Nittany Lions' start to spring practice on Friday.
Answering questions for nearly an hour, Franklin's comments were chock full of information on the players to watch, the developments made throughout the program, and what his levels of expectation are moving forward.
Because there was simply so much to work with, let's take a quick bullet point look at some of the highlights, position-by-position:
Quarterback:
- Franklin went to bat for quarterback Christian Hackenberg and some of the criticisms he faced last season. "Last year Christian spent most of his time solving problems, running from problems, taking a lot of criticism, which I'm really, really defensive about. To be honest with you, looking back at it, a little angry that he faced some of the criticism he did. I don't know if it was fair, just or realistic. I think in the long run, the adversity that he went through physically and emotionally in getting through those things is really going to help him. He earned a lot of people's respect inside our program with how he handled things.
"I am really, really proud of Christian. I'm really protective of him because now looking back at everything, how he handled it, I think he handled it unbelievably well."
- He said Trace McSorley had so many second team reps last year that this spring isn't the level of importance that some might make it out to be for him. "It's not like you got a guy that is a redshirt and didn't get the number two reps. We were hoping to be able to save his redshirt. It worked out that way. But he was getting all the number two reps in practice. So that's not really going to change.
"I know everybody inside our program, the coaches, the players, the strength staff, have been very pleased with him. He gave our defense fits when we would do two‑minute drill, do the two offense against one defense. He has a chance to extend plays, make the throws. He's a winner as you saw with his high school record. He's picked up the offense very well. Very smart player."
Running Backs:
- At running back he's "excited to see what (Nick) Scott, (Brandon) Johnson and (Mark) Allen are going to be able to do. Scott and Allen redshirting, and Johnson is actually our biggest, strongest, fastest guy on our team. Going to see if it's going to translate. Obviously (Johnathan) Thomas is a guy we're excited about as well, but will be somewhat limited during the spring.
"They're all different. Thomas is the big, physical guy. Allen is the quick scat back. Scott is kind of a combination of the two. We're going to need those guys to step up."
Tight Ends:
- Adam Breneman is "as close to 100% as he's been in a long time and feels really good."
- "Then tight ends, their role in the running game. Tight ends, everybody talks about matchups, everybody talks about tight ends, the flexibility they can create in your offense, creating matchup problems. That is only the case if your tight ends are a threat in the running game as blockers and also threats in the passing game.
"Right now we have a bunch of tight ends that were high school wide receivers and weren't asked to block like that, so you lose the advantage. A tight end on the field that's not a threat to cause problems in the running game is basically a slow wide receiver. We might as well put another wide receiver on the field if we're not going to be physical and nasty and aggressive at the tight end position. I think that needs to be a major focus this year."
Offensive line:
- Sterling Jenkins gained 13 pounds of muscle.
- Chance Sorrell lost 10 pounds of fat and gained 10 pounds of muscle. "Sorrell is a guy that was a little bit limited at morning workouts, missed some time."
- At left tackle, they're looking at Albert Hall, Paris Palmer, Chance Sorrell and Sterling Jenkins. "That doesn't mean that Nelson couldn't go do that as well." And, "you guys know how I feel about Hall. Love the guy. When he got the job last year, he was a 238‑pound tight end. I think he's about 294 pounds right now."
- At right tackle if one of the aforementioned left tackles don't work out and Nelson moves, it's "Brosnan, Beh, Shuman, which allows us to move Nelson over, or one of those left tackles we're starting with moves to right tackle. Basically we're going to try to find the four best tackles we can and put them in the best positions to help our team."
Defensive end:
- Carl "Nassib I think had a sneaky, quiet, really successful year if you go back and really study his tape. He played really well for us, going back and watching the tape on him."
- "You look at Nassib, Cothran, Brown. We're excited about all those guys. Cothran is a guy about 260 pounds, looks beautiful. Brown, guy who played running back in high school, almost 260 pounds now. You have Sickles, you have Schwan, again a guy who is big, strong, athletic, tests extremely well. They're the guys right now. Nassib, Cothran, Brown, Sickels and Schwan, then Eikenberry and Castagna as well. Right now we have five guys over 250 pounds that power cleaned 335 pounds or more. The thing we're lacking there is experience."
And, "Sickles has played and had some success. Schwan has played and had some success. Nassib has been a starter for us in a limited role. Cothran has played on special teams and defense. He's the one guy that needs to have more success and game time.
"Brown is a true freshman that we're excited about. But right now he's probably in the third team, which is what you want. You want a guy who is a redshirt freshman who you're excited about his future and potential, but you're not needing him to play a dramatic role. If he ends up beating people out, more power to him, that's great. He's had to beat people out to earn that job."
