Penn State Football: Franklin Takes a New Approach to Managing Offensive Line Expectations

Penn State coach James Franklin hasn’t minced words about the Nittany Lions’ offensive line this summer. While he hasn’t thrown the team’s most pivotal position group under the bus, Franklin certainly appears content to let their play do the talking, and the praise — or criticism — follow in its wake.

“O-line is the group that we come and talk about every single year and I tell you this is going to be the year for the next step at that position,” Franklin said back in July at Big Ten media days. “I’m not going to do that this year. We’re going to let them prove that to you on the field.”

Franklin has echoed that sentiment since, which begs the question why he’s opted to approach his messaging in such a way. There’s nothing wrong with letting play speak for itself, and there’s not necessarily anything complicated about the reasoning either. But as the master of the message, Franklin often has a reason behind the words he chooses.

Especially when those words travel back to his players and assistants.

“I don’t think comes off as negative. I don’t think it comes off as positive. It’s measured,” Franklin said on Wednesday. “I have felt good in years past and we haven’t been able to consistently play at the level that we need to play at. So I just kind of decided — it wasn’t like this big, comprehensive plan in the offseason in the summer to not talk about it. I just said, you know, I’m not going to get up here again and tell you [that the line is better]. I’m going to prove it to you and they’re going to prove it to you. We’re just going to try to get better every single day and every single week. I do think we’re making progress. But again, we’ve got to do it Thursday night, September 1 against Purdue. And then I’ll be interested to see what you guys say Thursday night after the game and then whoever we play the next week when we got to go out and do it again.”

As for offensive line coach Phil Trautwein, he gets it. Then again, he doesn’t need more motivation than he already has.

“We’re coming out every practice to get better,” Trautwein said. “No matter how good we are, or [the success we have] or whatever. We’re always working to get better. And, you know, the guys in the room are working. You’re always trying to build the culture, as you guys know, if you’re in a company or in the business, you’re always trying to build the culture and you’re trying to make the culture believe each other.”

All told there might not be much more to Franklin’s messaging than a simple “wait and see” that puts a bit of verbal pressure on the offensive line to improve. Sometimes you don’t need to give unearned praise for no particular reason. And sometimes the vocal absence of that praise is a message in its own right.

But the perpetual optimist, Franklin couldn’t help but pump his guys up a little bit as his post-practice media session came to a close.

“I don’t want it to be misinterpreted. I like where we’re at,” Franklin said. “I know this has kind of become the topic right now because I took a different approach in discussing it but I like where we’re at, in both of those areas. But but we still have work to do.”

Fair enough.