Just back from Penn State's partially open practice, as the Nittany Lions wrapped up the 13th session of the spring and gear up for Saturday's Blue-White Game.
This was, for all intents and purposes, the Nittany Lions' final spring practice in the traditional sense. Their 14th session will be used as a jog-through over at Beaver Stadium on Friday, and then the 15th is obviously the game itself.
As head coach James Franklin said after practice, the format will be the same this year as in years past with the one team primarily consisting of first-stringers and the other going to the twos.
With that in mind, feel free to take a look at Franklin's post-practice Q&A session with the media while we work through our notes, video and photos from practice:
*******
OK, let's get into it:
First, let’s run through the play-by-play of what we were able to see at practice:
- The first-team offense came in to take on what appeared to be a first-team lineup on the defensive side of the ball. Facing the same end-of-game situation as the Nittany Lions had late against Minnesota in 2016, the results were less successful this time around.
- First, Trace McSorley completed a short pass to tight end Danny Dalton, who has been running with the ones. On second down, McSorley had nowhere to run and no one to deliver the ball to, ultimately popping a short pass over the middle to no one in particular. Next up, McSorley delivered a first-down strike to Dalton over the middle, with Lamont Wade getting the stop.
Clocking the ball on first down, McSorley corralled his troops on second down, but Shareef Miller was there to bring pressure and ultimately force a throwaway. Shaka Toney was lined up opposite Miller on the series and was also bringing regular pressure. Third down saw another first-down completion to Dalton with McSorley again clocking the ball out of the chains moving.
With time winding down, McSorley would fire one down the sideline to Dalton, incomplete on second down. On third down, with the clock set to expire, McSorley heaved one toward the end zone to Polk, but it was picked off by Nick Scott.
Lineups had some rotating in them, and obviously are subject to change based on some guys who are missing some reps this spring. But, for this series, here’s a look:
LT - Ryan Bates
LG - Steven Gonzalez
C - Connor McGovern
RG - Mike Menet
RT - Chasz Wright
TE - Danny Dalton
QB - Trace McSorley
RB - Miles Sanders
WR - DeAndre Thompkins
WR - Brandon Polk
WR - Mac Hippenhammer
DE - Daniel Joseph/Shaka Toney
DT - Kevin Givens
DT - Antonio Shelton
DE - Shareef Miller
LB - Koa Farmer/Jarvis Miller
LB - Micah Parsons
LB - Cam Brown
Nickel - Lamont Wade
S - Nick Scott
S - Garrett Taylor
CB - Donovan Johnson
CB - Tariq Castro-Fields
- Then, in what eventually led Franklin to be a little ticked off after practice, another two-minute drill series with quarterback Michael Shuster produced a bit of a good news/bad news situation on the defensive side of the ball.
His pass was picked off by Jabari Butler, but rather than hitting the turf for what would have been the “end of the game,” Butler cut the ball back against the grain of the field and tried his best to produce a touchdown. This was not to Franklin’s liking.
“At the end of the practice there we did a 2-minute situation, the defense picks the ball off, the game is over. Get down,” said Franklin. “And we’re returning it, cutting back across the field, making 50 guys miss, exposing the football and then throwing the football up into the stands, which I think we all saw that game a few years ago.Then they kicked off and then they returned the kickoff or something like that. I think it was Tennessee vs. Georgia or something like that.
“There were just lapses of discipline today that I wasn’t really happy with but overall I thought it was a very, very good practice. We just have to mature at a few spots so that doesn’t happen.”
Other notes from Franklin’s post-practice Q&A session:
- Blue team will primarily be made up of the ones. White on Saturday will primarily be the twos and threes, Franklin said, or “guys who are competing to try to win jobs or try to win more significant roles.”
- Franklin let on the first hint of disappointment over how bad the weather has been here in State College throughout the spring practice session. If I had to guess, they haven’t been outside for practices more than a few times through the duration of the spring, including last Saturday’s scrimmage at Beaver Stadium. To that end, Franklin lamented that he’d like to see the team get into the stadium more in spring ball as well as during preseason camp.
