Blue White Illustrated

development of January enrollee Michael O'Connor. His comments lined up with some of the behind-the-scenes impres- sions Blue White Illustrated had heard about the freshman's progress. O'Connor has impressed onlookers with his command of the game, and he'll probably see some reps on Saturday. De- spite having much to improve on, he has made an immediate impact at the posi- tion. "I'd like for him to get a little bit more confident that he can drive the ball. He's got a pretty strong arm," Franklin said. "What I've been very impressed with is just his knowledge of the game. It comes pretty natural to him. He knows where to go with the ball. He doesn't panic. I've been impressed with that. "But we've just got to get him more confident with his footwork, with his arm strength, so he can make some of the more challenging throws." In addition to the four-star freshman QB, the new head coach talked about some of the guys who immediately caught his eye early in his tenure at Penn State. Many will be on hand Saturday. "I've been very impressed with [Chris- tian] Hackenberg," Franklin said. "Everybody told me ahead of time, but until you see it live… I've been very, very impressed with him. I think Donovan Smith has had a really, really good camp. I think Mike Hull has played extremely well. He's handling the Mike linebacker position, making all the calls. [Adrian] Amos is an impressive guy as well. I could go on and on. I don't like to really point specific guys out, but I've been im- pressed with a handful of guys. [Sam] Ficken – I've mentioned him before. I think he's had a great spring, too." With a glaring lack of depth, however, how much will fans see of Penn State's frontline players? At this point, there is plenty of interest into how Franklin will choose to run his first public scrimmage. While former head coach Bill O'Brien changed the scoring format in a bid to transform the game into an offense-vs.- defense showcase, Franklin has said he would prefer a more gamelike atmos- phere. Even so, the Lions' diminished depth on the offensive line might mean that the linemen stick together and play for both teams. "The format is really dictated on where we are at in terms of depth and bodies by the time the game comes along," Franklin said. "At this point, we still plan on hav- ing a true spring game. We'll see how this week goes and affects that. "What you probably can plan on is the O-line will be in a different color, be- cause we want those guys to be able to play on both teams if they need to be, and we're not changing jerseys on the side- line and stuff like that," Franklin ex- plained. "So, we'll have a blue team, we'll have a white team. We'll break the coaching staff up, and then the O-line will all be in one color so they can run back and forth. Probably gray." Additionally, with the end of spring practice looming and the next official practice not coming until August, Franklin talked about the potential improvements that can be made over the summer. He noted the importance of film study and individual initiative. Franklin said he expected Hackenberg to spearhead ef- forts to streamline the passing game dur- ing the summer months. "I think you'll see Christian taking all the wideouts and the tight ends, coming in and watching film with them all [sum- mer], going out and throwing individual routes, going out and throwing seven- on-seven," Franklin said. "You've got a much better chance to improve your passing game between the end of spring and the beginning of fall camp than you do your running game. It's hard to go out and work on the running game in the summer in shorts and t-shirts, but the quarterbacks and receivers and the DBs, they can go out and work all summer long and get a lot of work done." On the defensive side of the ball, Franklin is expecting Mike Hull to fulfill a similar role. He's liked what he's seen of Hull – enough to put him at middle linebacker, despite some lingering ques- tions about both the strong side and weak side linebacker positions. Although there's uncertainty at line- backer, that's not the case on the defen- sive line. Franklin cited the line as one of the areas where Penn State has some real depth – both at tackle and end. "The move that we had to make, mov- ing guys to the O-line, affected us a little bit at defensive tackle, but we did that because we have a lot of confidence in Tarow Barney and Antoine White," Franklin said. "We have a lot of confi- dence in those two guys, and they're going to have to play for us. The fact they're doing a good job allowed us to move [Derek Dowrey and Brian Gaia] over to offense, and we still have pretty good depth." • A couple of personnel notes to pass along: Defensive back Kyle Alston (No. 37) and wide receiver Desi Davis (No. 86) have joined the team as walk-ons a>er participating in on-campus tryouts. Neither wore pads during Saturday's practice, and their status for the Blue- White Game is uncertain. A P R I L 9 , 2 0 1 4 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2 Tim Owen STATE OF THE UNION Franklin updated reporters on PSU's progress during spring practice last week.

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