Thursday, the Nittany Lions have off.
Friday, it’s a bonus ‘Tuesday practice’, Saturday a bonus ‘Wednesday practice’, and finally Sunday, the time for the beginning of Penn State’s game-week preparation will arrive.
Make sense?
With preseason camp unofficially ending with Tuesday night’s scrimmage/practice at Beaver Stadium, Wednesday afternoon marked the team’s breaking into scout teams and, a final look for the media in a partially open session followed by a Q&A session with head coach James Franklin immediately afterward.
Admittedly excited about the opportunity to finally get the season started after a month-long preseason camp, Franklin said he thinks the Nittany Lions have “had a great camp.” Said Franklin, “ I feel completely different about our team at this point than we did last year.”
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the major topics Franklin had to talk about following practice, in my personal order of importance:
1) Offensive line.
This isn’t a resolved issue, the group has continued to plow through its share of preseason growing pains this month, but the lineup of Paris Palmer, Brendan Mahon, Angelo Mangiro, Brian Gaia and Andrew Nelson is holding firm - for now. Franklin noted that he’s not looking to give away total depth chart information to opponents, and said that Gaia, Mahon and Derek Dowrey have “a little bit of a battle going on inside” for the two guard positions. “But I think overall it's about what you would anticipate.”
With Palmer at least apparently winning the starting left tackle position this preseason, Franklin was asked what the juco transfer was able to do to separate himself from the competition he’s had this month.
“Nothing really dramatic. He's just getting better. He's getting better in his footwork, he's getting better in his hand placement, he's getting better in his assignments, he's more confident in what he's doing,” he said. “I do think the big difference is, he's got four other guys next to him that are taking a much more active role in his success. Telling him specifically what to do and making the calls and things like that.
“But it's not like one thing just happened. It's just his work ethic, his attitude, and he's getting better. He's still got a long ways to go, but I think he's improved and I think right now at this point, he gives us the best opportunity to play and play well.”
2) Kicking specialists.
There’s no resolution, but Joey Julius at place kicker and kickoffs, along with Dan Pasquariello at punter, are the leaders to date.
Tyler Davis is statistically trailing Julius in place kicking, but “it’s close.” And the same situation exists for Chris Gulla at punter, who “has really come on in the last week.”
“But that's still an area that we need to get cleaned up. We've decided that we're probably going to emphasize special teams a little bit more in these next nine days to make sure that we can get some of those areas more consistent and we feel confident about.”
Franklin noted that the kicking game was an acknowledged major concern coming into the season, and continues to be a concern this preseason.
3) True freshmen to play.
Franklin announced that Brandon Polk, Juwan Johnson, John Reid and Saquon Barkley have all been determined “green” for the 2015 season among the true freshman class. And, well, green means go. Partially determined by need by position, player ability and longterm plan for Penn State - “That's based on their preparation and how they work. That's based on the guys in front of them that we feel like they're going to be ready to do their jobs.” - the fact that all four will likely play at position groups that are deep gives you an idea of what the staff thinks of these four in particular.
Franklin added that there’s another group of between 12-14 guys that are “yellow” which means planning for a probable redshirt. “
And to be honest with you, there is a larger number than I've ever been associated with that I think we could legitimately play this year and they would play well. I think we're finally getting back to a little bit more of a normal situation where now we're making decisions on what's in Penn State's best interest long term and what's in the young men's best interest longterm.”
4) Koa Farmer
As expected here with Farmer, who has been moved in position group from field linebacker to the safeties.
“We had a need at the field linebacker last year, so because of his body type and his athleticism, we said let's give him a chance,” said Franklin. “But again, you're talking about a guy who played tailback in high school and asking him to do those things and just wasn't able to compete for the number two job last year. So he kept developing and doing a great job.
“We have a need right now at safety. We have four safeties that we feel pretty good about. We need a fifth guy and was the fifth guy Ayron Monroe and burning his redshirt and make him a green and play him from week one? Or is it Koa Farmer? And Koa's strengths right now are his speed and athleticism. He runs 4.4.
“And where he struggled is closer to the box as a linebacker. Those things just haven't come natural to him yet. So moving him back to safety and allowing him to take advantage of some of his strengths right now we thought was the right thing to do.”
Franklin added that in a year or two, Farmer might move back to linebacker, but it’s all about putting him in the best position to succeed while helping the team this season, adding that Franklin believes Farmer is going to “have a big impact on special teams.”
5) Return game
Franklin detailed the change in philosophy from last year to this, being a ‘playing it safe, ball control’ type of deal now to having the ability to have some game-changing type players back there.
At kick returner, Franklin said Nick Scott, Saquon Barkley and Koa Farmer are all in the conversation. At punt return, Mark Allen, De’Andre Thompkins, and Brandon Polk are in the conversation.
“Until it's live, you don't really know. It might be a situation where we rotate those guys every kick until somebody separates themselves from the pack. All of them are catching the ball really well right now. But we've only done so many reps of live special teams. So seeing what those guys are going to do in a live situation with the lights on, it may take us a couple of weeks to figure that out.”
6) Nickelback
Franklin acknowledged that “in a perfect world,” Jordan Lucas would be the nickel. But, nickel situations demand getting the five best defensive backs on the field. Grant Haley and Lucas have both been “trained to slide into the nickel spot.” But, as Franklin also admitted, since Farmer has been moved to safety, that means they’ll probably “feel better” about Christian Campbell or John Reid coming on in nickel situations.