“I think getting in there and being able to do that is important… the slope of the field, all those little subtle things that you would not necessarily or maybe think about they factor in. The lights, the jumbotron all those types of things as well,” said Franklin. “I'd like to get some night practices in as well. Spring game, it’s an opportunity for us go out and make some plays in the stadium, build on somethings we did during spring ball, gain some confidence, have some fun and really kind of put some closure to the end of spring practice.”
- And, in what is sure to be a story throughout the summer months, Franklin also addressed the team’s Mike linebacker situation at length. Revealing the mindset that has to come with the position, whether or not the candidates are prepared physically, mentally, andfrom a leadership standpoint, Franklin said that he doesn’t anticipate a decision to be made until the team is “pretty far into camp” in August.
“I think we’ll be pretty far into camp before we decide because I think we’ve got we have a lot of inexperienced guys and some veteran guys who are battling for that spot,” said Franklin. “For me, the picture hasn’t cleared up yet. I think Coach Pry kind of feels the same way but it’s not like one thing. I think it’s combination of all those things. It’s the physical fundamentals and skills and techniques of doing it. It’s the mental understanding of what we’re doing as well as what people are going to try to do against us and how does that change our calls. It’s the leadership aspect. It’s all of it. It’s durability and it’s trust. At the end of the day it’s trust, it's the coaches trusting who they can throw out there in that position [and] consistently be able to fill out all those roles all the time, or a large percentage of it.”
Franklin later said that the possibilities at the position are too numerous to go through, and that essentially everyone playing at either the Will or Mike would be in a position to compete for the job.
“The field ‘backer is a completely different animal but those two inside ‘backers it could really be any of those guys in the three deep really at this point,” said Franklin. “What we’ve got is some veteran guys who have really one some things. Then we’ve got some young guys who are really talented but lack experience and understanding of what it takes at this level. That’s redshirt freshmen as well as true freshmen. So, it’s a long list of candidates.”
******
As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them here and I'll do my best to answer whatever I can.
This was, for all intents and purposes, the Nittany Lions' final spring practice in the traditional sense. Their 14th session will be used as a jog-through over at Beaver Stadium on Friday, and then the 15th is obviously the game itself.
As head coach James Franklin said after practice, the format will be the same this year as in years past with the one team primarily consisting of first-stringers and the other going to the twos.
With that in mind, feel free to take a look at Franklin's post-practice Q&A session with the media while we work through our notes, video and photos from practice:
*******
OK, let's get into it:
First, let’s run through the play-by-play of what we were able to see at practice:
- The first-team offense came in to take on what appeared to be a first-team lineup on the defensive side of the ball. Facing the same end-of-game situation as the Nittany Lions had late against Minnesota in 2016, the results were less successful this time around.
- First, Trace McSorley completed a short pass to tight end Danny Dalton, who has been running with the ones. On second down, McSorley had nowhere to run and no one to deliver the ball to, ultimately popping a short pass over the middle to no one in particular. Next up, McSorley delivered a first-down strike to Dalton over the middle, with Lamont Wade getting the stop.
Clocking the ball on first down, McSorley corralled his troops on second down, but Shareef Miller was there to bring pressure and ultimately force a throwaway. Shaka Toney was lined up opposite Miller on the series and was also bringing regular pressure. Third down saw another first-down completion to Dalton with McSorley again clocking the ball out of the chains moving.
With time winding down, McSorley would fire one down the sideline to Dalton, incomplete on second down. On third down, with the clock set to expire, McSorley heaved one toward the end zone to Polk, but it was picked off by Nick Scott.
