Past the midway point of fall camp, Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media on Tuesday to discuss the state of his program.
Franklin touched on key positional battles, a reduced offseason workload and Andy Kotelnicki’s development heading into year two at Penn State.
Position battles
The battle for Penn State’s second-team quarterback continues, with redshirt sophomore Jaxon Smolik and redshirt freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer vying for the role. Though Smolik had an extra year on campus, he missed all of last season with a leg injury.
Nearing the end of fall camp, neither player has pulled away yet, though the Nittany Lions are “close to making a decision.”
Franklin added that the staff felt close to a final verdict a week prior, but inconsistent play opened the door again and the two have continued to go back and forth.
There’s typically a significant dropoff in practice reps between the QB2 and QB3, and Franklin said the staff has started to adjust reps in favor of one quarterback, without revealing who it was.
Elsewhere, battles on the right side of the offensive line have become complex. Anthony Donkoh and Nolan Rucci, who earned 10 and six starts at right tackle, respectively, last season are continuing to vie for the role with Donkoh returning to full health.
It appears Rucci has gained a slight edge since taking over the role, and Franklin floated the possibility of Donkoh kicking inside to right guard, a position where Cooper Cousins and TJ Shanahan are also in the mix.
“I’d say it’s similar to the quarterback,” Franklin said. “I think we 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.”
Regardless of what combination of linemen takes the field on Aug. 30, Franklin said he’s confident Penn State can win with any of them.
Offseason offloading
Franklin said the team is in a good spot health-wise, in part due to reduced practice workload across the board. He said the team has practiced 127 fewer minutes than last year’s fall camp, as well as reducing the number of reps significantly.
This comes after a particularly taxing 16-game season in 2024, and Franklin, director of performance science Andrew Nelson and the rest of the staff have tailored the offseason regimen to account for it.
Franklin said established players have seen the largest decrease in workload heading into their senior seasons, specifically naming defensive tackle Zane Durant and running back Nick Singleton, who are entering their senior seasons after foregoing the NFL draft.
“I think the combination overall of being a little bit more strategic with our reps and with time on feet, and then having specific plans for the guys that are proven commodities that made a choice to come back (has helped),” Franklin said.
Kotelnicki’s continuity
Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki had opportunities elsewhere — he was reportedly a leading candidate for the head coaching vacancy at West Virginia this offseason — but opted to return to Penn State for a second season.
While it’s likely he’ll receive more job offers after this season, and potentially accept one of them, his return marked a major off-field win for the program entering the season. It also means continuity for quarterback Drew Allar, giving him more time to focus on perfecting plays rather than learning new ones.
For Kotelnicki, Franklin said the biggest area of growth has come from his knowledge of the program. That level of familiarity allows Kotelnicki to better scheme to his players’ strengths this season.
“He knows how we operate. So there’s a ton of value in that, less questions he has to ask,” Franklin said. “But then the other thing is, he knows our personnel better, like he knows our team better. He knows what our strengths are. He knows what our weaknesses are. We’ve come to a point now in camp, we got a pretty good idea of what our identity is going to be.”
Year one to year two is often the biggest jump for a quarterback learning a new scheme, and that may become the case for Allar as he enters his final season in blue and white before likely heading to the NFL.
