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What positions are out of whack? How many scholarship QBs would Penn State like to have?

By Audrey Snyder/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 8 years ago

PHILADELPHIA — James Franklin kicked off the second week of the Penn State coaches caravan Tuesday afternoon in Philadelphia and his current team wasn’t far from mind.  

Franklin said the Nittany Lions had a team meeting Sunday night before the first summer session classes started on Monday and that all his players were present and accounted for. Penn State’s 2015 signing class arrives at the end of June and participates in workouts when the second summer session begins. 

“One of the things I talked to them about briefly was just about we talk about in the summertime the players truly take ownership of the team and running with it,” Franklin said. “We talked about that same thing last year, but it was really challenging and difficult for them to do that last year when they didn’t completely understand the expectations and the schemes and stuff like that. Now after having some real time invested in it the guys can really gain control of it and get a lot of work done on their own.” 

Penn State will have 85 scholarships available this August, which is the full NCAA allotment, but Franklin reiterated that it will take another two-to-three years for the team’s scholarship numbers to be back to normal. Penn State has around 81 or 82 full scholarships already in use.

While Franklin said the team still won’t turn away a great player even if the team met the needs at that position, it will take a few more years for a roster littered with young players and fewer upperclassmen to balance out. 

“Probably in three years we’ll get back to having not only numbers that make more sense, but also how it’s spread out,” he said. “That’s the other issue right now. …  Last year we were the second youngest team in college football out of 129 teams. I think we had 13 seniors last year, think we have 11 seniors this year. Some positions we’re still really young.”

Stanford graduate transfer Kevin Reihner was officially added to the roster on Monday, giving the Lions added depth along the offensive line. Listed as a center and guard, Reihner played in 10 games for the Cardinal. Like junior college offensive tackle Paris Palmer who enrolled in January, Penn State will have upperclassmen in the fold to help address the team’s biggest need.  

The other positions Franklin said are out of whack or where scholarship numbers lack?

Penn State doesn’t have a scholarship specialist, a model right now where the Lions could eventually reward a walk-on at kicker or punter or recruit one of the elite scholarship specialists in a future class. 2016 kicker Quinn Nordin already holds an offer and visited for the Blue-White Game.  

“Typically there are five snappers, five kickers, five punters who get scholarships out of high school. By the time I got the job those guys were already gone,” Franklin said. “Then last year we were still down five scholarships and by the time we got those scholarships back those guys were gone again so we’re going to have to get that fixed. 

“I think defensive tackle is another position, obviously you guys know from a number of reasons the situation we walked into, also we missed on a number of guys that we thought we were going to be able to secure.” 

Penn State has six defensive tackles on scholarship and while it’s an area of strength this year, if Austin Johnson declares following this season, along with the expected departures of seniors Anthony Zettel and Tarow Barney, the Lions would be down to three scholarship tackles. 

  • Anthony Zettel (Sr/Sr)
  • Tarow Barney (Sr/Sr)
  • Austin Johnson (Sr/Jr)
  • Parker Cothren (Jr/So)
  • Antoine White (So/Fr) 
  • Robert Windsor (Fr/Fr, enrolls in June)

Also, Franklin said the team is short on scholarship quarterbacks. The Lions has three scholarships used between Christian Hackenberg, redshirt freshman Trace McSorley and true freshman Tommy Stevens. Jake Zembiec is verbally committed for the 2016 class. 

Hackenberg is widely projected as a potential first-round NFL draft pick, so if he would opt to depart early the team would need to potentially add a few more arms to align with Franklin’s scholarship picture. Offensive coordinator John Donovan said this spring it’s not out of the picture for the team to try and bring in multiple quarterbacks in one class and let the players compete for the future spot. 

“I’m a big believer you should have five quarterbacks on scholarship and at the very least four,” Franklin said. “We have three.”

Audrey Snyder: asnyder@post-gazette.com and Twitter: @audsnyder4