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C OAC H S P E A K| E X C E R P T S F RO M JA M E S F R A N K L I N ' S A P R I L 1 1 P R E S S E R GENERAL THOUGHTS ON PRAC- TICE I just told the team: We went into this spring with question marks at D- end. I don't have those question marks. Those guys have played with great tech- nique, great fundamentals, they're playing with really good confidence right now. I'm excited about our D- ends, I really am. Our offensive line, we've made dramatic progress from last year, but we still have a lot of work to do. They just have to take kind of a lunch pail mentality and come to work every single day and grind through it. We just have to be a little more compet- itive on offense, but overall I'm really pleased. And I told them, they may not see it, even the individual coaches may not see it, but I do. Looking at it from 50,000 feet, and watching all the drills and watching all the competition, I'm just so impressed. ON THE DEFENSIVE ENDS Nassib and Sickels, I think, are doing really well, playing at a high level. Really tal- ented. Very dependable, but I'd s say Curtis Cothran and Torrence Brown, to me, are exciting. That doesn't slight the other guys, but those two guys, for young guys who haven't played, they're flashing some really exciting things. ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE Let's be honest. It's understanding where we started. We still have a long ways to go to be where we want we to be. But we're communicating so much better. Last year, because we had no returning starts – we had one player with returning starts but none with this offense – no one would go up there and take control and communicate and ID the front and make the calls, because nobody wanted to make the mistake. Now they're com- municating so much better. They know who to look to now with confidence. Now we just have to get better at all the little things: the pad level, the hand placement, the hat placement, all those things. What I'm saying is, last year there were times where they didn't play with confidence at all. Now there's con- fidence mentally. Now we have to get them to play more aggressive because they're not thinking. They're not think- ing about their assignment, they're not thinking about their technique. They're just coming out and playing fast and playing aggressive. So that's the next step ON PARIS PALMER He's like where the rest of the offensive line was last year. He's doing some nice things, but he's behind those other guys. He's got tremendous talent. He's put on five pounds during spring ball, so we're making progress there. He's kind of dif- ferent. He has the footwork to get in position to make the plays, but at this level he can get overpowered some- times because he's right around 290 pounds. You guys have seen him, he's 6-8, 290 but he looks like he's 247. [He's getting] experience this spring and summer, and I think he has a chance to be in the 300-, 305-pound range by Temple. That's going to help, because size matters. Mass moves mass. You can afford to have some mis- takes when you have the size. Right now, a guy who is doing some really good things and I'm really excited about is Chasz Wright. He's grown tremendously, but he's also 6-7, 330 pounds, so he's able to get moving, he's able to get physical and he's starting to play with more confidence. ON DEPTH AT RUNNING BACK Mark Allen has had a really good spring. I've been pleased with him. Nick [Scott] has shown some flashes, but he's still got a ways to go. Johnathan Thomas has been limited, and he was a guy going into spring everybody was really kind of excited about. There's going to be great competition. You have all those guys and then you've got the two guys com- ing in as well. I'm excited, but again, it's more about the front of the O-line and the tight ends, and I'm pleased with those guys as well. ON REPLACING MIKE HULL I don't think one person is going to replace Mike Hull. I think it's going to be a com- bination. But I like our front. I like our front four. The two-deep. I like our first-and-a-half team at linebacker. I thought Nyeem was having a really good spring. He's been limited here as of late. I thought he and Bell and Cabinda were really having a nice spring. ON ROTATING LINEBACKERS The way we do a lot of things – with the of- fensive line, with the linebackers, with DBs – is that we try to create as much flexibility as we possible can. That's our belief system – to create depth that way and dual-train guys. We'll do that even when our depth gets better. Obviously, A P R I L 1 5 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 12 WATCHFUL EYE Franklin is overseeing his second spring practice at Penn State. He said recently that the Nit- tany Lions have made substantial improvements since last sea- son. "We just have to be a little more competitive on offense, but overall I'm re- ally pleased," he said. Photo by Tim Owen

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