Penn State Sports Magazine
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created that at the running back posi- tion. I think Coach [Charles] Huff has done a really good job with those guys. They believe in him, they have very close rela- tionships, and right now we feel like we have two guys who we can win with in Saquon Barkley and Mark Allen. I think Andre Robinson is right on the cusp of taking that next step. He did enough things this spring that you're excited about him, but you still want to see more. You've got Johnathan Thomas, who is a guy who two years ago, people were excited about, but he's just had nagging injuries since he's been here. And then obviously you've got Miles Sanders coming into the equation. There's nobody who would [dispute] that he has a lot of talent. BWI If the wideouts are a strength, in what areas can they improve? FRANKLIN Juwan Johnson and Irvin Charles are two guys who you look back on and we had some discussions about whether to play those two guys or not [last season]. They are 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, can really run, can really make plays. We were able to redshirt them. So now you have a proven commodity in DaeSean Hamilton, who led the league in receptions two years ago. You have a proven commodity in Chris Godwin, who was up there leading the conference in yardage last year. You have Saeed Blacknall, who has played a lot of foot- ball but hasn't really had his breakout. Based on the spring, all indications are that that's going to happen. So you've got three guys who have played a lot of football, all ready to take the next step. And then you have a Brandon Polk, who has played some football and brings a dynamic of speed and quickness that we love. You have DeAndre Thompkins, who is another guy who showed some flashes last year but is now going to go from an inexperi- enced guy to a guy who's going to have a lot more confidence and can show what he's able to do. You have Gregg Garrity, who is a guy people don't talk about enough. The coaches have a lot of con- fidence that he can go do what he needs to do. So you have all these different guys. That's an ideal situation, a little bit like running back where you have experi- enced guys who have had success, backed up with guys who also have played and have game experience, backed up by young guys who have a truly exciting future. So you go from be- ing an emerging position on the team to now a team where if you rank the posi- tion groups, you could make an argu- ment that it may be the strongest posi- tion on our team. BWI Were you encouraged by Mike Gesicki's spring, and how much has the conversation had a negative effect on him? FRANKLIN It was significant. He went from elementary school, middle school to high school, facing really no adversity. He comes from an unbelievable, All- American home. Mom and dad are awe- some, brothers and sisters are awesome. He's always been the best player in whatever sport he plays. It always came very easy to him. And for the first time in his career, he had to face some adver- sity. Like most people, when you face adversity for the first time, you don't al- ways handle it well. The adversity he faced and the lack of success that he had really had kind of an effect on his confi- dence. I also think the fact that he never blocked anybody in high school, coming here and trying to block Carl Nassib, 270 pounds, the lack of success he had in the run game spilled over to his confidence in the passing game. That happens. When you're weak in one area and really strong in the other, either the strength is going to build on your weakness, or the weakness could deteriorate your strength, and that's what happened. He would have been a for-sure redshirt guy. You can't take a guy who's never blocked before and expect him to play in the Big Ten. But again, our circum- stances didn't really allow that to hap- pen. I think his strength by far is his ability to catch the ball and his ability to run. It didn't show that way, but that's by far his strength. BWI Is that position important for this offense's success? FRANKLIN I think it's definitely im- portant. Each aspect is important. I think that's another position where it's exciting because you've got Mike Gesic- ki, who we feel has a chance to really have a breakout year, and you have him backed up by young, talented guys in Nick Bowers, Jonathan Holland and Danny Dalton. So you have two redshirt freshmen and a true freshman behind him. That's a good situation where you've got four or five guys. They're all kind of young, but that's pretty consis- tent throughout our program. BWI If the offensive line is better, does that also alleviate some of the tight end's responsibilities? FRANKLIN The difference is the way we're using the tight end in this system now. They're not really on the line of scrimmage double-teaming with tackles and things like that. It's more cutting off a defensive end, coming through and maybe leading on a linebacker, arcing to block the perimeter, a safety or an out- side linebacker. It's a bigger blocking role than a receiver, but it's not a pro- style responsibility that we're asking you to do. BWI Is the offensive line a question of talent versus experience? FRANKLIN There's some definite tal- ent there. It's [a matter of] getting those guys to mature at the rate we need them to mature at so they can have a real im- pact and we can have true competition. In the past, it was a scholarship player backed up by a walk-on who maybe wasn't in a position to play, and that guy knew that. Now, we have a scholarship player who is the starter and he's backed up by a scholarship player who is a red- shirt freshman, but it's probably obvious to a lot of people that he's still probably a year away from everybody feeling comfortable putting him on the field. What we need to do is get that redshirt freshman ready to play in as short a time period as possible. Just like we talked P R E V I E W