Blue White Illustrated

W R A P Defensively, the Nittany Lions did noth- ing to diminish defensive coordinator Bob Shoop's o=-season optimism. With ends Evan Schwan and Curtis Cothran each producing a pair of sacks, the White de- fense terrorized Penn State's ;rst-string o=ensive line all a?ernoon. Finishing with ;ve sacks for the day, Shoop's defense took particular advantage of juco transfer Paris Palmer's inexperience starting at le? tackle and the absence of starter An- drew Nelson at right tackle following the ;rst quarter. Franklin's postgame comments con- cerning the team's line play were measured. While pleased with the performance of the defensive front, its strong showing came at the expense of an o=ensive line that clearly has much work ahead of it still. "As a group, we still have a situation now where we still have guys trying to learn le? tackle, which I think showed up at times today," Franklin said. "We still have a lot of work to do. "It wasn't going to be like we were going to be able to flip a switch and it's going to change overnight. I am confident that between now and the start of camp, we can take another step and then con- tinue to grow during camp and be ready to go." The coaching sta= held a number of key players out of the Blue-White Game. In addition to McSorley and Wartman, the Nittany Lions were missing Chris Godwin, DeAndre Thompkins, Adam Breneman and Ben Kline. All are expected to be ready for preseason practice in Au- gust. For now, the focus is on informal summer workouts. There's plenty that can be ac- complished in May, June and July, and Franklin is expecting the Nittany Lions to be proactive as they get ready for the season to come. "I just told our players, this has to be a players-driven program until we start camp. They need to take ownership of the program," he said. "We will be as good as they decide to be in the o=-season with their preparation and work." ■ P O S T G A M E P R E S S E R Some of the guys that did not play today who were limited like Adam Breneman, Ben Kline, Nyeem Wart- man, you held them out. Are you ex- pecting them back for preseason camp? As you guys know, that wasn't a pre- caution. It wasn't like we were saving anyone for the fall. They just weren't able to go at this point. We're planning on all of those guys being ready to go when we come to camp, but that's also going to be a part of our decision-making process. When we have to decide who's coming to camp, we're only going to bring the guys to camp who are ready to play. That will be part of the decision-making process. No, it's not like we were holding guys out as a precautionary [measure]. If they could go, they went today. If they couldn't, they were held out. Where is Tommy Stevens at this point in his career a%er coming in here this spring? Considering that he should still be in high school, I think the 15 practices that he had were really good. He shows that he doesn't get rattled. I thought he learned the playbook pretty well, he has a natural vision for seeing the ;eld and understanding concepts and he showed some mobility as well, which is exciting. He still needs to get in the weight room. He's gained 12-14 pounds. He could gain another 35. I've been pleased with him overall. I thought all three quarterbacks, as well as [Billy] Fessler, all four quarter- backs, had a nice spring. Trace [McSor- ley] up until the last week, really had a strong spring. In what ways have you seen the re- ceivers improve this spring, speci#- cally Saeed Blacknall and DeAndre Thompkins? They're just playing faster. Today, I thought we needed to make more people miss. We had some opportunities in the open ;eld to make people miss and didn't do that, but that's also a credit to our defense, which is tackling well. I just think they're all playing faster right now, they're not thinking as much. We were really young at that position last year, so I thought, overall, they took a real strong step here. They're bigger and faster than they've ever been, from their time in the weight room. They'll continue to grow this o=-season. Christian brought the ball down and ran it three or four times in the #rst half. Is that something you're encour- aging him to do? Can you evaluate his progression as a leader? We're always encouraging the quarter- backs to go through their progression. If the guy is open, throw it to him. If pro- gression one is open, throw it on time. If not, move to progression two. If he's open, hit him. If he's not, hitch up to your progression three, which is typical- ly your outlet and take it. If he's not there, continue that momentum when you hitch up in the pocket, go get us four yards and keep us on schedule. I thought he showed some indications of doing that today, which was great. I think overall, his leadership is right on schedule. I see him interacting with his teammates a lot more. I see him in- teracting with his coaches a lot more. I think where you're really going to see it is this o=-season when the coaches are on the road – coming into the locker room, watching ;lm on his own and with the receivers, with the O-line and talk- ing protections, going out and throwing on their own. I think that's where you're really going to see the big step with him this o=-season – taking ownership of the team. ■

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