James Franklin spoke for a very long time on Tuesday afternoon at his spring practice news conference.
It was nearly 54 minutes of questions and answers on topics ranging from assistant coaches to kickers.
Nearly all of it was interesting and ought to provide everyone with information to digest over the next few days.
But for now, this is all about the SparkNotes. The most important bits of information that you the fan might want to know for your next conversation around the water cooler. Nobody will ever accuse Franklin of giving a short quote — and that’s a welcome problem to have — but it can make for a long read when presented all at once.
So with that in mind, here are the four biggest things to takeaway from James Franklin’s press conference Tuesday afternoon.
1. The Hackenberg Defense
James Franklin knows that you think Christian Hackenberg played poorly at times last year. While he knows that wasn’t always an incorrect assessment, Franklin is defending his junior signal caller. Sure, Hackenberg could be better, but his struggles weren’t always his fault. If anything Franklin wants you to be impressed Hackenberg made it through the season as well as he did.
This was one of Franklin’s longer comments, but it’s worth the read.
“Last year Christian spent most of his time solving problems, running from problems, taking a lot of criticism, which I’m really, really defensive about. To be honest with you, looking back at it, a little angry that he faced some of the criticism he did. I don’t know if it was fair, just or realistic.
“I think in the long run, the adversity that he went through physically and emotionally in getting through those things is really going to help him. He earned a lot of people’s respect inside our program with how he handled things. You have to remember, a true sophomore, 19 years old.
“So I’m happy that he can get back to focusing on doing his job and his role within the offense. His role is to get us into the best play and distribute the ball to our play‑makers, and every once in a while pull the ball down and take a six‑yard sack and turn it into a six‑yard gain. Or you go through your progression, progression one, progression two, hitch up to progression three, he’s not there or he’s covered.
“As you hitch up, you use that momentum, he’s not there, you go get some positive yardage. He wasn’t able to do that last year. It was progression one, progression two, pressure, he was taking off running, or we were leaving the running back in, who is usually the outlet to help solve problems, he doesn’t have that anymore.
“I’m excited about Christian being able to focus on his development, doing his job and role within our offense, and having some more support around him, if that makes sense. But I am really, really proud of Christian. I’m really protective of him because now looking back at everything, how he handled it, I think he handled it unbelievably well.”
2. The Depth Chart Has Depth
The past few years Penn State’s depth chart hasn’t exactly been stocked full of talent at every position. And while there continues to be a difference between scholarship players and scholarship-level athletes, Franklin can sleep just a bit easier knowing that for the first time in years, Penn State has a two-deep roster at every position.
“The fact that we’re going to have two deep of scholarship players is exciting,” Franklin said. “We had a bunch of guys that have had some experience. Last year I think at this point we had two returning starters in the beginning of spring ball (on the offensive line). As we all know we lost Dieffenbach. We had one returning player on the offensive line for spring ball. Had a bunch of new faces in there with a new system. It’s completely different now.”
3. Ficken 2.0
Penn State doesn’t have a single specialist on scholarship this year which isn’t optimal in theory, but as the Nittany Lions head into spring ball, Franklin isn’t overly worried about how it will shake out in the end.
“I am very pleased. We took the approach, knowing the lack of scholarships, that we were going to be in a challenge in that area. But we were very, very aggressive of going out and recruiting guys that wanted to come and be a part of Penn State anyway. We were able to not only get numbers, but we were able to get quality.”
4. Spencer Turns Down The Cash
Defensive coordinator Bob Shoop got the headlines this past offseason with LSU courting him for a potential opening but according to Franklin he wasn’t the only one. Defensive line coach Sean Spencer apparently turned down an offer without giving it much of a second thought.
“Let me say this. Bob is the guy that it became a big story. But we got a bunch of guys on our staff that got offers and opportunities to move on and turned it down. Sean Spencer is a guy that I’m so appreciative of and so proud of because he got an offer with a dramatic raise at a school that people would consider an historic school, and turned it down without even telling me, without even telling the administration.”
“I found out from the other coaches. I think that’s a great example of the commitment our guys have to this program, to this university. Also excited about the future, where we’re going, our players. That’s Bob. That’s Sean. That’s a number of our coaches. I could go on and on. So the fact we were able to keep them all here … The administrative staff, the guys off the field. As you know, we have a bunch of really smart people. Keeping all those people intact is really important.”
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