Blue White Illustrated

YOUTH IS SERVED e have come a long way from the days when Joe Paterno would shut down conversa- tions about freshmen by pretending they didn't exist. Every once in a while, an unwary reporter would ask about, say, LaVar Arrington or Courtney Brown or some other buzzworthy newcomer, only to run into a rebar-reinforced wall of obstruction from the veteran Penn State coach. "Arrington?" Paterno would ask. "Who's he?" That is not how James Franklin rolls. At his news conference last month pre- viewing spring practice, Franklin not only mentioned all six of his early en- rollees without being asked, he also rattled off their body fat percentages, both at the time of their en- rollment and at the start of spring prac- tice. It's a safe bet that no one expected to walk out of the Beaver Stadium media room that day knowing that Nick Tarburton has a body fat percentage of 14.2 (down from 18.7), but Franklin was happy to share, and also to extol the per- formance of Tarburton and the other five January arrivals. "Those guys have worked really hard," he said. "This group has already changed their bodies dra- matically." It's not that Penn State has become a proponent of radical transparency under Franklin. No coach has ever been more circumspect about injuries than he has been. Injuries are his Area 51, a no-go zone in which very little if anything will be publicly acknowledged. But Franklin doesn't share his prede- cessor's wariness of young egos and is perfectly willing to hail the Nittany Lions' newcomers as potential differ- ence-makers. That makes sense. Prospects who are going through the recruiting process in 2018 have been exposed to much more media attention than they received a couple of decades ago, meaning that the ego-inflation that coaches used to fear has already occurred by the time those players get to campus. There wouldn't be much point in denying their existence when they've been making headlines for months. The only thing you can do is to let them do battle with their bigger, stronger, more experienced college teammates and hope that those con- frontations have a deflationary effect. Usually, they do. But there's another reason to forget about trying to control the narrative and just coming out and admitting that the newcomers could end up playing ab- solutely crucial roles in the fall. It's because the newcomers could end up playing absolutely crucial roles in the fall. Three of Penn State's half-dozen With holes at tight end and linebacker, several of the Nittany Lions' early arrivals are likely to play major roles this coming season W P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> B L U E - GETTING LOOSE Franklin over- sees Penn State's first practice ses- sion of the spring on March 19 at Holuba Hall. Photo by Patrick Mansell

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