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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 M A R C H 1 7 P R E S S E R Can you kind of give us a sense of how you guys prepared and the things that you've spent a lot of time on to get yourself ready for this? With the limitations that we've talked about in the past with the number of hours and things like that, what's nice is some of the rule changes here re- cently is you are allowed to meet with them. You weren't allowed to do that before. That's helped. Making sure, first of all, that we [as coaches] are all on the same page. We do have a couple of new coaches who have joined us, so I think that's important. Same thing with the administration, strength staff, just making sure we're all on the same page. Every year, whether we would have stayed at the previous institution or moved on, you're always going to go back and clean some things up and grow and adapt, so we have done that. Then being able to start giving the players the installations. We do basically 15 installs: offense, defense, special teams, run game, pass game, whatever it may be. [Players] were able to get two or three of the installs in written form to look at before they leB for spring break, and then video as well. So, for example, in- stall 1 of the defense may be cover two. They'll get that in writing, exactly what the responsibilities are, but then they'll also get film of examples of that cover- age as well. For us, it's a little bit different and it's a little bit weird at this point because we're showing them film that is not Penn State film, but it's the best exam- ple of what we can show them. As we get better examples from practice, then we can start to take Penn State exam- ples and replace that film, because you would love to have the freshmen coming in or whoever and being able to watch our film as much as possible. But we'll also splice in some examples from NFL Films [of players] running the same plays or same schemes, because I think that helps the kids as well. Can you tell us how much time you and the staff spent watching the players from last year to get a feel for what these players are about? And how important is the first week of practice when you get a chance to work with these guys hands-on? I think the hands-on experience is the most important thing. A lot of times, you watch a tape and you're not sure what they're being taught – what the techniques are, the fundamentals are and what they're really being asked to do in the scheme, so that is the most important thing. But, yeah, we did go back and watch tape: offense, defense and special teams. I'm probably as excited about special teams as any area on the team, because if you look at us statistically the last year or so, it's the area with the most room for improvement, I think. It's the area where we can make the biggest im- pact, and we're committed to playing the best players on special teams. I think it was a little bit of a different phi- losophy in the past, and I think that dealt with the sanctions and things like that. That was a way they were going to try to solve it with the sanctions. I don't believe in that. I believe we're going to play our best players. I think a lot of times coaches give special teams lip service. I'm not saying that's what hap- pened here in the past, but I believe you're going to play your best players in all three areas. Now, we can't have a guy starting on offense or defense and start on all four units on special teams, either. You've got to have an understanding of that as well. The film has been important, but the hands-on experience is going to be the most important thing that we have. Can I get your thoughts on the de- fensive backfield going into spring? You moved Adrian Amos to safety, and your thoughts on Jordan Lucas, what he had last year and what you see from him, and who else could be a factor at cornerback with Adrian moving to safety? Yeah, I feel really good about it. I feel really good about our defense and about our secondary in general. I really do. I think it's a little different on the defen- sive side of the ball compared to the of- fensive side. Those guys are two-deep in the secondary. They've played a lot. I think if you look at our starting unit across the board – and when I say start- ing unit, it's the guys we're going to be running out there for the first snap of team periods or seven-on-sevens – I SPRING TRAINING Franklin ad- dresses reporters prior to the start of his first spring practice session as the Nittany Lions' head coach. M A R C H 1 9 , 2 0 1 4 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 10 Tim Owen SEE COACHSPEAK PAGE 11

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