Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1049222
That was a big challenge. That was a big part of the discussion of redshirting him, based on that discussion, there's no doubt about it. But the reality is, K.J. can't play every rep. He can't play every single rep in the game. So we want to make sure that when he taps, that Jahan will be able to go in there and make some plays for us, and then that also allows us to move some other guys around, too, like Mac Hippen- hammer, who has done some good things for us. What's going to be an important part of this week is finding out what's going to be the best lineup to get those guys on the field and give Trace as many options to make plays from as possible. You've been able to bank a lot of games for your true freshmen. Do you plan on using some of these kids in the final three games, and can you address specifically Justin Shorter? Our plan is to make sure that we had the bowl game available for guys and also try to be strategic as the season goes. It's hard to say, "We're going to play guys in these two games because of injuries." So we started out trying to get some guys expe- rience when we could early in the season and then we wanted to save some games for injuries or for late in the season in general. We try to maximize those games out as much as we possibly can with those players. Now, if a guy is not ready to play, we're not going to play him just to play him. It's those guys who are right on the bubble, and I think Justin is a really good example of that. With the number of games that we have leA, I think you're going to end up seeing some of these guys over the next few games. Do you think Justin is on the bubble in terms of being ready to play? Yeah, he's done some nice things. He had some injuries early on that slowed him down. In fact, he wanted to meet with me about some things. He's looking at his college experience very similar to his high school experi- ence, where he started out maybe a little bit slow and worked himself into being one of the best receivers in the country, if not the best receiver in the country. I think you're going to see a similar de- velopment with him here, just because of his approach and his attitude. His mom and dad have been awesome. He's been great. I think a lot of times, when you get these high-profile recruits, they don't always handle this stuff well. Him and his family have been unbelievable. No different than the recruiting process. No. 1 receiver in the country, he com- mits, never goes on another visit, never talks to anybody else. He shuts it down and it's over. No drama. None of it. They have been unbelievable, really, since day one. How do you compare and contrast the style of the two Wisconsin quarter- backs, and how does it change things in terms of preparation when you're not sure about the health of the starting quarterback for the other team? N O V E M B E R 7 , 2 0 1 8 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 11 Franklin is eager to see his team re- group after suffer- ing its most lopsided loss in the past three seasons, a 42-7 defeat at Michigan in which the offense pro- duced only 11 first downs. Photo by Steve Manuel