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C OAC H S P E A K| EXCERPTS FROM JAMES FRANKLIN'S MARCH 17 PRESSER You talked about moving Jordan Lucas to safety. How much of it was skill set and how much was numbers? I think it's a combination of all those things you said. We try to do things that are not only best for Penn State and our football program specifically, but also in these guys' long‑term [interest]. Jordan is a guy who could play corner here and at the next level as well. I think he has a chance to maybe be special at safety. It's also back to the philosophy you have heard me talk about before. I think it's easier to play a freshman at corner and a freshman at wide receiver than it would be to play a freshman at safety, linebacker or defensive line. The closer you are to the ball, the harder it is to get on the field early. So we feel good about our young talent at corner. We're losing some experience at safety. Usually you need to have pretty good depth at safety with the types of things you're asking those guys to do. It's a combination of all those factors. You mentioned the tight ends. Adam Breneman is coming back. Will he be able to do anything this spring? How important is it to get him back? Getting Adam back – you're talking about a guy who had a bunch of success early on in his career. He's had some in- juries, some setbacks. In some ways you probably would have liked to have red- shirted him his first year. Now the fact that we were able to redshirt him last year and still have some success is good. He's got a year to get healthy, get bigger and stronger, get more confident. He's a guy who I think has the size and the mentality to be a complete tight end, a guy who can put his hand in the dirt and come off and block at the line of scrimmage. He also has the ability to be a threat in the passing game, has the size and ball skills. Probably most important, even through this whole year, as trying as it was on him, he is one of the most posi- tive, optimistic, completely 100 percent bought-in leaders that we have. He's been great. He's been great for us as coaches. He's been great with our team and players. He's always got a smile on his face. He's so appreciative of Penn State. He's so appreciative of the op- portunities he has here. That alone [is something] we're really, really excited about. Can you talk a little bit about your offensive line situation in contrast from a year ago, even going into spring last year, where it was hard to have a practice with the numbers you had? The fact that we're going to have a two-deep [depth chart made up] of scholarship players is exciting. We had a bunch of guys who have had some ex- perience. Last year I think at this point we had two returning starters in the be- ginning of spring ball. As we all know, we lost [Miles] Dieffenbach. We had one returning player on the offensive line for spring ball. We had a bunch of new faces in there with a new system. It's completely different. We have five or six guys now who started a game. I remember a high school coach coming up to me last year during spring ball, talking about how he had been to other regional colleges, watched their practices, then watched ours. He had an interesting expression on his face. There's nobody who is happier about this group returning and the strides they've made than Mr. and Mrs. Hack- enberg. I'm excited about them. I know Herb [Hand] is excited about working with him. I know they're so much more confident mentally and physically, all those things. As you guys have heard me say before, not only does it affect and help with Hack's continued development, our of- fense's development, [but also with] your second-team quarterback, your second-team receivers, second-team tight end and running backs. It helps with the defense's development be- cause now the second-team defense has a chance to legitimately be threat- ened. We're real pleased. Those guys have been awesome. I could go on and on about a number of these guys, the im- provement they've made, how dramatic it has been, almost to a man, to every single guy there who has really made some really good strides in so many dif- ferent areas. I'm excited to see them go out and compete. They have a great challenge, which again goes back to the fact that iron sharpens iron. The fact that they're going to go up against A.J. Johnson and [Carl] Nassib every single day at prac- tice, that's only going to make them better because they're going to be chal- lenged. Having a 327-pound dancing bear like A.J. Johnson inside that you're dealing with, then the quickness and explosion of [Anthony] Zettel, that's going to challenge those guys. Nassib I think had a sneaky-quiet, re- ally successful year if you go back and really study his tape. He played really well for us, going back and watching the tape on him. How much are you looking forward to the competition at running back, some of the younger guys? I think Akeel [Lynch], the way the sea- son ended with him, he's done some nice things. We're excited to see what [Nick] Scott, [Brandon] Johnson and [Mark] Allen are going to be able to do. Scott and Allen redshirted [last season], and Johnson is actually the biggest, strongest, fastest guy on our team. We're going to see if it's going to trans- late. Obviously [Johnathan] Thomas is a guy we're excited about as well, but he will be somewhat limited during the spring. All those guys redshirted except for Johnson last year. We're excited to see what they're going to be able to do. They're all different. Thomas is the big, physical guy. Allen is the quick scat back. Scott is kind of a combination of the two. We're going to need those guys to step up. There are some guys coming in, as well, who are going to be able to create some challenges and competition dur- ing camp. We'll wait till camp to discuss M A R C H 1 8 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 8

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