Good evening everyone -
Penn State football welcomed the media tonight for the final time on a Wednesday evening during the regular season. Inside Holuba Hall tonight with some wet weather earlier today, the offense and defense were split on either end of the indoor facility, each working on some fringe and tight red zone work.
With that, let's get into the news, notes, and observations from practice and James Franklin's post-practice scrum with the media:
1) The first topic, and one that I would guess ended up taking about 70 percent of his talking time in his nearly 15-minute media session, regarded Justin Shorter and his status with the team.
"Right now, he's not with us," Franklin said. "He has entered the transfer portal. I had a meeting with him yesterday and that's kind of where we're at."
Pressed on the topic later in the session as to whether or not Shorter will have the opportunity to return to the program if he so chooses, Franklin more or less deflected and chose not to get into the specifics. Saying that he would have to explain rules that have been put in place by the program for transfer portal situations - which he said went into place after not really having a blueprint last year in the first go-round, and which he also said should be standardized throughout college football - Franklin ended up not providing a definitive answer to that end.
2) Still, it didn't prevent him from talking at length about the transfer portal and its impact. These points have been consistent from him, but he really went at length about how it fundamentally changes the college athletics model.
"I guess where I struggle with it, I know there's people on both sides of the fence, but I do believe strongly that college athletics and athletics probably in general but specifically college athletics, I felt like really taught adversity and battling through things. And this has changed that dynamic," Franklin said. "And I think they're the best stories, to me, is the guys that have battled through. I think about Mike Gesicki. If we had the transfer portal when Mike Gesicki was here, would it have played out the way it did, which he had a really tough year, he battled through it, came back and had an unbelievable year. I just saw the other day, he caught a touchdown pass. Miami Dolphins. Graduated. Awesome. Before my time, I think about Allen Robinson. Robinson had three catches his first year. I think he had 87 or something the next year and 93 the year after that.
"So I get both perspectives. But the problem is, is it doesn't really go the way it's played out and I'm not talking specific to Justin. I'm talking big picture now. Guys are being recruited. That's happening. And it's not supposed to happen. The other thing I would say is, this all started with the graduate transfer, which was supposed to be for academic purposes. It's not. I grew up in college football and the NCAA, where everything started based on academics. And we're so far past that now. I'm not even sitting here saying that I necessarily agree or disagree with it. It's just so different than the college football and the college athletics and NCAA that I grew up with. It started with academics and it ended with academics and everything else was a bonus. And it's just changed. The model has changed. So I will tell you this, I want nothing but success for him and his family. I want that for all of our guys. But I also know that the journey is different. The journey is different for all of them. And I think sometimes guys come in and they expect the journey to play out a certain way, and when it doesn't, that's hard. But that's life. That's how life goes."
3) Speaking of which, Franklin was also asked about Ricky Slade, who was suspended for an unspecified violation of team rules during last weekend's trip to Columbus. Slade was back out at practice tonight with the running backs, appearing to be in good spirits, though I didn't personally see him take any reps.
"He back. He's back, he's back full go. Bump in the road," Franklin said. "I think Ricky has been in a tough situation this year and he's really handled it well. And these guys got so many voices in their ears and stuff like that.
"I believe again, and again, maybe maybe I'm crazy, but I believe that this adversity that Ricky's gone through this year will help him. I know I'm probably crazy and I know probably some people who say I'm old school, but I would love for everybody's path to be smooth and no setbacks and no adversity. But I also know the adversity helps. I know the adversity helps me. I'm a different guy now than I was nine years ago. I'm a different guy than when I first showed up I don't like to go through the adversity. I don't like the criticism. I don't like the tough losses. But I know I get better from them because of how I approach it and it makes you appreciate all the other stuff."
4) From a personnel perspective, likely the most pressing issue remains at quarterback, and Franklin likely provided a good hint as to how the game against Rutgers Saturday will play out between Sean Clifford and Will Levis.
Asked after practice about the rep split between the two in practice this week, Franklin explained:
"Yesterday was about 50-50," Franklin said. "Today was it was skewed considerably towards Will."
I did not see Cliff take a rep during the red zone work. It was Levis working with the first team, then Ta'Quan Roberson (I think... both freshman quarterbacks were in scout team No. 17s) stepped in and worked with both the second and first-team groups.
This is a bit of an aside, but for what it's worth, Roberson looked sharp. He threw a few touchdowns in the reps that he had. Had nice mobility in moving out of the pocket, threw some on the run, and had some zip on the ball.
5) Afterward, we also had a chance to catch up with Clifford.
He said that it was 50-50 as to whether or not he could have gone back in the game last weekend - though he wanted to. And he didn't really offer much in the way of an update on his health currently.
But, he did express just how much of a challenge and hinderance it is to his game not having the mobility that he's accustomed to having. It's obviously a big part of his game and, without it this week and, as he said, for the past few weeks, it really challenged his ability to perform at the level he wanted.
__________________
That's going to be it from me tonight. Questions, comments, concerns - please feel free to ask them here and I'll answer as best as I can.