Friday, it’s a bonus ‘Tuesday practice’, Saturday a bonus ‘Wednesday practice’, and finally Sunday, the time for the beginning of Penn State’s game-week preparation will arrive.
Make sense?
With preseason camp unofficially ending with Tuesday night’s scrimmage/practice at Beaver Stadium, Wednesday afternoon marked the team’s breaking into scout teams and, a final look for the media in a partially open session followed by a Q&A session with head coach James Franklin immediately afterward.
Admittedly excited about the opportunity to finally get the season started after a month-long preseason camp, Franklin said he thinks the Nittany Lions have “had a great camp.” Said Franklin, “ I feel completely different about our team at this point than we did last year.”
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the major topics Franklin had to talk about following practice, in my personal order of importance:
1) Offensive line.
This isn’t a resolved issue, the group has continued to plow through its share of preseason growing pains this month, but the lineup of Paris Palmer, Brendan Mahon, Angelo Mangiro, Brian Gaia and Andrew Nelson is holding firm - for now. Franklin noted that he’s not looking to give away total depth chart information to opponents, and said that Gaia, Mahon and Derek Dowrey have “a little bit of a battle going on inside” for the two guard positions. “But I think overall it's about what you would anticipate.”
With Palmer at least apparently winning the starting left tackle position this preseason, Franklin was asked what the juco transfer was able to do to separate himself from the competition he’s had this month.
“Nothing really dramatic. He's just getting better. He's getting better in his footwork, he's getting better in his hand placement, he's getting better in his assignments, he's more confident in what he's doing,” he said. “I do think the big difference is, he's got four other guys next to him that are taking a much more active role in his success. Telling him specifically what to do and making the calls and things like that.
“But it's not like one thing just happened. It's just his work ethic, his attitude, and he's getting better. He's still got a long ways to go, but I think he's improved and I think right now at this point, he gives us the best opportunity to play and play well.”
2) Kicking specialists.
There’s no resolution, but Joey Julius at place kicker and kickoffs, along with Dan Pasquariello at punter, are the leaders to date.
Tyler Davis is statistically trailing Julius in place kicking, but “it’s close.” And the same situation exists for Chris Gulla at punter, who “has really come on in the last week.”
“But that's still an area that we need to get cleaned up. We've decided that we're probably going to emphasize special teams a little bit more in these next nine days to make sure that we can get some of those areas more consistent and we feel confident about.”
Franklin noted that the kicking game was an acknowledged major concern coming into the season, and continues to be a concern this preseason.
3) True freshmen to play.
Franklin announced that Brandon Polk, Juwan Johnson, John Reid and Saquon Barkley have all been determined “green” for the 2015 season among the true freshman class. And, well, green means go. Partially determined by need by position, player ability and longterm plan for Penn State - “That's based on their preparation and how they work. That's based on the guys in front of them that we feel like they're going to be ready to do their jobs.” - the fact that all four will likely play at position groups that are deep gives you an idea of what the staff thinks of these four in particular.
Franklin added that there’s another group of between 12-14 guys that are “yellow” which means planning for a probable redshirt. “
And to be honest with you, there is a larger number than I've ever been associated with that I think we could legitimately play this year and they would play well. I think we're finally getting back to a little bit more of a normal situation where now we're making decisions on what's in Penn State's best interest long term and what's in the young men's best interest longterm.”
4) Koa Farmer
As expected here with Farmer, who has been moved in position group from field linebacker to the safeties.
“We had a need at the field linebacker last year, so because of his body type and his athleticism, we said let's give him a chance,” said Franklin. “But again, you're talking about a guy who played tailback in high school and asking him to do those things and just wasn't able to compete for the number two job last year. So he kept developing and doing a great job.
“We have a need right now at safety. We have four safeties that we feel pretty good about. We need a fifth guy and was the fifth guy Ayron Monroe and burning his redshirt and make him a green and play him from week one? Or is it Koa Farmer? And Koa's strengths right now are his speed and athleticism. He runs 4.4.
“And where he struggled is closer to the box as a linebacker. Those things just haven't come natural to him yet. So moving him back to safety and allowing him to take advantage of some of his strengths right now we thought was the right thing to do.”
Franklin added that in a year or two, Farmer might move back to linebacker, but it’s all about putting him in the best position to succeed while helping the team this season, adding that Franklin believes Farmer is going to “have a big impact on special teams.”
5) Return game
Franklin detailed the change in philosophy from last year to this, being a ‘playing it safe, ball control’ type of deal now to having the ability to have some game-changing type players back there.
At kick returner, Franklin said Nick Scott, Saquon Barkley and Koa Farmer are all in the conversation. At punt return, Mark Allen, De’Andre Thompkins, and Brandon Polk are in the conversation.
“Until it's live, you don't really know. It might be a situation where we rotate those guys every kick until somebody separates themselves from the pack. All of them are catching the ball really well right now. But we've only done so many reps of live special teams. So seeing what those guys are going to do in a live situation with the lights on, it may take us a couple of weeks to figure that out.”
6) Nickelback
Franklin acknowledged that “in a perfect world,” Jordan Lucas would be the nickel. But, nickel situations demand getting the five best defensive backs on the field. Grant Haley and Lucas have both been “trained to slide into the nickel spot.” But, as Franklin also admitted, since Farmer has been moved to safety, that means they’ll probably “feel better” about Christian Campbell or John Reid coming on in nickel situations.
