The Penn State football program welcomed the media to the final few minutes of its Wednesday afternoon practice session, with head coach James Franklin taking questions for about 15 minutes afterward.
Gearing up for their game against Maryland this weekend - a game in which the program is expected to bus down to Baltimore early Friday afternoon in anticipation of Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. kick - the Nittany Lions were again working on red zone and goal line work in the period we saw, as is customary for the final few minutes of practice.
But, as Franklin told reporters later in his post-practice Q&A, the Nittany Lions are beginning to cut back on practice as the team now enters week No. 8 of the 2015 season.
So with that, let’s get into some of what we saw and what Franklin had to say following practice:
1) Not that this is mind-blowing, ground breaking information, but tight ends Mike Gesicki and Brent Wilkerson were both working with Josh Gattis catching bullet passes after practice at short distances. More varied than a JUGS machine, both Gesicki and Wilkerson did well hauling them in.
For as much heat as the kid has taken in games - and no doubt, his drops have been a major letdown - there’s also no doubt that he works tirelessly to make up for it. At seemingly every one of these media sessions, every week this season, I’ve seen Gesicki doing extra work after practice, be it blocking or catching.
2) By no coincidence, Franklin was asked about the possibility that he’d install some type of goal line package that might not include Christian Hackenberg at any point this season, not unlike some of what Ohio State has done this year.
The question was likely prompted by the fact that Trace McSorley took the final few reps on his own of the team’s goal line work, with Hackenberg retreating with Wendy Laurent and a couple of his speed backs to work on inside handoffs.
Franklin said that he and his staff have talked about the matter a number of times, last year, this year, and even this week. But, ultimately, he noted the big difference between Penn State and Ohio State in its possible utilization. “It's a little bit different dynamic because the guy that they were putting in was the Big Ten Player of the Year. A guy who is a proven guy. It's a little bit different dynamic. The guy they pulled out hasn't lost a game,” he said. “But, yeah, we've had a lot of discussions of doing some things like that to keep people on their toes, give them some extra things to work with. One of the things I think is helpful too is when you can bring a guy in like that that has shown he's been able to pass to beat you and run to beat you. And then that becomes really difficult.”
In the short work that we did see, McSorley did have some success passing the ball, completing a touchdown to both Mark Allen and another to Chris Godwin over the middle earlier in red zone work.
3) Whether or not Franklin’s response prompted another similarly minded question later is unknown, but probably a good bet. Specifically, Franklin was asked about the wildcat, an oft-seen part of the 2014 offensive game plan but since vanished for the Nittany Lions this year.
Joking, Franklin seemed stunned by the very nature of the question.
“Are you proposing the wildcat? If you're recommending it, I'll talk to John about it tonight,” he said, noting some of the factors that have gone into his reluctance to use it this season. “I think it's a combination of things. I do think it's some of the inexperienced running backs being back there. The cadence, the signal, the snaps. It's just another thing.
“As you guys know, I'm a big believer in it in small doses just to keep people honest and allow you to level the playing field in terms of adding an extra hat from a blocking perspective. But we'll see. As Saquon and those other guys get more comfortable, it could show up, but obviously as of right now we haven't shown it.”
Not done, Franklin had an extra little joke to pass along by the prospect.
“What I might do is save it for next home game because I know the fans will erupt. The whole stadium will stand up,” he said. “Yes! Wildcat!”
4) In his talk about special packages in the red zone offensively and the possibility of using the wildcat again this season, Franklin also noted some pretty blunt talk about what he’s expecting out of Maryland this weekend in Baltimore.
“You look at Maryland right now, they are going to run the quarterback. That is going to be their game plan in our opinion, because now they've moved their fullback that was their former quarterback who is a hardnosed kid from Gilman,” he said. “So if they're going to have this huge game plan of all quarterback runs, they better have a guy behind him that can do the same thing or the gameplan goes out. So that's what we're anticipating and that's what we're going to be ready for.”
5) Speaking of hard-nosed, Franklin said that while there hasn’t been a bye week - and won’t be one until Nov. 14 - his Nittany Lions are in “pretty good” shape physically as a team at this point, praising the in-season weightlifting his program utilizes and the training staff that takes care of bumps and bruises.
On top of that, he noted the gradual changes that have started to take place with Penn State’s practices.
“Typically, last week we started cutting practice back. Last week we cut I think it was 12 minutes out of practice,” he said. “So basically, instead of five minute periods we pick out a certain amount of periods and make them four minute periods. So it doesn't seem like a lot, but that helps as well.
“We did a lot more jog-throughs last year, we did a lot more tag-offs last year in terms of our tempo and we're able to do more thud and more full speed work, which I think is helping our offensive line and their development in the run game because we're able to be more physical every day at practice. So it's more those things, our tempo and those things necessarily than time.”
