Blue White Illustrated

They're just going to pluck away your resources. It's like fishing in a bucket. BWI Resources like assistant coaches? FRANKLIN Assistant coaches, players, recruiting. That was the other thing I said. At the level we're at, the pro- grams we're competing against, they've all got great history, they've all got great traditions. Most all have great facilities. So really, once you get to this point, it's hard to differentiate yourself over that group. So that's also where the stadium is something we have that differentiates us. We've got a 107,000- seat stadium. Very few people have that. So when you go down to 90,000, you've just lost one of your few differ- entiators. The other thing is, when you're lacking in areas, that becomes the differ- entiation. They point out what you're lacking. BWI A few personnel questions about this team. Obviously, sum- mer is not a time to sit back and relax. What are the most critical areas of improvement or devel- opment that you would like to see between now and when you start pre- season camp? FRANKLIN Well, I think one of the specific posi- tions is obviously Mike linebacker. We're going to have an interesting battle with some young, unproven guys. Jan Johnson is the experienced guy in terms of vet- eran leadership. He's a junior. Then you've got Ellis Brooks, who is an in- teresting young redshirt freshman. You've got Jake Cooper, who is another senior who has been waiting for his opportunity but has had difficulty staying healthy here. And then you've got Jesse Luketa, who is a young, ex- citing guy as well. So that's a position where it's going to be critical for us to figure out who it is. And there may be a rotation. And then the same thing at D-tackle. We've talked about those two posi- tions, so that's going to be interesting. You've got Judge Culpepper and P.J. Mustipher, who showed up here [on May 13] who both are already physi- cally big enough to compete as true freshmen, which isn't always the case. Both guys are 6-3 or taller, both guys are 285 pounds or bigger already, and P.J. is 290 I think. So those are two guys who may have to factor in for us as true freshmen at a position you typ- ically don't expect true freshmen to compete at, or shouldn't. So that will be kind of an interesting storyline for us. I think the other storyline that's pretty interesting is, you've got five re- turning starters on the O-line, if you count the combination of Chasz [Wright] and [Ryan] Bates. And then you've got a guy like [Michal] Menet who is really coming on strong right now. So you've really got six guys, five returning starters, and a guy who kind of sepa- rated himself in the spring. How is that going to un- fold for us? I think it's in- teresting some of the different battles that are going to be going on. BWI Allen Robinson was someone you described as an "eraser" due to his im- pact on an offense. Can that concept apply to a strong offen- sive line? FRANKLIN I think an eraser is more like an Allen Robinson. You throw the ball up into double coverage, and he comes down with it more times than not. Chris Godwin really did those things, as well. Saquon Barkley obvi- ously was an eraser. How many times were guys free in the backfield and he made them miss and either went for 4 yards or 40 yards? It's hard to look at an offensive line the same way. The O-line has a chance to be dominant, but I don't know if I necessarily would say it's like an M oments a=er Penn State's 21-19 walk- o; victory at Iowa last season, re- porters and fans hurried toward a bank of press box elevators at Kinnick Sta- dium. The Nittany Lions, then ranked No. 4 in the country, had just pulled o; a come- back win to stay unbeaten. Playing their :rst Big Ten game of the season, also their :rst road game of the season, they had produced as dramatic a moment as any in the program's recent history. And Iowa fans were not happy about it. As they loaded into the elevator, fans who had been watching from the at- tached luxury boxes voiced their frus- trations. The Hawkeyes had been underdogs going into the game, but the crowd had gotten its hopes up when the home team took a 19-15 lead late in the fourth quarter. Then Trace McSorley hit a 7-yard touchdown pass to Juwan Johnson as time expired. The Nittany Lions' late score silenced a stadium that had been roaring mo- ments earlier, and in what came as a total surprise to this eavesdropper, much of the fans' displeasure was directed not toward the outcome of the game but to- ward McSorley himself. "He's a jerk," one fan said. A

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