For those who follow along at home - change of schedule going forward. James Franklin starting next week will meet with the media every MONDAY at NOON.
Last edited by a moderator:
Football VIDEO: James Franklin Weekly Press Conference - Maryland week
- Thread starter Dylan Callaghan-Croley
- Start date
Weekly Press Conference with Head Coach James Franklin
Video: Weekly Press Conference with Head Coach James Franklin. Football
gopsusports.com
Players of the Game:
OFF: Kaytron Allen
DEF: Dani Dennis-Sutton
ST: Tyler Warren
OFF: Kaytron Allen
DEF: Dani Dennis-Sutton
ST: Tyler Warren
D-Squad
OFF: OL Golden-Achumba, RB Amil Davis
DEF: CB Jace Tutty, DE Jake Wilson
ST: Finn Furmanek
OFF: OL Golden-Achumba, RB Amil Davis
DEF: CB Jace Tutty, DE Jake Wilson
ST: Finn Furmanek
Franklin feels like special teams is playing really good football the last few weeks and that Daequan Hardy has become a weapon.
Areas that need to be improved on....
Tackeling to high. Have to consistently wrap and tackle lower.
Decision making needs to improve offensively.
Areas that need to be improved on....
Tackeling to high. Have to consistently wrap and tackle lower.
Decision making needs to improve offensively.
Maryland players to know - Offense:
QB Taulia Tagovailoa, WR Jayshaun Jones, WR Kaden Prather, RB Roman Hemby
Maryland players to know - Defense:
LB Ruben Hippolite, LB Jayshaun Barham, S Beau Brade
QB Taulia Tagovailoa, WR Jayshaun Jones, WR Kaden Prather, RB Roman Hemby
Maryland players to know - Defense:
LB Ruben Hippolite, LB Jayshaun Barham, S Beau Brade
Franklin says he's pretty proud of Dvon Ellies. Calls him one of the more impressive developments he's seen in his 13 years in school, in football, and as a leader.
Franklin notes sometimes it takes a setback, takes an ugly game to get a better perspective of who you are as a team and how to evaluate yourself. "The best teams are honest teams."
"Across the board, specifically the last two weeks, we need to play better." - Franklin on the offensive line (and more).
"If you're not good enough on first and second down and you're on obvious passing situations and twist and game, that's challenging on the best offensive lines. We have to manage it as coaches, the players have to execute to allow us to stay ahead of the sticks."
"If you're not good enough on first and second down and you're on obvious passing situations and twist and game, that's challenging on the best offensive lines. We have to manage it as coaches, the players have to execute to allow us to stay ahead of the sticks."
Franklin on the familiarity of playing someone like Josh Gattis...
"We know them but they also know us."
"We know them but they also know us."
Franklin thinks Josh Gattis and Mike Locksley are more aligned in their offense than his previous stops.
Franklin had a long answer on Drew's development that was too much for me to transcribe. Will share full answer when I can but basically it came down to that there are things that Drew needs to work on but others also have to make plays before they get the ball in order to allow Drew to make more plays.
Malik McClain is doing "some really good things" but Franklin notes again that its all about consistency. Says that's not a McClain issue, that's for when it comes to everyone.
Franklin notes that while it did take a while for Daequan Hardy to get to return punts, Penn State has had quite a few good punt returners over the last few years.
Penn State has not considered using Daequan Hardy on offense. Noting its complex and not as easy as it sounds.
Caedan Wallace is expected to be available this weekend. Drew Shelton will play, Franklin notes that he has to become more consistency in his run protection as well as his pass pro.
Franklin tells us that he doesn't try to avoid answering some personnel questions and that it's a delicate balance between answering questions and not being divisive like some coaches have done in the past .... (maybe like we saw this weekend with a certain coach on the western side of the state).
Last edited:
But Narduzzi said the PSU offense was simple and easy to grasp.
Someone read this board, I proposed this last week.