Defensive tackle:
- Austin Johnson is "a 327‑pound dancing bear" And Zettel has "quickness and explosion… that's going to challenge those guys (on the offensive line)."
Linebacker:
- Wartman, Wooten, Kline, Haffner, Cabinda and Reeder all discussed as options to take over for Mike Hull at inside linebacker.
- Jason Cabinda gained 12 pounds of muscle.
- "Jack Haffner is moving from running back to linebacker. Adam Geiger is moving from running back to safety. The reason we're doing that with those two guys, they came in and met with me, I met with every single player on the team in individual meetings, those guys want to be special teams terrors for us this year."
Secondary:
- Trevor Williams has gained 10 pounds of actual muscle.
- Jordan Lucas is going from corner to safety. I think Jordan is a guy who could play corner here and at the next level as well. I think he has a chance to maybe be special at safety.
- (Contrary to my own reporting earlier, as plans have apparently shifted) Amani Oruwariye is moving from corner to safety.
Special teams:
- Chris Gulla is moving exclusively to place kicking and kickoffs. He'll battle with Tyler Davis, Joey Julius (5-9, 278 pounds), Stivason and Bouhermi. At punter, it's Liebel who "had as good of an off-season as anybody" and Danny Pasquariello. Franklin is experimenting with idea to create kicking competitions for placekickers and punters before the Blue White Game and during halftime.
General notes:
- "University of Alabama was in last week meeting with us. Had Villanova in. We consulted with experts, consultant from the NFL, retired special teams coordinator spent a day with us, which was excellent.
"Visited with several different types of analytic companies to meet with our staff, which was really good. We attended some conferences, went out to the MIT Sloane Sports Analytic Conference, which was great, not only for the analytics, but with all the sports science and studies we're trying to do with those things as well.
"We sent a group of people down to Philadelphia, the Flyers, the Eagles, the Sixers, the Steelers I think were all there talking about sports science, how we're all using it."
- "Sean Spencer is a guy that I'm so appreciative of and so proud of because he got an offer with a dramatic raise at a school that people would consider an historic school, and turned it down without even telling me, without even telling the administration. I found out from the other coaches.
"I think that's a great example of the commitment our guys have to this program, to this university. Also excited about the future, where we're going, our players."
This post was edited on 3/17 2:34 PM by Nate Bauer/BWI Staff
Answering questions for nearly an hour, Franklin's comments were chock full of information on the players to watch, the developments made throughout the program, and what his levels of expectation are moving forward.
Because there was simply so much to work with, let's take a quick bullet point look at some of the highlights, position-by-position:
Quarterback:
- Franklin went to bat for quarterback Christian Hackenberg and some of the criticisms he faced last season. "Last year Christian spent most of his time solving problems, running from problems, taking a lot of criticism, which I'm really, really defensive about. To be honest with you, looking back at it, a little angry that he faced some of the criticism he did. I don't know if it was fair, just or realistic. I think in the long run, the adversity that he went through physically and emotionally in getting through those things is really going to help him. He earned a lot of people's respect inside our program with how he handled things.
"I am really, really proud of Christian. I'm really protective of him because now looking back at everything, how he handled it, I think he handled it unbelievably well."
- He said Trace McSorley had so many second team reps last year that this spring isn't the level of importance that some might make it out to be for him. "It's not like you got a guy that is a redshirt and didn't get the number two reps. We were hoping to be able to save his redshirt. It worked out that way. But he was getting all the number two reps in practice. So that's not really going to change.
"I know everybody inside our program, the coaches, the players, the strength staff, have been very pleased with him. He gave our defense fits when we would do two‑minute drill, do the two offense against one defense. He has a chance to extend plays, make the throws. He's a winner as you saw with his high school record. He's picked up the offense very well. Very smart player."
Running Backs:
- At running back he's "excited to see what (Nick) Scott, (Brandon) Johnson and (Mark) Allen are going to be able to do. Scott and Allen redshirting, and Johnson is actually our biggest, strongest, fastest guy on our team. Going to see if it's going to translate. Obviously (Johnathan) Thomas is a guy we're excited about as well, but will be somewhat limited during the spring.
"They're all different. Thomas is the big, physical guy. Allen is the quick scat back. Scott is kind of a combination of the two. We're going to need those guys to step up."
Tight Ends:
- Adam Breneman is "as close to 100% as he's been in a long time and feels really good."
- "Then tight ends, their role in the running game. Tight ends, everybody talks about matchups, everybody talks about tight ends, the flexibility they can create in your offense, creating matchup problems. That is only the case if your tight ends are a threat in the running game as blockers and also threats in the passing game.
