Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/847744
work with right now, so that's helpful. But yeah, that's a position that has gone from being a real concern and challenge to a position where I think there's ex- citement and anticipation. BWI Do you still feel like you have deci- sions to make there? FRANKLIN I feel like there are still deci- sions. There are still a lot of moving parts, and how do we get the best five on the field? But to be honest with you, I think that's always going to be the case at that position, because we're going to recruit guys who create flexibility, who can play multiple positions. Whenever you have that, there are always going to be discussions about how you get the best five on the field. When you have guys who can only play tackle and guys who can only play guard, there's less of that. But for us, we're always going to try to create flexibility. Ryan Bates starting at tackle, I don't know if we would have anticipated that two years ago. But the fact that Ryan has got enough girth to play guard and enough athleticism to play tackle creates some opportunities and some options. BWI At quarterback, is there a neces- sity to get Tommy Stevens involved more in the offense, or is it a matter of letting him know his time will come? FRANKLIN I think it's funny, because now everybody wants to talk about the quarterback situation and talk about Tommy. I've been saying this for a year and a half, but nobody wanted to listen to me when I said it. Even last year when I said there was a quarterback battle for the starting job, everybody had made their decision up after the spring. After the spring, everybody was like, it's a done deal, it's over. And no one was really listening. And now that people have had an opportunity to see this, I would make the argument that this is how it should be every year moving for- ward, that we have multiple quarter- backs in the program that you feel you can win with. It's no different than what we have at running back right now, no different than what we have at O-line now. We're getting to a point where this is the expectation, that there's competi- tion and legitimate battles across the board. We haven't lived in this world for a number of years, so it's different. But I want people to get used to this. This is how it should be. Trace is our starting quarterback, and we're really excited about Tommy and his future. And hope- fully we'll put ourselves in some posi- tions that allow Tommy, as well as a number of guys, to have an opportunity to play. BWI Do you have to accept that good players might have to take a backseat to great players at times? And is that the case for the running backs, too? FRANKLIN Yeah, again, that's how it should be. We're not used to that, but that's how it should be. You should have a great player as your starter, an all-con- ference-type player and maybe All- American, backed up by a guy who you feel like can play and win in the Big Ten. If you're a big-time program, that's how it should be. And then you should have a third player who is a young player who you're excited about in the future. So it's the starter being a proven winner, a backup that you feel like you can win with in the Big Ten, and then a young, exciting player behind him who people are enthusiastic about. That's how it should be at every single position. The best programs in the country, that's what they have. If it's just about you playing, then you don't really under- stand what team sports are all about. BWI Do you try to look for specialized roles for some of those guys? FRANKLIN Yeah. The hard part, though, is that once again, everybody says, for example, let's get Saquon and Miles [Sanders] on the field at the same time, or Saquon and Andre [Robinson] or Saquon and Mark Allen. OK, that's great, but who are you going to take off the field? Does that mean you're taking Mike Gesicki off the field? "No, Coach, I don't want to take Mike Gesicki off the field." OK, so does that mean you're going to take Juwan Johnson off the field? No? Well, you can't take an offen- sive lineman off, and you have to take somebody off. If you're developing and recruiting the way you should be, that's the hard part, because you feel like you've got a really good player at every position and you're not willing to take that guy off the field. BWI Has the development of the offen- sive line and the offense in general alle- viated some of the blocking responsibilities for your tight ends? FRANKLIN It's not that it's been allevi- ated. That was part of the plan. Last year, we were still a year away on the O- line and we were still a year away in terms of blocking at the tight end posi- tion. So part of the reason why I made the change and went to this offense was that it was going to, in some ways, alle- viate those two concerns. It was going to take some pressure off of the O-line and take some pressure off of the tight ends. Mobility at the quarterback position helps with that. Spreading people out helps with that. I'm a huge believer in a pro-style of- fense and being able to line up in 22 per- sonnel, two running backs, two tight