Greetings everyone:
I hope everyone is doing well, staying safe and healthy and, maybe most important, finally getting ready for some football. I don't know about you, but next Saturday can't possibly get here soon enough. At the expense of cutting the end of the golf season short, it's a trade-off I'm happy to make to finally have some steak on the table instead of the fork, knife, and empty plate that has been sitting in front of us for the past eight or so months.
Penn State's communications team has again been doing a great job of trying to set this up to be as typical as it possibly can be in terms of media availabilities for James Franklin and the team, and so tonight we again had about 15 minutes with the Nittany Lions' head coach followed by another 15 minutes with one of his assistant coaches, in this case being safeties coach Tim Banks.
Like last week, for lack of a better description, there were some questions from writers obviously working on feature stories that aren't necessarily applicable to our weekly news and notes section here - and, also obviously, we still aren't (and don't expect to be this season) able to witness any in-person practice reps, so we won't have any nuggets to share in this space regarding who is taking reps at fifth-string tight end, as is usually, purposefully the case in Franklin's other "open practice" sessions.
😉
That said, at the very least I can cut through it all to give you the relevant facts of the night. So without further ado, let's do it. Videos at the bottom:
1) Franklin was asked about the X and Z receivers and their interchangeability tonight. Before I get into my take, here's his answer:
"In a lot of ways, it's probably more the Z and the slot, it's cross training between those two and a little bit with the Z," he said. "So the first couple weeks, we really didn't do any of that, and now we're doing some moving parts right now to just find a way to get the best three guys on the field and what does that look like?
"It's amazing, some guys are more comfortable in the slot and some guys aren't comfortable on the outside and vice versa. (We're) kind of working through all that right now, but really this past week, we got going on that, moving guys around to get in a position where you could get your best three on the field, not position specific."
Franklin's answer is interesting to my understanding simply because my perception has been that Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington are both getting reps in the slot, and then there is less of a standardization for the likes of Cam Sullivan-Brown, Daniel George, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, and TJ Jones. But that doesn't quite cover it.
The bottom line here is that in Kirk Ciarrocca's offense, there is supposed to be interchangeability with the receivers. The object is to be able to move around your best weapons into the best matchups and then exploit that. Given the relative lack of experience and depth at the position, I won't be surprised if that means Ciarrocca manipulating Dotson to be earlier in Sean Clifford's progression whenever possible, whether that's in the slot or elsewhere, again depending on the matchup.
One more thing to add here is that when Banks was asked about the receivers and their progress the past couple of months, he wasn't long on specific names, but he did offer another vote of confidence for their potential in the weeks and months ahead.
"The guys are coming along. I'm excited about them. Jahan Dotson has been a staple. I've always been a fan of his and he has not disappointed in camp. And there's some young guys, some really young guys that have caught my attention. Parker's done a really good job. I don't want to leave anybody out, I feel bad, but all of those guys have shown flashes during camp. (KeAndre Lambert-Smith) has had a really good camp as a true freshman coming in here," Banks said. "So I expect those guys to be good, I really do. They're super competitive. They're obviously well-coached. I love our receiver coach, he's done a great job. So I think those guys will really shock some guys and I think guys will be proud to watch them play this year."
2) This goes back to the unused year of eligibility that is being gifted across the board in college football this season, but I thought that Franklin's comments about what has worked and what hasn't in "preseason practices" this fall was somewhat telling about their plans for the true freshman class and the juco transfers.
Talking about the benefit of the split practices the program was doing as a COVID precaution - which have since been moved to full team practices - Franklin said something stood out.
"We got a chance to work with the freshmen and the transfers probably longer and they got more reps than they normally would. So it's allowed a few of those guys to maybe factor in more than in years past," he said. "And it's made me think about going back to a normal training camp, that we may do, kind of like in the old days where you could bring the freshmen in a few days early and do some freshmen practices, it's made me think about next year or the year after, whenever we get back to a normal plan, I'd like to do some of these where we spend a little bit more time and give those guys a little bit more attention to allow them to factor in maybe quicker."
I'm not expecting much in the way of the offensive or defensive lines out of that Class of 2020 this year, but I definitely won't be surprised to see Caziah Holmes, Ji'Ayir Brown, Theo Johnson, Curtis Jacobs, maybe even Tyler Warren and Norval Black, in addition to the obvious ones, KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Parker Washington, who are going to get some run this season.
3) Speaking of Ji'Ayir Brown.
Tim Banks was asked to talk about some of the guys that are making a push behind Lamont Wade and Jaquan Brisker, who are the slated safety starters. Surprise, surprise, but there was Brown's name right at the top after Jonathan Sutherland.
