Everything about Penn State's practice Wednesday night was about the short, and the sweet.
Taking all the pads off, the Nittany Lions allowed the media in to check out the final 10 minutes or so of practice, followed by a short Q&A with head coach James Franklin. Let's get right into our notes from the session and from Franklin's presser:
1) Today was really, truly, a different feel for Penn State's practices that Franklin had alluded to yesterday during his press conference. Players were in just shorts and jerseys and helmets, no pads whatsoever, and the portion of practice that we were able to witness was at either jog-through pace or had no hitting of any kind.
Clearly, they're making a real effort to have this team in as good of physical shape as they can before the bye week comes around and might alleviate some of the issues they're currently experiencing.
"We cut some time off practice yesterday, but not significant. Today was the real difference. We're usually in pads and banging a little bit," said Franklin. "We changed tempos up today. We did some walk-throughs, took the shoulder pads off, took the knee braces off, things like that. So we'll watch the film, but from what I saw at practice, I liked it.
"I thought it was the right thing to do at the right time in our season. And that doesn't guarantee that that's what we'll do next week, it's a decision we made for this week and we'll see what we need to do moving forward."
2) That's not to say there weren't a few interesting plays from the 7-on-7 and goal line work that we were able to see, though. I focused primarily on the offense, and the big play that stood out was a one-handed bullet from Trace McSorley to Geno Lewis in the back of the end zone that the junior wideout hauled in for a touchdown.
The next play, McSorley found Chris Godwin in the flat for a touchdown. These were closer to full speed, and McSorley had some decent zip on his ball. By the time we were let in to see Christian Hackenberg take some reps in goal line, they had gone all the way down to walk-through speed, so there was less to see out of the junior signal-caller.
3) One point of note out of the goalline work, this was the first week I can remember Barkley getting the primary reps and Akeel Lynch taking the second team reps.
4) Talk about up-tempo offenses has really been one of the key points this week, which is odd because Illinois isn't likely to show it this weekend. For as much as Ohio State and Maryland were able to really make strides offensively in the hurry up, Illinois is more of a traditional spread offense and does less of what made the Buckeyes and Terps so effective.
Plus, as Franklin noted after practice, as a team that doesn't do much up-tempo stuff itself, replicating the kind of speed that appears out of those hurry-up offenses can be a real challenge through the course of the season.
"It's hard to replicate with your scout team is the speed. No different than what we talked about when you're playing a team like Army trying to replicate that offense is difficult to do," said Franklin. "Now, if you're a tempo team and that's what you do on offense and you can go against each other, then that helps. But obviously the teams that do that also have trouble when they play a power team. So there's challenges in both directions in terms of what you do philosophically in your program."
5) Last but not least, Franklin began his post-practice remarks by offering some thoughts on the retirement of fellow Big Ten colleague Jerry Kill this morning. Saying that he watched the press conference and it was emotionally tough to see Kill struggle through what he has, Franklin offered nothing but encouraging words about the now-former Minnesota head coach.
"Just an unbelievable guy. Take football out of it. Just an unbelievable person, an unbelievable guy," Franklin said. "I have tremendous respect for him and his career and how he handles his business. The Big Ten lost a good man today, college football lost a good man, but if I can imagine he's still going to have an impact on the game somehow, some way. I'm sad to see Jerry go."
Taking all the pads off, the Nittany Lions allowed the media in to check out the final 10 minutes or so of practice, followed by a short Q&A with head coach James Franklin. Let's get right into our notes from the session and from Franklin's presser:
1) Today was really, truly, a different feel for Penn State's practices that Franklin had alluded to yesterday during his press conference. Players were in just shorts and jerseys and helmets, no pads whatsoever, and the portion of practice that we were able to witness was at either jog-through pace or had no hitting of any kind.
Clearly, they're making a real effort to have this team in as good of physical shape as they can before the bye week comes around and might alleviate some of the issues they're currently experiencing.
"We cut some time off practice yesterday, but not significant. Today was the real difference. We're usually in pads and banging a little bit," said Franklin. "We changed tempos up today. We did some walk-throughs, took the shoulder pads off, took the knee braces off, things like that. So we'll watch the film, but from what I saw at practice, I liked it.
"I thought it was the right thing to do at the right time in our season. And that doesn't guarantee that that's what we'll do next week, it's a decision we made for this week and we'll see what we need to do moving forward."
2) That's not to say there weren't a few interesting plays from the 7-on-7 and goal line work that we were able to see, though. I focused primarily on the offense, and the big play that stood out was a one-handed bullet from Trace McSorley to Geno Lewis in the back of the end zone that the junior wideout hauled in for a touchdown.
The next play, McSorley found Chris Godwin in the flat for a touchdown. These were closer to full speed, and McSorley had some decent zip on his ball. By the time we were let in to see Christian Hackenberg take some reps in goal line, they had gone all the way down to walk-through speed, so there was less to see out of the junior signal-caller.
3) One point of note out of the goalline work, this was the first week I can remember Barkley getting the primary reps and Akeel Lynch taking the second team reps.
4) Talk about up-tempo offenses has really been one of the key points this week, which is odd because Illinois isn't likely to show it this weekend. For as much as Ohio State and Maryland were able to really make strides offensively in the hurry up, Illinois is more of a traditional spread offense and does less of what made the Buckeyes and Terps so effective.
Plus, as Franklin noted after practice, as a team that doesn't do much up-tempo stuff itself, replicating the kind of speed that appears out of those hurry-up offenses can be a real challenge through the course of the season.
"It's hard to replicate with your scout team is the speed. No different than what we talked about when you're playing a team like Army trying to replicate that offense is difficult to do," said Franklin. "Now, if you're a tempo team and that's what you do on offense and you can go against each other, then that helps. But obviously the teams that do that also have trouble when they play a power team. So there's challenges in both directions in terms of what you do philosophically in your program."
5) Last but not least, Franklin began his post-practice remarks by offering some thoughts on the retirement of fellow Big Ten colleague Jerry Kill this morning. Saying that he watched the press conference and it was emotionally tough to see Kill struggle through what he has, Franklin offered nothing but encouraging words about the now-former Minnesota head coach.
"Just an unbelievable guy. Take football out of it. Just an unbelievable person, an unbelievable guy," Franklin said. "I have tremendous respect for him and his career and how he handles his business. The Big Ten lost a good man today, college football lost a good man, but if I can imagine he's still going to have an impact on the game somehow, some way. I'm sad to see Jerry go."