Gearing up for their game against Maryland this weekend - a game in which the program is expected to bus down to Baltimore early Friday afternoon in anticipation of Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. kick - the Nittany Lions were again working on red zone and goal line work in the period we saw, as is customary for the final few minutes of practice.
But, as Franklin told reporters later in his post-practice Q&A, the Nittany Lions are beginning to cut back on practice as the team now enters week No. 8 of the 2015 season.
So with that, let’s get into some of what we saw and what Franklin had to say following practice:
1) Not that this is mind-blowing, ground breaking information, but tight ends Mike Gesicki and Brent Wilkerson were both working with Josh Gattis catching bullet passes after practice at short distances. More varied than a JUGS machine, both Gesicki and Wilkerson did well hauling them in.
For as much heat as the kid has taken in games - and no doubt, his drops have been a major letdown - there’s also no doubt that he works tirelessly to make up for it. At seemingly every one of these media sessions, every week this season, I’ve seen Gesicki doing extra work after practice, be it blocking or catching.
2) By no coincidence, Franklin was asked about the possibility that he’d install some type of goal line package that might not include Christian Hackenberg at any point this season, not unlike some of what Ohio State has done this year.
The question was likely prompted by the fact that Trace McSorley took the final few reps on his own of the team’s goal line work, with Hackenberg retreating with Wendy Laurent and a couple of his speed backs to work on inside handoffs.
Franklin said that he and his staff have talked about the matter a number of times, last year, this year, and even this week. But, ultimately, he noted the big difference between Penn State and Ohio State in its possible utilization. “It's a little bit different dynamic because the guy that they were putting in was the Big Ten Player of the Year. A guy who is a proven guy. It's a little bit different dynamic. The guy they pulled out hasn't lost a game,” he said. “But, yeah, we've had a lot of discussions of doing some things like that to keep people on their toes, give them some extra things to work with. One of the things I think is helpful too is when you can bring a guy in like that that has shown he's been able to pass to beat you and run to beat you. And then that becomes really difficult.”
In the short work that we did see, McSorley did have some success passing the ball, completing a touchdown to both Mark Allen and another to Chris Godwin over the middle earlier in red zone work.
3) Whether or not Franklin’s response prompted another similarly minded question later is unknown, but probably a good bet. Specifically, Franklin was asked about the wildcat, an oft-seen part of the 2014 offensive game plan but since vanished for the Nittany Lions this year.
Joking, Franklin seemed stunned by the very nature of the question.
“Are you proposing the wildcat? If you're recommending it, I'll talk to John about it tonight,” he said, noting some of the factors that have gone into his reluctance to use it this season. “I think it's a combination of things. I do think it's some of the inexperienced running backs being back there. The cadence, the signal, the snaps. It's just another thing.
“As you guys know, I'm a big believer in it in small doses just to keep people honest and allow you to level the playing field in terms of adding an extra hat from a blocking perspective. But we'll see. As Saquon and those other guys get more comfortable, it could show up, but obviously as of right now we haven't shown it.”
Not done, Franklin had an extra little joke to pass along by the prospect.
“What I might do is save it for next home game because I know the fans will erupt. The whole stadium will stand up,” he said. “Yes! Wildcat!”
4) In his talk about special packages in the red zone offensively and the possibility of using the wildcat again this season, Franklin also noted some pretty blunt talk about what he’s expecting out of Maryland this weekend in Baltimore.
“You look at Maryland right now, they are going to run the quarterback. That is going to be their game plan in our opinion, because now they've moved their fullback that was their former quarterback who is a hardnosed kid from Gilman,” he said. “So if they're going to have this huge game plan of all quarterback runs, they better have a guy behind him that can do the same thing or the gameplan goes out. So that's what we're anticipating and that's what we're going to be ready for.”
5) Speaking of hard-nosed, Franklin said that while there hasn’t been a bye week - and won’t be one until Nov. 14 - his Nittany Lions are in “pretty good” shape physically as a team at this point, praising the in-season weightlifting his program utilizes and the training staff that takes care of bumps and bruises.
On top of that, he noted the gradual changes that have started to take place with Penn State’s practices.
“Typically, last week we started cutting practice back. Last week we cut I think it was 12 minutes out of practice,” he said. “So basically, instead of five minute periods we pick out a certain amount of periods and make them four minute periods. So it doesn't seem like a lot, but that helps as well.
“We did a lot more jog-throughs last year, we did a lot more tag-offs last year in terms of our tempo and we're able to do more thud and more full speed work, which I think is helping our offensive line and their development in the run game because we're able to be more physical every day at practice. So it's more those things, our tempo and those things necessarily than time.”