"We got a lot of good depth right now. Jonathan Sutherland is a guy that you guys are familiar with, played a lot of significant snaps for us last year. He's really picked up right where he left off from last year, so we're excited about him," Banks said. "We have a juco product who joined our family, Ji'Ayir Brown, who's also made great strides in his short time here.
"But you can't forget about Trent Gordon. He's a guy that obviously he's making the transition from corner to safety. He's done some good things. We obviously loved him at corner and what he brought to the table that way, but moving inside, he's really starting to come on. And then you kind of round it up with Tyler Rudolph, who's also a young redshirt freshman fo us that has showed some flashes in camp. So, I think for me, this is the most depth that I've had since I've been here and I'm really excited about having it."
4) I hate to repeat myself here, but also speaking of Lamont Wade, there were plenty of questions tonight posed to both Franklin and Banks about the senior safety. And certainly, they gave the full impression that there are high expectations in his final season in the program, but this is the comment that caught my attention.
"I made a big deal about it after practice the other day. I know you guys wrote a bunch of articles about him as a possible return man. Well, a big part of that is just his maturity," Franklin said. "For me as an offensive guy with an offensive background as a head coach, the ball security stuff is a big deal for me. And whenever you use defensive guys, they got to show that they're able to protect the football the way offensive guys are because they just work on it more. With Lamont, I just see his approach to everything, the attention to detail is on a completely different level, and his alignment with the coaches and reinforcing messages and being a leader for the young guys, for all of it."
Someone asked me today about punt return. If it's not Jahan Dotson, here's guessing Wade gets some looks back there.
5) And last, but not least, because it's a safeties kind of night, check out what Franklin had to say about Jaquan Brisker.
At the risk of overhype, the positivity surrounding this kid through the offseason was again reflected in Franklin's comments tonight.
"I think there's a lot of excitement in our program for Jaquan. He looks unbelievable. He just developed so much," Franklin said. "I think we all know typically you see a dramatic change of those junior college players in year two, and we see that with him. His confidence, his understanding of the scheme, his athleticism, his speed, how explosive he is.
"I mean, he's an impressive looking guy right now and he's making a bunch of plays on the ball. We're getting our hands on so many more balls in practice than we have in the past, which I'm excited about. It's been a real point of emphasis with us, especially on the back end with our defensive backs, and I'm seeing their hard work starting to pay off. I think Brisker and Lamont both have a chance to have really big years, and then we're also excited about the guys behind them as well. But I think those two guys could have big years for us."
I hope everyone is doing well, staying safe and healthy and, maybe most important, finally getting ready for some football. I don't know about you, but next Saturday can't possibly get here soon enough. At the expense of cutting the end of the golf season short, it's a trade-off I'm happy to make to finally have some steak on the table instead of the fork, knife, and empty plate that has been sitting in front of us for the past eight or so months.
Penn State's communications team has again been doing a great job of trying to set this up to be as typical as it possibly can be in terms of media availabilities for James Franklin and the team, and so tonight we again had about 15 minutes with the Nittany Lions' head coach followed by another 15 minutes with one of his assistant coaches, in this case being safeties coach Tim Banks.
Like last week, for lack of a better description, there were some questions from writers obviously working on feature stories that aren't necessarily applicable to our weekly news and notes section here - and, also obviously, we still aren't (and don't expect to be this season) able to witness any in-person practice reps, so we won't have any nuggets to share in this space regarding who is taking reps at fifth-string tight end, as is usually, purposefully the case in Franklin's other "open practice" sessions.
😉
That said, at the very least I can cut through it all to give you the relevant facts of the night. So without further ado, let's do it. Videos at the bottom:
1) Franklin was asked about the X and Z receivers and their interchangeability tonight. Before I get into my take, here's his answer:
"In a lot of ways, it's probably more the Z and the slot, it's cross training between those two and a little bit with the Z," he said. "So the first couple weeks, we really didn't do any of that, and now we're doing some moving parts right now to just find a way to get the best three guys on the field and what does that look like?
"It's amazing, some guys are more comfortable in the slot and some guys aren't comfortable on the outside and vice versa. (We're) kind of working through all that right now, but really this past week, we got going on that, moving guys around to get in a position where you could get your best three on the field, not position specific."
Franklin's answer is interesting to my understanding simply because my perception has been that Jahan Dotson and Parker Washington are both getting reps in the slot, and then there is less of a standardization for the likes of Cam Sullivan-Brown, Daniel George, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, and TJ Jones. But that doesn't quite cover it.
The bottom line here is that in Kirk Ciarrocca's offense, there is supposed to be interchangeability with the receivers. The object is to be able to move around your best weapons into the best matchups and then exploit that. Given the relative lack of experience and depth at the position, I won't be surprised if that means Ciarrocca manipulating Dotson to be earlier in Sean Clifford's progression whenever possible, whether that's in the slot or elsewhere, again depending on the matchup.
