Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1026347
C O A C H S P E A K • E X C E R P T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ' S W E E K L Y P R E S S E R Can you evaluate the play of Juwan Johnson and DeAndre Thompkins to this point? Yeah, I think both Juwan and DeAndre have higher standards and expectations of how they want to play. I have the utmost confidence in those guys, and I think they are both going to have huge years for us. But yeah, I think there are a few plays they would like to have back, there's no doubt about it. I thought we made a huge step, which is critical in our offense, in the perimeter blocking game. I thought those guys re- ally took big steps, significant steps. If you guys go back and watch the tape, there are some really good examples of us blocking on the perimeter and playing physical. One of the things I love about [John- son] is his approach. In all of his free time, he's in the facility, stretching, on the JUGS machine, getting extra lift, watching more film, constantly taking care of his body, hot tubs, cold tubs. With that type of investment that you make, good things are going to happen. He's got great skills, and you talk about investing in your future, investing in your craft, investing in school. It's all about preparation, and Juwan constantly, from the coaching staff and from the players, is pointed out as a guy who does that as well as anybody. I've got tremendous confidence that with those guys, we're going to look back at the end of the year and say, wow, what huge years these guys had. I'm very, very confident that that's going to happen. You mentioned earlier this season in preseason about Jahan Dotson's natu- ral feel for the game. How does he translate that to the field and how close is he to being ready to play? Really good. We could play Jahan right now. I don't think there's any doubt about that. You'll see Jahan play this year be- cause we've got the four games to play him, so at some point, we see it factoring in. We had a lot of discussions this week about some guys who maybe we would use this week and get them a little bit of experience. So we'll see how that plays out, but there's a lot of confidence in Jahan and what he brings to the table. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Your thoughts on the linebacker play in general and specifically what you've seen from Micah Parsons early in the season? It's about where we thought it would be. It's going to continue to grow and con- tinue to evolve. We've got a number of guys, and we've got experience there. We've got experienced talent and we've got young talent. Koa Farmer and Micah Parsons at the outside linebacker posi- tion, that's a nice one-two punch that we have there. I feel like those guys have got a chance to play at a very, very high level for us. At middle linebacker, you have an inter- esting three-way, three-headed monster there with Jan [Johnson], Ellis [Brooks] and Jesse [Luketa]. All three of them do good things, and we'll continue to see those guys get reps and opportunities. It's good to see Jesse, who didn't play in week one at the linebacker position, get some reps in week two, and I think that will continue to evolve. And then at the other outside line- backer, there's Cam Brown, and I see Jarvis Miller taking some steps, and we were impressed when Dae'Lun [Darien] got into the game. We thought he did some good things. That group will continue to evolve and grow, and you'll see a lot of guys get an opportunity to make plays. I think at some point this season, either someone will take the job and take control of it and say "It's mine" because there is a gap, or, you'll see a two-headed or three-headed monster continue to evolve there and grow and get better week to week. Given that Tommy Stevens hasn't been 100 percent, how much has that affected, if at all, how you've used the run game so far? It hasn't really affected us a whole lot. Probably some of the quarterback run stuff we've limited, but as you know, we do so much of the RPO stuff that he's still getting a decent amount of carries per game to keep people honest. That's who we are and that's who we will be. I think you guys see, we have a lot of confidence in Sean Clifford, as well, which obviously helps with that. Obviously, getting Tommy back is going to open some other things up for us, as well, in the run and passing game, be- cause as we've used him the last couple years, we know he can factor in in a lot of different roles and wear a lot of different hats, not only as a backup quarterback but also getting two quarterbacks on the field at the same time, using him as a running back, using him as an H-back, using him as a wide receiver. That's exciting, be- cause I do think it opens another aspect of our game plan. On Saturday, you called Amani Oruwariye one of those guys who the ball just finds. Can you talk about maybe a little bit in detail what makes him so successful, and how important is he to your defense moving forward? When we were at Vanderbilt, we had a guy by the name of Casey Hayward, same deal. He always seemed to be around the ball. The ball liked him, and I see that with Amani. Amani is long. He's got great ball skills. He's got tremendous confidence, and he's also been in the system for a long time now, and he's developed. He's ma- ture. He believes in himself. He believes in the system. He's got that ability to find the ball. A lot of defensive backs aren't com- fortable doing that because you want to stay connected to the wide receiver, and you know, worst-case scenario, you let the receiver catch the ball and you strip it out of his hand as soon as it hits the hands. The guys who want to take their game to the next level, they know when and are comfortable looking back or up and finding the ball and making a play on the ball. Amani has the ability to do that as well as any of the DBs that I've been around. You know, I think you're going to con- tinue to see him have a big year for us. He had a big year for us last year, but obvi- ously he's getting more opportunities and more reps right now as a starter for us, and I think he's very important to our de- fense. S E P T E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 1 8 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 10