Penn State football welcomed the media tonight for the final time on a Wednesday evening during the regular season. Inside Holuba Hall tonight with some wet weather earlier today, the offense and defense were split on either end of the indoor facility, each working on some fringe and tight red zone work.
With that, let's get into the news, notes, and observations from practice and James Franklin's post-practice scrum with the media:
1) The first topic, and one that I would guess ended up taking about 70 percent of his talking time in his nearly 15-minute media session, regarded Justin Shorter and his status with the team.
"Right now, he's not with us," Franklin said. "He has entered the transfer portal. I had a meeting with him yesterday and that's kind of where we're at."
Pressed on the topic later in the session as to whether or not Shorter will have the opportunity to return to the program if he so chooses, Franklin more or less deflected and chose not to get into the specifics. Saying that he would have to explain rules that have been put in place by the program for transfer portal situations - which he said went into place after not really having a blueprint last year in the first go-round, and which he also said should be standardized throughout college football - Franklin ended up not providing a definitive answer to that end.
2) Still, it didn't prevent him from talking at length about the transfer portal and its impact. These points have been consistent from him, but he really went at length about how it fundamentally changes the college athletics model.
"I guess where I struggle with it, I know there's people on both sides of the fence, but I do believe strongly that college athletics and athletics probably in general but specifically college athletics, I felt like really taught adversity and battling through things. And this has changed that dynamic," Franklin said. "And I think they're the best stories, to me, is the guys that have battled through. I think about Mike Gesicki. If we had the transfer portal when Mike Gesicki was here, would it have played out the way it did, which he had a really tough year, he battled through it, came back and had an unbelievable year. I just saw the other day, he caught a touchdown pass. Miami Dolphins. Graduated. Awesome. Before my time, I think about Allen Robinson. Robinson had three catches his first year. I think he had 87 or something the next year and 93 the year after that.
"So I get both perspectives. But the problem is, is it doesn't really go the way it's played out and I'm not talking specific to Justin. I'm talking big picture now. Guys are being recruited. That's happening. And it's not supposed to happen. The other thing I would say is, this all started with the graduate transfer, which was supposed to be for academic purposes. It's not. I grew up in college football and the NCAA, where everything started based on academics. And we're so far past that now. I'm not even sitting here saying that I necessarily agree or disagree with it. It's just so different than the college football and the college athletics and NCAA that I grew up with. It started with academics and it ended with academics and everything else was a bonus. And it's just changed. The model has changed. So I will tell you this, I want nothing but success for him and his family. I want that for all of our guys. But I also know that the journey is different. The journey is different for all of them. And I think sometimes guys come in and they expect the journey to play out a certain way, and when it doesn't, that's hard. But that's life. That's how life goes."
3) Speaking of which, Franklin was also asked about Ricky Slade, who was suspended for an unspecified violation of team rules during last weekend's trip to Columbus. Slade was back out at practice tonight with the running backs, appearing to be in good spirits, though I didn't personally see him take any reps.
"He back. He's back, he's back full go. Bump in the road," Franklin said. "I think Ricky has been in a tough situation this year and he's really handled it well. And these guys got so many voices in their ears and stuff like that.
"I believe again, and again, maybe maybe I'm crazy, but I believe that this adversity that Ricky's gone through this year will help him. I know I'm probably crazy and I know probably some people who say I'm old school, but I would love for everybody's path to be smooth and no setbacks and no adversity. But I also know the adversity helps. I know the adversity helps me. I'm a different guy now than I was nine years ago. I'm a different guy than when I first showed up I don't like to go through the adversity. I don't like the criticism. I don't like the tough losses. But I know I get better from them because of how I approach it and it makes you appreciate all the other stuff."
4) From a personnel perspective, likely the most pressing issue remains at quarterback, and Franklin likely provided a good hint as to how the game against Rutgers Saturday will play out between Sean Clifford and Will Levis.
Asked after practice about the rep split between the two in practice this week, Franklin explained:
"Yesterday was about 50-50," Franklin said. "Today was it was skewed considerably towards Will."
I did not see Cliff take a rep during the red zone work. It was Levis working with the first team, then Ta'Quan Roberson (I think... both freshman quarterbacks were in scout team No. 17s) stepped in and worked with both the second and first-team groups.
This is a bit of an aside, but for what it's worth, Roberson looked sharp. He threw a few touchdowns in the reps that he had. Had nice mobility in moving out of the pocket, threw some on the run, and had some zip on the ball.
5) Afterward, we also had a chance to catch up with Clifford.
He said that it was 50-50 as to whether or not he could have gone back in the game last weekend - though he wanted to. And he didn't really offer much in the way of an update on his health currently.
But, he did express just how much of a challenge and hinderance it is to his game not having the mobility that he's accustomed to having. It's obviously a big part of his game and, without it this week and, as he said, for the past few weeks, it really challenged his ability to perform at the level he wanted.
__________________
That's going to be it from me tonight. Questions, comments, concerns - please feel free to ask them here and I'll answer as best as I can.