One more thing to add here is that when Banks was asked about the receivers and their progress the past couple of months, he wasn't long on specific names, but he did offer another vote of confidence for their potential in the weeks and months ahead.
"The guys are coming along. I'm excited about them. Jahan Dotson has been a staple. I've always been a fan of his and he has not disappointed in camp. And there's some young guys, some really young guys that have caught my attention. Parker's done a really good job. I don't want to leave anybody out, I feel bad, but all of those guys have shown flashes during camp. (KeAndre Lambert-Smith) has had a really good camp as a true freshman coming in here," Banks said. "So I expect those guys to be good, I really do. They're super competitive. They're obviously well-coached. I love our receiver coach, he's done a great job. So I think those guys will really shock some guys and I think guys will be proud to watch them play this year."
2) This goes back to the unused year of eligibility that is being gifted across the board in college football this season, but I thought that Franklin's comments about what has worked and what hasn't in "preseason practices" this fall was somewhat telling about their plans for the true freshman class and the juco transfers.
Talking about the benefit of the split practices the program was doing as a COVID precaution - which have since been moved to full team practices - Franklin said something stood out.
"We got a chance to work with the freshmen and the transfers probably longer and they got more reps than they normally would. So it's allowed a few of those guys to maybe factor in more than in years past," he said. "And it's made me think about going back to a normal training camp, that we may do, kind of like in the old days where you could bring the freshmen in a few days early and do some freshmen practices, it's made me think about next year or the year after, whenever we get back to a normal plan, I'd like to do some of these where we spend a little bit more time and give those guys a little bit more attention to allow them to factor in maybe quicker."
I'm not expecting much in the way of the offensive or defensive lines out of that Class of 2020 this year, but I definitely won't be surprised to see Caziah Holmes, Ji'Ayir Brown, Theo Johnson, Curtis Jacobs, maybe even Tyler Warren and Norval Black, in addition to the obvious ones, KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Parker Washington, who are going to get some run this season.
3) Speaking of Ji'Ayir Brown.
Tim Banks was asked to talk about some of the guys that are making a push behind Lamont Wade and Jaquan Brisker, who are the slated safety starters. Surprise, surprise, but there was Brown's name right at the top after Jonathan Sutherland.
"We got a lot of good depth right now. Jonathan Sutherland is a guy that you guys are familiar with, played a lot of significant snaps for us last year. He's really picked up right where he left off from last year, so we're excited about him," Banks said. "We have a juco product who joined our family, Ji'Ayir Brown, who's also made great strides in his short time here.
"But you can't forget about Trent Gordon. He's a guy that obviously he's making the transition from corner to safety. He's done some good things. We obviously loved him at corner and what he brought to the table that way, but moving inside, he's really starting to come on. And then you kind of round it up with Tyler Rudolph, who's also a young redshirt freshman fo us that has showed some flashes in camp. So, I think for me, this is the most depth that I've had since I've been here and I'm really excited about having it."
4) I hate to repeat myself here, but also speaking of Lamont Wade, there were plenty of questions tonight posed to both Franklin and Banks about the senior safety. And certainly, they gave the full impression that there are high expectations in his final season in the program, but this is the comment that caught my attention.
"I made a big deal about it after practice the other day. I know you guys wrote a bunch of articles about him as a possible return man. Well, a big part of that is just his maturity," Franklin said. "For me as an offensive guy with an offensive background as a head coach, the ball security stuff is a big deal for me. And whenever you use defensive guys, they got to show that they're able to protect the football the way offensive guys are because they just work on it more. With Lamont, I just see his approach to everything, the attention to detail is on a completely different level, and his alignment with the coaches and reinforcing messages and being a leader for the young guys, for all of it."
Someone asked me today about punt return. If it's not Jahan Dotson, here's guessing Wade gets some looks back there.
5) And last, but not least, because it's a safeties kind of night, check out what Franklin had to say about Jaquan Brisker.
At the risk of overhype, the positivity surrounding this kid through the offseason was again reflected in Franklin's comments tonight.
"I think there's a lot of excitement in our program for Jaquan. He looks unbelievable. He just developed so much," Franklin said. "I think we all know typically you see a dramatic change of those junior college players in year two, and we see that with him. His confidence, his understanding of the scheme, his athleticism, his speed, how explosive he is.
"I mean, he's an impressive looking guy right now and he's making a bunch of plays on the ball. We're getting our hands on so many more balls in practice than we have in the past, which I'm excited about. It's been a real point of emphasis with us, especially on the back end with our defensive backs, and I'm seeing their hard work starting to pay off. I think Brisker and Lamont both have a chance to have really big years, and then we're also excited about the guys behind them as well. But I think those two guys could have big years for us."
