Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/666010
C O A C H S P E A K • R E C E N T C O M M E N T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ON THE DEFENSE'S PERFORM- ANCE I thought today [April 6] was probably the best we've played. There was energy, there was confidence, they made a bunch of plays. The personality is more of just off-season studies that we did in terms of how we want to dis- guise some of our coverages, try to dis- guise some of our blitzes. We felt like that was an area that we could improve on. Then obviously not having some of the guys this spring who are veterans, really good players [Nyeem Wartman- White and Brandon Bell, specifically], other guys have had to step up into those roles, but they've done a nice job. I think it's a great opportunity for some other guys. Manny [Bowen] is getting a bunch of reps, which is great for him. [Jake] Cooper is getting a bunch of reps. Kevin Givens is getting a bunch of reps, which is really good for those guys. I thought today was the first time that the defense played with a lot of confi- dence. We're also at a point now where the defense has got everything in and the way we kind of go through spring ball, we kind of make sure we're doing it part-part-part-whole. We kind of build. Offensively, they're not going to do a lot of shi@ing, motioning and things like that and do crazy tempo early on for our defense. Our defense is not going to blitz a lot early in spring ball. We're going to build. ON THE OFFENSIVE LINE [Paris Palmer] had missed a practice, our last practice and we had [Andrew Nelson] at le@ tackle and thought it went well, so we thought, "Let's experiment with Paris at right tackle." Sometimes you make those types of moves because of the situation you're in and it ends up being a blessing in disguise. It's still us searching for the best five and getting them on the field. Not only getting the right people on the bus, but getting them in their right seats as well. Just ex- perimenting with that. To be honest with you, more than that we're kind of looking at, who are the other guys? Is it Noah Beh? Is it Sterling Jenkins? Is he ready yet? Is it Connor McGovern, who we're experimenting with a little bit at tackle as well, who is doing a nice job for us for a true fresh- man. ON BACKUP RB MARK ALLEN Mark Allen has really taken the opportunity right now and run with it. He had a great Saturday [April 2], played ex- tremely well and broke a bunch of tack- les. Saquon [Barkley] is doing some really, really nice things, but it's also been really good to evaluate some of these other guys in the live stuff be- cause we've limited Saquon in those sit- uations a little bit. Mark is a guy you always question [with respect to] his pass protection be- cause he's undersized. But I think I've said to you guys before, from a tech- nique, from a fundamental and obvi- ously from a leverage standpoint – he's got that naturally – he's been one of our best pass protectors really since he's ar- rived. Andre [Robinson] is still a guy who I think is doing well but is probably a little bit behind those guys in that area. ON JOE MOORHEAD He has tremen- dous passion and belief in his system and what he's doing. What I've said to you guys before [is that] we've taught conceptual football in the past anyway, so it's not like we're running different plays. It's how the whole system is put together. I know Joe has been very im- pressed with Trace [McSorley], espe- cially, and Tommy [Stevens], just their knowledge of the game and under- standing, so that's helped the transition for them. ON HOW THE OFFENSE HAS PRACTICED THIS SPRING The way we structure practice, where [the of- fense is] not getting a bunch of looks from the defense, it allowed the offense to have some success early on and they did. You combine that with [the fact that] now the defense has to worry about Trace and Tommy and their legs, and it changes things. The biggest thing is to lay a foundation for the system and their assignments and responsibilities and then build confidence. I think both of those have happened. There's an ex- citement right now offensively. The line is playing better. We still have some things we have to get resolved. We're veteran now at wide receiver, where we've been young in the past. We're veteran at running back and we have some experience at tight end, so we've been pleased with that. A P R I L 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 12 WHISTLE STOP Franklin takes notes during Penn State's practice on April 6. Photo by Steve Manuel