Penn State held its first official practice of its 2024 preseason camp early Wednesday evening on the Lasch outdoor practice fields. There was the good, the bad and the ugly.
Working with the quarterbacks and receivers, new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki was upbeat.
“I know we’re just five minutes into it, but I like how we’re running this drill,” he shouted, as two lines of players practiced diving with the football. “You look good!”
A field-and-a-half away, tucked in the farthest corner from Coach K, there was a decidedly different tenor. The defense was practicing its tackling technique.
“That’s b.s.,” shouted second-year defensive line coach Deion Barnes. “Man, you can’t do it like that.”
MIA among the defensive group were D-end Jameial Lyons, highly-touted to get plenty of playing time in 2024, and back-up linebacker Kaveion Keys. According to Jon Sauber of the CDT, who first broke the news on Wednesday, they “are on interim suspension to deal with a personal matter, and the program will not have any further comment, per a Penn State spokesperson.”
Expect head coach James Franklin to be asked about the two players when he meets with the press early Saturday afternoon in Beaver Stadium, for the team’s annual media day.
PREPPING FOR THE NEW BIG TEN
Practice was open for just about 15 minutes on Wednesday, through the initial four periods, spent mostly on basic individual drills. Only 16 media members were on hand, a small turnout considering that Franklin’s 2024 squad is ranked in the top 10 nationally and No. 3 in the Big Ten in just about every preseason poll.
It is a big year for the conference, as its numbers jump to 18 with the addition of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. The Nittany Lions play three of them this fall — UCLA at home on Oct. 5, then at Southern Cal on Oct. 12 and then Washington on Nov. 9 for a Beaver Stadium White Out.
The Nittany Lions are coming off a 10-3 record — Franklin’s fifth season with double-digit victories — but his squad never made the four-team College Football Playoff. Fans and most prognosticators have Penn State making the College Football Playoff in 2024, when the field stretches to 12.
It’s highly possible. The Nittany Lions return 42 lettermen from last year’s team – 17 on offense, 22 on defense and three on special teams. They bring back 16 starters – seven on offense, seven on defense and two on special teams.
THERE’S A CATCH
But…
There’s that nagging passing/receiving game. Again. Last year at this time, the wide receiving duo of KeAndre Lambert-Smith and transfer Dante Cephas looked to be a promising 1-2 in support of first-year starting quarterback Drew Allar. Both are gone — KLS to Auburn and Cephas to Kansas State.
Allar is a year older and wiser, and he has a new OC in Kotelnicki, who was hired in December to replace Mike Yurcich, fired in November in the first of a three-year deal. Kotelnicki comes with excellent coaching chops, at Kansas and Buffalo, and a hefty price tag. Counting his buyout from Kansas, Yurcich’s buyout for this season and next and Kotelnicki’s first-year salary, the change in OC’s comes with a hefty cost of $5.5 mil or so.
On Wednesday, the wide receiving corps looked different. During one set of drills — leaping over two tackling dummies to make a high-point catch in what emulated a 50/50 situation— things certainly had a new feel, look and sound about them.
As I stood in almost the same spot during last summer’s first practice, during one of the first WR drills, KLS was clearly the aggressor and got into a fight with a young receiver, replete with physical and verbal slaps. None of that on Wednesday. Vet Liam Clifford was a positive, vocal presence and Julian Fleming, the PA native and former high school five-star who transferred from Ohio State for a final season, was quiet and the last receiver in line for this particular drill.
Of note, second-year receivers coach Marques Hagans was throwing the passes for the drill, but clearly — and vocally, with a couple of expletives to emphasize his points — the coach in charge was offensive analyst Mark Dupuis. A former Penn State GA, Dupuis left Penn State to coach wide receivers at Old Dominion for Ricky Rahne, the former PSU assistant and current ODU head coach. Dupuis returned to Penn State in January and under the hot sun of the final day of July, it sure looked like he was the one in charge of the wide receivers.
Dupuis was a clear, IRL example of the new NCAA rule allowing analysts to do on-the-field coaching. I didn’t get to all the position groups in the small media availability window, but — and this will be no surprise — offensive line analyst Frank Leonard was providing plenty of coaching as well (a treat for me, since I liken coaches to teachers and I appreciate the opportunity to see, and listen to, coaches teach…especially Frank).
In addition to Kotelnicki, it was also the first preseason practice for Franklin’s other two new coordinators — Tom Allen (defense) and Justin Lustig (special teams). The schedule will be kind to Penn State as they settle in. After the Nittany Lions open on the road at West Virginia on Aug. 31, Franklin’s squad will remain in State College for 40 days and nights (save for a possible hall pass on one of two bye weeks) until they leave, most likely, on Thursday Oct. 10, for their Oct. 12 game at the L.A. Coliseum vs. the Trojans.
FIRST UP: WEST VIRGINIA
The trip to Morgantown, W.Va., will be the first for Penn State since 1988, when the Nittany Lions lost 51-30 to the Mountaineers. It was PSU’s last loss to WVU. The 59-game series ended in 1992 in Beaver Stadium with a 40-26 Penn State win. The next year the Nittany Lions entered the Big Ten. Penn State leads the series 48-9-2.
The season-opener for both teams kicks off at noon, on FOX as the national game featuring Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt. The FOX traveling road show, “Big Noon Kickoff,” will telecast live from Milan Puskar Stadium from 10 a.m. to noon. Penn State is a 10.5-point favorite. Tickets are pricey, with a low price of $223 on SeatGeek and $250 via TicketMaster.
