Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
Scruggs being able to rotate in and get a lot of reps if he's not a starter. I could see, depending on what happens inside, a combination of Des Holmes, [Mike] Miranda, [C.J.] Thorpe, [Anthony] Whigan, Scruggs, obviously [Michal] Menet, and all those guys playing a lot inside. [Caedan] Wallace, [Bryce] Effner, [Will] Fries, and [Rasheed] Walker – I could see all those guys getting an op- portunity to play a lot. It would be a lit- tle bit different than probably what we've been in the past, in terms of play- ing more guys on the O-line. BWI When you have someone as strong as Pat Freiermuth at tight end, how does it impact your perception of that posi- tion? FRANKLIN It's a little bit of a different situation. You've got Pat, and then you've got a bunch of young, talented, more-unproven guys. The 12 personnel [alignment] allows us to get them some work, but I think Pat is going to take an- other step. He's so mature. He's so con- fident right now. He's played a lot of football. Very productive, very reliable. But yeah, I think that's a little bit differ- ent, where we love the talent that we have, but there's just a significant drop- off when it comes to experience. BWI Shaka Toney seemed to say that he thought that the external perception was that the defensive line would have a drop-off now that Yetur Gross-Matos and Sean Spencer are gone. I said I don't think that's the case at all. How do you feel about that group as it transitions a little bit? FRANKLIN Yeah, I don't feel that way either. I don't think the staff feels like that, I don't think the players feel like that, I don't think the fans or the media feel like that. I haven't gotten that sense. Again, we recruited well there in terms of depth. We've got to find maybe a few more defensive ends. We've probably got a little bit more depth at D-tackle in terms of veteran guys who have played. We probably need a little bit more depth at defensive end. But no, I think that group has got a chance to be good. When you talk about [Jayson] Oweh and Toney and [Adisa] Isaac and [Shane] Simmons, those guys have played a lot of football for us, and then there are some young, exciting guys as well who could factor in. I think there's a lot of excitement in our program about Smith Vilbert. We'll see. BWI Is Micah Parsons ready to be the guy who knows what's going on at line- backer? He's always had somebody to rely on to direct him to do certain things. Where do you feel like he is in that de- velopment? FRANKLIN Yeah, I think he's light years ahead. Everybody forgets, he's only played linebacker for two years. So year three, he's very confident. You're able to use him in a lot more ways. There's a lot more flexibility because of his confi- dence and his understanding of what we do and how we do it, his fundamentals, all of it. We need him to be more of a leader out there in terms of running the defense and those types of things. But he's got a chance to take a significant step. I say this all the time and people think I'm crazy, but I don't even think Micah is anywhere close to reaching his ceiling. I think he's just scratching the surface of where he can go. BWI What kind of a situation do you expect for that linebacker group as a whole for the season ahead? FRANKLIN We've recruited there prob- ably as well as any position on our team. You think about having Parsons and [Charlie] Katshir. That's going to be a nice combination if that's how it plays out at the Will linebacker spot. [Ellis] Brooks and [Jesse] Luketa at the Mike linebacker spot, we feel damn good about those two guys. And then at the field backer, the Sam, you talk about [Brandon] Smith and [Lance] Dixon. That's a really good group that we feel good about. And that doesn't even take into consideration [Zuriah] Fisher, [Tyler] Elsdon, [Curtis] Jacobs, and some of the other guys. So we feel really good about the returning two-deep we have, and then we feel good about the injection of some of the guys we re- cruited. BWI You've spoken about how, when you're good at stopping the run, it's nat- ural for opponents' passing numbers to go up. When you reflect on last year, where do you come out in terms of what the secondary did, and then what do you foresee for the future? FRANKLIN I think we have to challenge more balls and more routes. I don't think there's any doubt about that. There are some things that we can do from a scheme standpoint, and there are some things that we can do from a demeanor standpoint. But I think the biggest thing is, we're doing a really good job of recruiting and developing guys with ball skills. For us, every DB we recruit, I want that guy to be, if possible, a basketball player, and I want that guy to play wide receiver on his high school team. That guy should be the best wide receiver in his high school conference, let alone what he does on the defensive side of the ball. The more guys you have back there who have con- fidence with the ball in their hands, who have confidence when the ball is in the air that they can get it, I think that's going to help us. And we continue to get more of those guys. So I think that's going to help us. The biggest thing is, if we can increase our number of turnovers, obviously that's going to help our overall defense, that's going to help our team, and I think statistically it's going to help our pass defense. BWI What do you foresee for Jordan Stout in the kicking game and the po- tential of him holding all three jobs? FRANKLIN We need him to be our punter. Just based on our depth chart situation, we need him to be our punter, and we think he can be. We were going to sign a punter in the last class but we just really couldn't find anybody who was a no-brainer who we felt comfortable offering, knowing in our back pocket that we thought he could do it. I think in a perfect world, you would still have the same situation with [Jake] Pinegar and him on field goals. We could take that off his plate. And then he could do the kickoff job, so now he's