James Franklin has honed in on the first three games as key for depth while updating QB2, right guard battles, and overall team health.
Penn State head coach James Franklin straddled the line.
Meeting with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, moments after preseason camp met its unofficial end for the Nittany Lions before turning the corner into game week preparation, he had good reason to.
Addressing a question about the overall health of the program at this point, he acknowledged the intentionality they’ve taken with limiting reps. For “proven commodities” like defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton, Zane Durant, Nick Singleton, and Kaytron Allen, among others, that’s meant “smart and strategic” plans with fewer reps.
In the next breath, he expressed the root of his confidence in where the program stands right now. Citing “a ton of reps” that have accompanied detail-oriented walk-throughs, Franklin likes where the program is, knows it has more work to do, and is looking forward to doing it in the coming weeks.
“I like where we’re at,” he said. “We still got some work to do, but the good thing is, we still have time to get there.”
Reading between the lines on Franklin’s post-practice scrum, with some buzz surrounding the program built in, we’ll start there.
James Franklin key takeaways
The “first three games”
At one point, James Franklin said what he always says. Asked about the Big Ten’s proposed expansion of the College Football Playoff, the Nittany Lions’ head coach redirected the conversation to Nevada and his focus therein.
But, in a way inconsistent with his typical 1-0 approach, Franklin frequently cited the three-game window ahead of the Nittany Lions within which identities can be formed and decisions can be made.
At defensive tackle:
“You’ll get a chance to see a ton of it during the first three games. We plan on playing a bunch of those guys to create depth, but also to evaluate them… I just think the development of the Wafles and some of those guys that you guys haven’t seen, it’ll be really important in those first three games.”
On player development:
“We’ll have a better idea of where we’re at after game three. We have a bye week as well, so that’ll be helpful too, to kind of look at our roster and which of those guys that played in the first three games will continue to play, or which guys are we going to shut down and save their fourth game for later in the season when we need it?”
On the transfer receivers:
“I think it’s going to be really important coming out of the first three games that we feel like we really know what we have with those three guys and how we could use them. So just like Andy knows our team better, we know those guys too. But we’ll have a much better idea of who they are – who those guys are as well – after the first three games.”
Penn State knows it must beat Nevada for any of its goals to matter. It also knows it has three opponents on the nonconference slate – and a bye week – that don’t rise to the level of Big Ten competition.
The Nittany Lions intend to maximize that time, building depth, encouraging high-level battles, and getting – and staying – healthy in the process.
If this, then that
Part of that conversation regarding health also comes into play on the Nittany Lions’ offensive line. Like Dennis-Sutton, Nolan Rucci has been on a pitch count this preseason. So has Anthony Donkoh, as he continues to recover from an injury that ended his 2024 season early.
And with those pitch counts, Penn State has kept its options open up front. Asked specifically about the right guard battle, Franklin brought up Donkoh, Cooper Cousins, and T.J. Shanahan as all vying for the starting role. But he also made clear that there is flexibility depending on Rucci’s performance.
“It’s also how Rucci is playing. All those things are factored in together. It’s similar to the quarterback, I think we’ve got a pretty good idea if we were going to play this Saturday, but it’s still close enough that we’re going to continue the competition. Different than quarterback, we’re still probably rotating all those guys equal reps. But it’s a battle.
“And it really includes all four of them, because how Rucci plays factors in, since we can move Donkoh to tackle, and then it’s a two-man race inside. So we’re not ready to make that decision yet, but it’s a really good battle. It’s a really good problem to have. I think we could win with all of them.”
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Samesies?
Whether that’s true of the quarterback position is another conversation entirely. Though, between reports out of camp last weekend and Franklin’s comments on Tuesday evening, movement appears to be on the horizon.
What had been a conversation at the start of preseason camp about a QB2 competition that could be prolonged into the season itself – changing from game to game – has since transformed into one in which Penn State could be “close to making a decision.”
“We haven’t sat down and talked to those guys yet. Probably a week ago, we were close to making a decision and then held off because we had a couple of inconsistent practices. But we’re close to making that decision again,” said James Franklin. “The guy that we feel like is in the lead right now, we’ve started to adjust those reps, but not to the point where the decision has been made.”
Last weekend, that guy was Ethan Grunkemeyer, which still appeared to be trending in the same direction during Tuesday afternoon’s practice.
Category: General Sports