"Right now we have a bunch of tight ends that were high school wide receivers and weren't asked to block like that, so you lose the advantage. A tight end on the field that's not a threat to cause problems in the running game is basically a slow wide receiver. We might as well put another wide receiver on the field if we're not going to be physical and nasty and aggressive at the tight end position. I think that needs to be a major focus this year."
Offensive line:
- Sterling Jenkins gained 13 pounds of muscle.
- Chance Sorrell lost 10 pounds of fat and gained 10 pounds of muscle. "Sorrell is a guy that was a little bit limited at morning workouts, missed some time."
- At left tackle, they're looking at Albert Hall, Paris Palmer, Chance Sorrell and Sterling Jenkins. "That doesn't mean that Nelson couldn't go do that as well." And, "you guys know how I feel about Hall. Love the guy. When he got the job last year, he was a 238‑pound tight end. I think he's about 294 pounds right now."
- At right tackle if one of the aforementioned left tackles don't work out and Nelson moves, it's "Brosnan, Beh, Shuman, which allows us to move Nelson over, or one of those left tackles we're starting with moves to right tackle. Basically we're going to try to find the four best tackles we can and put them in the best positions to help our team."
Defensive end:
- Carl "Nassib I think had a sneaky, quiet, really successful year if you go back and really study his tape. He played really well for us, going back and watching the tape on him."
- "You look at Nassib, Cothran, Brown. We're excited about all those guys. Cothran is a guy about 260 pounds, looks beautiful. Brown, guy who played running back in high school, almost 260 pounds now. You have Sickles, you have Schwan, again a guy who is big, strong, athletic, tests extremely well. They're the guys right now. Nassib, Cothran, Brown, Sickels and Schwan, then Eikenberry and Castagna as well. Right now we have five guys over 250 pounds that power cleaned 335 pounds or more. The thing we're lacking there is experience."
And, "Sickles has played and had some success. Schwan has played and had some success. Nassib has been a starter for us in a limited role. Cothran has played on special teams and defense. He's the one guy that needs to have more success and game time.
"Brown is a true freshman that we're excited about. But right now he's probably in the third team, which is what you want. You want a guy who is a redshirt freshman who you're excited about his future and potential, but you're not needing him to play a dramatic role. If he ends up beating people out, more power to him, that's great. He's had to beat people out to earn that job."
Defensive tackle:
- Austin Johnson is "a 327‑pound dancing bear" And Zettel has "quickness and explosion… that's going to challenge those guys (on the offensive line)."
Linebacker:
- Wartman, Wooten, Kline, Haffner, Cabinda and Reeder all discussed as options to take over for Mike Hull at inside linebacker.
- Jason Cabinda gained 12 pounds of muscle.
- "Jack Haffner is moving from running back to linebacker. Adam Geiger is moving from running back to safety. The reason we're doing that with those two guys, they came in and met with me, I met with every single player on the team in individual meetings, those guys want to be special teams terrors for us this year."
Secondary:
- Trevor Williams has gained 10 pounds of actual muscle.
- Jordan Lucas is going from corner to safety. I think Jordan is a guy who could play corner here and at the next level as well. I think he has a chance to maybe be special at safety.
- (Contrary to my own reporting earlier, as plans have apparently shifted) Amani Oruwariye is moving from corner to safety.
Special teams:
- Chris Gulla is moving exclusively to place kicking and kickoffs. He'll battle with Tyler Davis, Joey Julius (5-9, 278 pounds), Stivason and Bouhermi. At punter, it's Liebel who "had as good of an off-season as anybody" and Danny Pasquariello. Franklin is experimenting with idea to create kicking competitions for placekickers and punters before the Blue White Game and during halftime.
General notes:
- "University of Alabama was in last week meeting with us. Had Villanova in. We consulted with experts, consultant from the NFL, retired special teams coordinator spent a day with us, which was excellent.
"Visited with several different types of analytic companies to meet with our staff, which was really good. We attended some conferences, went out to the MIT Sloane Sports Analytic Conference, which was great, not only for the analytics, but with all the sports science and studies we're trying to do with those things as well.
"We sent a group of people down to Philadelphia, the Flyers, the Eagles, the Sixers, the Steelers I think were all there talking about sports science, how we're all using it."
- "Sean Spencer is a guy that I'm so appreciative of and so proud of because he got an offer with a dramatic raise at a school that people would consider an historic school, and turned it down without even telling me, without even telling the administration. I found out from the other coaches.
"I think that's a great example of the commitment our guys have to this program, to this university. Also excited about the future, where we're going, our players."
This post was edited on 3/17 2:34 PM by Nate Bauer/BWI Staff
