Blue White Illustrated

Lions' sta juggling many responsibilities Penn State head coach James Franklin sprinted up to the podium in the Beaver Stadium media room for Pinstripe Bowl media day Dec. 13. Scheduled to begin taking questions at 1 p.m., it was now 1:04, and he was only just arriving. "I do not like tardiness," he said. "I was four minutes late, so I apologize for that." His explanation? A recruit had been attending practice an hour earlier with some family members, and they were getting ready to head home. Franklin wanted to spend some extra time with them before they left town. There's been a lot of multitasking throughout the football program lately. Franklin and his staff have been taking on dual responsibilities, preparing for the Pinstripe Bowl against Boston Col- lege while also continuing to recruit aggressively. Those efforts have paid dividends, as Penn State's offensive coaching staff traveled to North Car- olina on Dec. 12 to secure a verbal com- mitment from four-star offensive line- man Paris Palmer, mere hours before overseeing a morning practice at Holu- ba Hall. "We're at an interesting time of the year right now where we're trying to balance two full time jobs," he said, "and that's one [job] supporting our guys to make sure they finish strong ac- ademically – that's practice, making sure we're doing a great job of develop- ing the guys that we have in our program now – and then also being on the road recruiting and being all over the place. So it's been fun. It's been exciting." In addition to Franklin, coordinators John Donovan (offense), Bob Shoop (de- fense) and Charles Huff (special teams) spoke about the program's direction. Here are some highlights: ON RECRUITING Franklin spoke ex- tensively about Penn State's strategy coming down the homestretch and the tactics he plans to use in order to finish strong. Adjusting to an NCAA recruiting dead period that began Dec. 16 and con- tinues through Jan. 15, the Nittany Li- ons' staff has been working to maximize its chances to fill the five remaining spots in its class. In-school and in-home visits have been essential, Franklin said. "Having a better understanding of who these guys are and having a relationship with their parents is really important, because this isn't going to go perfect. There are going to be bumps in the road along the way," he said. "Being able to have that type of relationship with the high school coach, with the guardian, with the parents, with the young man to work through all of those things is really, really impor- tant." ON UP-AND-COMING PLAYERS Asked to name some of the young play- ers who have performed well during bowl preparations, Franklin cited kick- er Joe Julius, wideout De'Andre Thompkins, defensive tackles Antoine White, Parker Cothren and Torrence Brown, and defensive back Christian Campbell. He said are all "jumping out" right now. ON THE OFFENSE Donovan said the team's difficulties moving the ball con- sistently prompted plenty of frustration in his first regular season in Happy Val- ley. He said the heavy criticism the of- fense received took a toll. "We've got a very young group, and they're very influenced by some things," Donovan said, referring to chatter from media, fans, parents and friends. "That hurts a little bit. You try to control the room and all that stuff. But at the same time, because they're young and inexperienced, the majority of them, they learn by doing, by the game reps they do get. And that comes over time. When you don't have an ex- perienced group, each rep they have in practice is great. "But until it happens in a game, hap- pens full speed where they've got to think and think fast and go through it, sometimes it's a process and they've got to work through that." Penn State concluded the regular sea- son ranked 112th or worse in total of- fense, rushing and scoring. Donovan said he expects the offense to ultimately benefit from the difficulties it has faced this season. "You kind of see that future. Those guys are coming in looking at everything wide-eyed and [wondering] what's go- ing to happen next," he said. "But they're just going to get better. That's the bottom line." ON THE DEFENSE Coming off a regu- lar season in which his defense im- pressed with its strong performance against both the pass and (especially) the run, Shoop was asked whether he was interested in becoming a head coach. One of 40 nominees for this year's Broyles Award, which goes to the na- tion's top assistant, he said he didn't know if he wanted to undertake that challenge again. Shoop served as head coach at Colum- bia from 2003-05, going 7-23 at the Ivy League school. But the Nittany Lions' impressive performance on defense this season has turned heads, and if an op- portunity were to arise, Shoop said he wouldn't dismiss it out of hand. "I love the job that I have now," he said. "I work hard at it on a daily basis. And like any coach who is professionally mo- tivated, if it were the right opportunity and someone showed interest in me, I would listen." ■ | N O T E B O O K

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