Lineups had some rotating in them, and obviously are subject to change based on some guys who are missing some reps this spring. But, for this series, here’s a look:
LT - Ryan Bates
LG - Steven Gonzalez
C - Connor McGovern
RG - Mike Menet
RT - Chasz Wright
TE - Danny Dalton
QB - Trace McSorley
RB - Miles Sanders
WR - DeAndre Thompkins
WR - Brandon Polk
WR - Mac Hippenhammer
DE - Daniel Joseph/Shaka Toney
DT - Kevin Givens
DT - Antonio Shelton
DE - Shareef Miller
LB - Koa Farmer/Jarvis Miller
LB - Micah Parsons
LB - Cam Brown
Nickel - Lamont Wade
S - Nick Scott
S - Garrett Taylor
CB - Donovan Johnson
CB - Tariq Castro-Fields
- Then, in what eventually led Franklin to be a little ticked off after practice, another two-minute drill series with quarterback Michael Shuster produced a bit of a good news/bad news situation on the defensive side of the ball.
His pass was picked off by Jabari Butler, but rather than hitting the turf for what would have been the “end of the game,” Butler cut the ball back against the grain of the field and tried his best to produce a touchdown. This was not to Franklin’s liking.
“At the end of the practice there we did a 2-minute situation, the defense picks the ball off, the game is over. Get down,” said Franklin. “And we’re returning it, cutting back across the field, making 50 guys miss, exposing the football and then throwing the football up into the stands, which I think we all saw that game a few years ago.Then they kicked off and then they returned the kickoff or something like that. I think it was Tennessee vs. Georgia or something like that.
“There were just lapses of discipline today that I wasn’t really happy with but overall I thought it was a very, very good practice. We just have to mature at a few spots so that doesn’t happen.”
Other notes from Franklin’s post-practice Q&A session:
- Blue team will primarily be made up of the ones. White on Saturday will primarily be the twos and threes, Franklin said, or “guys who are competing to try to win jobs or try to win more significant roles.”
- Franklin let on the first hint of disappointment over how bad the weather has been here in State College throughout the spring practice session. If I had to guess, they haven’t been outside for practices more than a few times through the duration of the spring, including last Saturday’s scrimmage at Beaver Stadium. To that end, Franklin lamented that he’d like to see the team get into the stadium more in spring ball as well as during preseason camp.
“I think getting in there and being able to do that is important… the slope of the field, all those little subtle things that you would not necessarily or maybe think about they factor in. The lights, the jumbotron all those types of things as well,” said Franklin. “I'd like to get some night practices in as well. Spring game, it’s an opportunity for us go out and make some plays in the stadium, build on somethings we did during spring ball, gain some confidence, have some fun and really kind of put some closure to the end of spring practice.”
- And, in what is sure to be a story throughout the summer months, Franklin also addressed the team’s Mike linebacker situation at length. Revealing the mindset that has to come with the position, whether or not the candidates are prepared physically, mentally, andfrom a leadership standpoint, Franklin said that he doesn’t anticipate a decision to be made until the team is “pretty far into camp” in August.
“I think we’ll be pretty far into camp before we decide because I think we’ve got we have a lot of inexperienced guys and some veteran guys who are battling for that spot,” said Franklin. “For me, the picture hasn’t cleared up yet. I think Coach Pry kind of feels the same way but it’s not like one thing. I think it’s combination of all those things. It’s the physical fundamentals and skills and techniques of doing it. It’s the mental understanding of what we’re doing as well as what people are going to try to do against us and how does that change our calls. It’s the leadership aspect. It’s all of it. It’s durability and it’s trust. At the end of the day it’s trust, it's the coaches trusting who they can throw out there in that position [and] consistently be able to fill out all those roles all the time, or a large percentage of it.”
Franklin later said that the possibilities at the position are too numerous to go through, and that essentially everyone playing at either the Will or Mike would be in a position to compete for the job.
“The field ‘backer is a completely different animal but those two inside ‘backers it could really be any of those guys in the three deep really at this point,” said Franklin. “What we’ve got is some veteran guys who have really one some things. Then we’ve got some young guys who are really talented but lack experience and understanding of what it takes at this level. That’s redshirt freshmen as well as true freshmen. So, it’s a long list of candidates.”
******
As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them here and I'll do my best to answer whatever I can.
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