Blue White Illustrated

T H E M O N T H I N . . . O P I N I O N S Right now, Franklin needs his offensive line — a veteran group that, among its top six, has been at Penn State for a combined 22 years and has a robust total of 128 starts — to simply play a better supporting role. Penn State's biggest problem the past five weeks, in some ways, is one of its biggest problems when it was on a 24-3 tear in 2016-17-early 18: The RPO doesn't seem to be made for holding onto fourth-quarter leads, for keeping a pretty darn good PSU defense off the field, for playing good ol' Big Ten, hey-it's-cold- outside smash-mouth football in the final stanza — when games are won and lost by big men and a series of small, successful plays. MIKE POORMAN STATECOLLEGE.COM I've heard some absurd suggestions recently from fans grudgingly willing to give Franklin "one more year" to figure out how to consistently beat his nemeses, the more experienced Urban Meyer, Mark Dantonio and Jim Harbaugh, all of whom are at least 8 years older, against whom he is now a combined 3-12. Implicit is the sug- gestion that the types of mistakes Franklin is making now were never made by the great coaches at the same stage. But that's not true. DAVID JONES PENNLIVE.COM JOE KRENTZMAN & SON, INC. • Buyers and Brokers of Steel, Iron and Nonferrous Metals • Industrial Scrap Buyers • Container Service Available • Large Service Territory Since 1903 Lewistown, PA • Hollidaysburg, PA • DuBois, PA (800) 543-2000 • www.krentzman.net F irst i n S cra p season when Wisconsin visited Penn State, so he will not be redshirting this year. Freiermuth won't be taking a redshirt either, as he's been the team's starter at tight end ever since the Ohio State game. Hamler red- shirted last year, and he has been the team's most reliable wideout this sea- son, with 33 catches for 552 yards through 10 games. The Lions have also gotten contributions from fresh- men Mac Hippenhammer, Daniel George, Cam Sullivan-Brown and Zack Kuntz. In addition, Justin Shorter caught the first pass of his ca- reer – a 3-yarder – against Wiscon- sin, indicating that he's on the road back to full health after suffering an unspecified preseason injury. So the future is looking bright. But in the meantime, the Lions need their veteran receivers to deliver if they're going to burnish their post- season resume. Through 10 games, Johnson was the only receiver other than Hamler with more than 20 catches, having totaled 21 receptions for 293 yards. Thompkins had 17 catches for 214 yards, and Polk had nine for 162. As the regular season draws to a close, the Nittany Lions are looking to keep things positive. They have had some spectacular moments, such as Johnson's leaping one-armed catch against Ohio State, a play that is cer- tain to make postseason highlight reels. That's the kind of thing they want to dwell on as they try to build confidence. "Obviously, you don't want to reflect on what's bad," Johnson said. "Think about the positive things that happen and feed off that, because the moment you start thinking about the negative things, you're going to start feeling a certain way and it's going to start get- ting into your head. The only thing you can do is think about the positive things, like the big plays I made or how we communicate and sort of work off of that, go back to the drawing board, whether it's film or things like that and work from there." ■

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