As good as Dotson was with the ball in his hands he does not have the moves and anticipation on punt returns that Hardy has displayed. And how many punt returns for TD's did Dotson have in his 2 years (??) as a punt returner? It's hard to believe that based on Hardy's high school career that the staff would not have given him a couple chances in games in his first or 2nd year at PSU. Franklin stresses catching the ball as the top priority and that's logical and reasonable. But unless Hardy was dropping a disproportionate amount of punts in practice his absense for 4.5 years is a head scratcher. If Hardy was returning punts earlier in his career that would have freed up Dotson from the job and may have led to him being fresher during games when he was the only true standout WR. Same goes last year when Washington was PSU's clearly PSU's best WR and might have been an even bigger contributor at WR if he wasn't returning punts.
How many punt returns for TD's would Hardy have had if he had been returning punts since his redshirt freshman season........
This isn't the first time in Franklin's tenure that it's been a head scratcher in who Franklin trotted out to return punts and seemed to blow off the opportunity to put a more dynamic athlete with a much better chance to break a long return....
We won't ever know the whole way Franklin and his staff evaluates punt returners but hopefully a drop or two the first time they try a dynamic athlete as a returner doesn't eliminate that player from competing to return punts.
Sorry for the rambling but I still believe the staff really missed the boat on Hardy the last 3 or 4 years. With the way things worked out with the extra Covid year Hardy could have returned punts 5 years at PSU and had 5 or 6 TD's by now......
Last edited:
The general consensus on Hardy all along was that he was a reach type player. He's actually gotten far more praise this year than any prior. Most have seen him as a liability in the slot. I can't imagine anyone desiring to take Dotson off the field for Hardy. If he was tired because he ran back 3-4 punts, that's a separate problem.
Washington I can agree with.
Not sure what you really mean by "reach type player". As Franklin has regularly stated, every player is an equal recruit from the moment they step on the practice field. Hardy dominated 5A football in PA as a senior and had TD's in 4 (as I remember) different ways in the championship game. As dynamic a player as there was in PA high school football that year with the only question about him being his size which he as obviously proven not to be much of a limitation.
Dotson was a very good punt returner. But Hardy has shown to be even better. How many games did it take for Dotson to get to 2 punt return TD's, if he even did return 2 for TD's? And Dotson was not returning punts during the whole time Hardy was at PSU.
His quickness, speed and athleticism are as a high school player were not questioned. My comment about returning punts has nothing to do with his play on defense. It's about getting more out of special teams, particularly punt returns, which is an area that I believe Franklin has left money on the table during his tenure at PSU.
You may be accurate in that it's possible we have left money on the table with punt returns, but I think it's possibly an overreaction to Hardy having 2 vs UMass.
Were you or anyone ever on record saying he should have been used prior to his UMass game? I don't remember it.
And of his class, he was the lowest rated player by a good margin. That's definitely in reach territory. I'm just speaking about the reality of it.
So last year is the year you question. Because Dotson returned punts in '20 and '21 I think.
Yes, I was "on record". For years. Don't turn into a Board Nanny that seems to believe if he hasn't documented it didn't happen.
I watched Hardy in high school and he was electric then. And he looked pretty electric in his first game returning punts at PSU. And looked like the best punt returner at PSU in some time. Including Dotson, who was very good, especially in comparison to some of the players that Franklin put back there and were really only solid fair catch machines.
Dotson also played against his share of suck teams so any argument about Hardy getting 2 TDs against a suck team is baseless. Dotson was pretty good but not an All-American punt returner.
No, last year is not the only year I questioned where Hardy's playmaking was hiding.
But if it was, so what? The question is valid at any time once it is shown that the staff has failed to recognize and get on the field a playmaker. And the longer it has gone on the stupider it looks. PSU has not exactly had a surplus of playmakers the last few year. And it might make someone think that if the staff couldn't figure out they had their best punt returner on the bench, maybe they have a good WR on the bench. Another position where performance has seemed to underachieve the last few seasons.
Last edited:
Latest posts
-
Football Adisa Isaac finds perfect landing spot in Baltimore- Latest: Dylan Callaghan-Croley
-
-
-
-
FB Recruiting 2025 LB target scheduled for Penn State OV in June
- Latest: Dylan Callaghan-Croley