Franklin coy on some playing time decisions
James Franklin used his Tuesday meeting with reporters to deftly walk the line between transparency and secrecy. Penn State moved up to No. 11 in The Associated Press top 25 and No. 13 in the coaches poll after Saturday’s win against Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.
Getting a win against a ranked team on the road is a great way to start the season heading into Saturday’s matchup against Ball State at Beaver Stadium. As good as beating Wisconsin was for the Nittany Lions, Franklin still addressed
some causes for concern, directly in some cases (and not so much in others).
Franklin was joyful about the victory over the Badgers while acknowledging the situations at left guard and kicker, some surprising names left off the travel roster and
more. Here are some observations from Franklin’s Week 2 conversation with reporters.
Playing-time decisions
Penn State gets a lot of media coverage, which is wonderful for people craving information about the program. However, having so many reporters with a limited time doesn’t leave a lot of room for follow-up questions. The final question of this week’s session was about John Lovett, Hakeem Beamon, and Keaton Ellis not playing against Wisconsin. None of them made the trip, despite each being touted from spring ball through fall camp as potential contributors.
“They were not available last week, and they’re to be determined this week,” Franklin said while exiting the podium.
Because the news conference ended on that question, there wasn’t an opportunity to ask why the players were out or what’s going on with them. Lovett transferred from Baylor to play running back, but it’s one of the deepest positions on the team. Noah Cain had most of the carries and scored a touchdown in his return after missing last season. Keyvone Lee and Devyn Ford also saw action.
Beamon made some big plays last year at defensive tackle. He could have been useful, considering the Nittany Lions’ defense was on the field for a whopping 95 plays. Ellis lost out on the starting spot next to Jaquan Brisker to Ji’Air Brown, who made the game-ending interception. However, Ellis could have had significant playing time while Brisker worked through injuries during the game.
Who’s on the left?
Franklin declined to name a starting left guard for the second consecutive week. Anthony Whigan started the game and played through the first quarter. Harvard transfer Eric Wilson finished the game, taking the majority of snaps.
“We thought Eric played well,” Franklin said when asked about the position. “We thought Whigan did some good things, too, but we’ll decide who starts based on last week’s game and what we do this week. It’ll be a combination of those two things to determine who will start or who will play more on Saturday.”
Stout in, Pinegar out
Jordan Stout won Big Ten special teams player of the week for his punting performance against the Badgers. Stout’s 53.9 yards per punt kept the Nittany Lions in the game while the offense sputtered to the tune of one first down in the first half and two rushing yards.
With the good from Stout came some bad with a missed 24-yard field goal and a missed extra point after Cain’s fourth-quarter touchdown.
“I’m also very, very proud of him because some guys wouldn’t be able to handle that well, that would seep into the kickoff, that would seep into the punting,” Franklin said. “The guy was the special teams player of the week in the Big Ten, so he took the right approach.”
Stout impressed Franklin so much that he’s going to be used as an example.
“It’s going to be something I talk to the team about today in the team meeting,” Franklin said. “We talk about six seconds at a time, being your best one play at a time, and no matter what happens at the end of that play, you move on to the next one and do it again, both mentally and physically and emotionally, and I thought Jordan did a great job of that.”
Maybe that’s why Franklin didn’t have an issue telling reporters about the kicking plan. Stout had already handled place-kicking, punting, and field goals over 42 yards. Jake Pinegar handled the field goals under 42 yards. Now Stout will handle all kicking duties.
“You’re talking about all three things, which put a lot on his plate,” Franklin said. “We spent a lot of time talking to national kicking gurus of how do you handle that, how do you handle that, how does the practice look, what are the reps he’s taking in practice, what do we need to do to put him in the best position to be successful? So, obviously, we won’t make that determination off of one game. We got to get those things cleaned up; there’s no doubt about it.”