Blue White Illustrated

Penn State fans weren't the only ones surprised by Geno Lewis's conspicuous absence from the Nittany Lions' 18-13 loss at Michigan. The redshirt sophomore wideout had not met the standards the coaching staff wanted him to meet in order to continue playing a prominent role in the offense, James Franklin said during his postgame news conference. Although there was some talk of a slight injury, Lewis had made sporadic appearances against the Wolverines, indicating that Franklin had been straightforward in his postgame comments. Lewis wasn't as detail-oriented in his approach to the game as the staff wanted him to be and had made enough mistakes during the first half of the season to prompt a change. Message received. During a news conference Tuesday af- ternoon that followed Franklin's weekly presser, Lewis discussed a meeting he had with his coach during the team's bye week and talked about the ways in which he hopes to get better as the season goes on. "We had a talk about the season and how it was going, and we just wanted to get on the same page about how things were going," Lewis said. "As the season goes along, there are things that you want to keep getting better at, and I know for myself there were things I needed to be more consistent with, and we talked about it man‑to-man. I think it went in a positive direction, so I'm ready to get back to where things were and keep things positive." For Lewis, the task shouldn't require a complete transformation. He may be coming off his two least- productive games of the season, having totaled seven catches for 50 yards against Northwestern and Michigan. But he is still the team's second-leading receiver with 32 catches for 512 yards, and he ranks fiCh among Big Ten receivers with an average of 85.3 yards per game. Lewis said he needs to be "more fo- cused, basically, in my details and little things like that. It's nothing really too big, just things I need to focus on more. Those are things we can make better and get the right way. "I was humbled," he added. "But at the same time, I'm a competitor and I want to be out there on the field for my team as much as possible." Franklin said those are the expectations of the coaching staff this weekend as the Nittany Lions face No. 13 Ohio State at Beaver Stadium. "I'm expecting Geno to have a big week and a real big second half of the season," he said. "There were some things that we needed to get cleaned up from a consis- tency standpoint with him. We had a meeting with him, and it went extremely well. "He also had some bumps and bruises and things like that that were affecting his practice reps and time. So I think he's back to feeling 100 percent and un- derstanding the importance of doing things with the consistency that we're asking of him. He's one of the guys who I met with, and he understands [that] we need him to have a big role on our of- fense like it was early in the season for us to be the type of team and offense we want to be." N A T E   B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M O c T O B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 4 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 11 Lesson learned 'Humbled' Geno Lewis eager to respond after coaches send message Steve Manuel NO  GAIN After a fast start, Lewis has- n't made a big impact in PSU's most recent games, totaling seven catches for 50 yards against North- western and Michigan.

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