Everything Penn State coach James Franklin said during his final news conference before Purdue
Penn State coach James Franklin held his final news conference of week on Wednesday night. The first two questions directed toward the 11th-year leader of the Lions focused on the status of junior running back Nick Singleton after he was hurt last week and his improved play in the passing game.
"Yeah, confident he'll be ready to go," Franklin said. "But as you guys know, medical decisions are out of my league. But, we're confident."
On the work Singleton has done as a receiver, Franklin said:
"Yeah, I think it's been important for us to get Nick involved in the passing game, in maybe the non traditional running back routes and other ways that makes it more difficult to defend. I think it's going to help him long term in his career as well. Just the more things he's able to do, the more comfortable he is doing them. His ball skills have gotten dramatically better fromhis freshman year. We got to continue to do that. But you know, obviously being out here at practice full time, those things areall important in how big of a part of the game plan he is."
Read everything else the Penn State coach had to say and watch video of his news conference below.
On the status of Dom DeLuca, who practiced without a cast or brace on his hand Wednesday"So, like, this isn't a big secret, but he had a cast on his hand early on, where I think he only had maybe his thumb exposed, and it's hard to be the type of special teams player he is with not having a hand," Franklin said. "And then, obviously, defensively, you're not able to wrap with that hand. So as that hand healed and he got more fingers available to him, and got more comfortable, then he has more confidence, and we have more confidence in him being able to do the things he did before the issue. So he's back to full go now, and that's why you see his rep count increasing.
"Very, very valuable guy for us. Extremely smart, could probably play all three of the linebacker positions, could easily be a four unit starter for us on special teams, which is what he's been up to this point of his career. But with the value that he provides at linebacker, and a little bit of the lack of depth that we're trying to create there, we started to limit someof his roles on special teams because of that."
On the similarities between Saquon Barkley and Tyler Warren"I think the number one thing is they're both selfless, great teammates," Franklin said. "You know, Tyler Warren is like a case study in terms of media training for our freshmen. I mean, every time you guys interview him and you ask him questions about these awards and these records, he finds a way to redirect the question constantly back to his teammates or the program and Saquon was the same way, just great teammates, which, to me, is the best compliment that you can get. And then obviously, when they have opportunities to impact the game, both of them have done that on a very, very significant level. So I'm a huge fan. I'm a huge fan of him, his family. He's been that way from the very beginning.
"And I don't know if I mentioned this to you guys or not. I may have. If I did, I apologize for repeating myself. But we do these team shares. And [Warren] got up and did a share a few weeks ago. I thought it was really valuable, because one of the things he gotup and said, as a true freshman, he didn't know if he'd ever playhere. And for our freshmen and some sophomores to be sitting in that room, and they're questioning the same thing, and you're hearing Tyler Warren say that you're like, 'wow.' Like, you'd never think Tyler Warren felt that way based on how he is playing right now.
Penn State practice notes: Offense | Defense"So just think it's a really good example, is, everybody's journey is different. Everybody's race is different. They all develop at different kind of stages and speeds. But he's been, he's been phenomenal, and right now, obviously he's playing, to me, it's not even a question that he's the best tight end in college football. You can make the argument, he's one of the most impactful football players in all college football."
On how Penn State running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider has handled using freshmen Quinton Martin Jr., and Corey Smith this season"Yeah, really good," Franklin said. "And those guys have as well. We spend a lot of time on educating our guys about, like, there's two different philosophies, right? You can just play them all, burn their redshirts. And there's value in that. Because next year,they're more ready to go, or they end up earning significant roles. But there's also the guys that at the end of the year, they look back and regret it, and feel like they would have preferred to redshirt because they ended up only playing six plays in this game, or 12 plays in this game, or four plays in the next game, especially if guys stay healthy at their positions, and those things are hard to predict. So,I think we do a good job of explaining all this to the guys on the front end, so I think they understand that. We meet with them at least once a week.
"Quinton was a guy that we felt like was going to have a chance, and had a bunch of heated discussions on the offensive side of the ball about, should we play him or not, right? And if you play him early, and and then you have an injury, then it makes sense. But if you stay healthy, then you're into the same issue, the same problem. And what was great is Quinton kind of being ready early on, gave Corey sometime to get ready. So then when Quentin got banged up, then we were able to go with Corey. And now Corey is at a much different point right now than he was during training camp.
"So you guys saw he got in the game and did some really good things last week and and we need that. Because,we got to feel like we always have three backs available. And that could be challenging, especially in a possible 17 game season."
How can Penn State improve over the final three weeks of the regular season?"I think the first thing is, four quarters," Franklin said. "Being able to really put four quarters [together]. We started out early in the year playing really good in the second half. Last week, we played as good of a first half as I think we've played. We got to put it together for four quarters and be able to have a kind of a killer mindset. Like, keep your foot on the pedal for four quarters. I think the other thing is the passing game. We got to be able toconsistently throw the ball and make plays and get open no matter who we play. And I would say also the consistency in the running game as well.
"Defensively, I would say, making sure that we're not doing anything, and I think we did this last week,that we're not doing anything to make it easier on the offense in terms of giving them a free five yards jumping offside, something after the whistle, things like that. Because when we don't, we make it very difficult on people in terms of earning yardage and earning first downs down the field.
More: Elite Penn State prospect Kevin Brown cleared to return from injury this week"And then I think the other area, which we showed a flash of last week, is special teams. Whether it's a blocked kick, or whether it's a return kick for a touchdown or punt for a touchdown. That's something that I think could really help us. And I think we've played really good on special teams, from the standpoint of, knock on wood, we haven't had any big plays against us or plays that have really hurt us on special teams. That's great. That's the starting point. Now, can we make the plays that we need to make that can create an advantage for us? So they're probably the areas that stand out to me the most."
On Tony Rojas' first season as a starter"I think good," Franklin said. "I think there's been high expectations for him since he got here. Played really well as a freshman. But I think it's a good example, right? There's a difference between coming in as the backup and being the starter and having to do it play in and play out, and the discipline and the toughness that that takes mentally and physically to do that. And it's been a transition for him. He's really doing some good things. But the exciting thing for him and for us is, I think there's a lot left in the tank for him. But, I think there was a significant jump from him from being a rotate in guy to a starter, and then,not only that, doing it mainly in the open field, and now doing it more in the box.
"That's different, no different than I think with Abdul. Goes from being a space player or an off the ball field defender to a defensive end. And I think he's getting more and more comfortable and more and more confident each week. And I think you're going to see the same thing with Tony."
How does James Franklin evaluate Andy Kotelnicki and Tom Allen as play callers so far?"It's been good," Franklin said. "I mean, if you look at our our numbers, our numbers are pretty good kind of across the board. There are some areas that we can improve, and we study those things, strengths and weaknesses all the time, and try to tweak some things to help. But you know, obviously, like we have talked about a lot, we've done that fairly consistently. We're judged on games, on specific games and specific opponents. So, overall, very good. We got to be at our best, that's myself, and everybody included, when it means the most."
