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Five takeaways from James Franklin’s weekly news conference

By Audrey Snyder/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 8 years ago

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — It might not be easy to see on the surface, but there are positives to take away from Penn State football and the program’s development this season, James Franklin said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. 

“You've got to look for them, but there's a lot of positives in the program,” Franklin said, before mentioning the team’s community service endeavors and their work in the classroom. 

Seeing progress in all the team’s phases, largely including the on-field product, hasn’t been as obvious as fans and even Franklin would like. The offense, ranked 111th in the FBS (337.5 ypg), struggled in the redzone in last Saturday’s loss to Michigan, settling for three field goals on three redzone trips. The offensive line, which contributed to a school record 44 sacks a year ago, is on par to match that total this season, surrendering 36 sacks with two games remaining. Penn State’s special teams continues struggling with kick coverage and hasn’t received steady performances from their kickers or punters for most of the season.

“I think we have improved,” Franklin said. “Again, you look at our conference record, it's better right now. You look at some of the things we've been able to do on offense, defense, and special teams. You look at times we've done some nice things, so I think we have improved. We have more wins right now than we did at this time last year, so there is progress being made. 

“Is it to the degree that everybody wants it to be, including myself? No. No, it's not. Is it the pace that everybody wants it to be? No, it's not. But there is progress being made. Our O-line has improved from the beginning of the year. Our O-line has improved from last year.”

Is this the right offensive coaching staff?

James Franklin might have a decision to make after the season ends and whether or not offensive coordinator John Donovan is around for year three of the Franklin-Penn State era has been questioned by fans and the media for much of this season.  

I asked Franklin if he thinks this offensive staff he has the right coaches to make this system work and he reiterated that he’s focused on preparing for the Lions’ trip to Michigan State Saturday. However, he wanted it known that he is aware of the team’s problems and the coach who reads seemingly everything said that nobody is taking a more detailed look at the program’s problems than him. 

“I want to make sure that you and your fans and everybody are aware, I can identify and I can see the problems and the challenges that we have just like everybody else can, and we're addressing them every single day,” he said. “We're addressing them every single day.”

Addressing the timeout problems

Franklin said in his five years with this coaching staff they’ve never had as many issues with burning time outs as they have this season. Saturday he said after the loss the staff would have a discussion about it and Tuesday he said it’s a combination of the staff needing to do a better job and young players needing to be on the same page.

“I’ve made it very, very clear that those things are going to change moving forward,” he said. “I take a lot of pride in that, and it's an area that we as a coaching staff have got to do a better job of, and that starts with me.”

Franklin took the blame for not calling a timeout soon enough at the end of the loss to Northwestern and Saturday with under six minutes left in the game the Lions were out of timeous, again bringing that issue into focus. 

Getting too much push

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but James Franklin said Penn State’s play on the offensive side of the ball wasn’t physical enough in the trenches. Of course it’s not the first time this season (or last) we’ve heard this as the Lions’ o-line has struggled the last two seasons for a variety of reasons and against the Wolverines’ physical front Penn State had several plays getting pushed around up front.  

Franklin wouldn’t say if left tackle Paris Palmer, who was pulled at the end of the third quarter after getting beaten for a sack, will stay out of the lineup when asked. He said they were trying to move players around to create the best match ups and that it wasn’t just one person struggling.

“We're getting there,” he said of the o-line’s progress. “We had a discussion as a staff the other day. You watch our guys in practice in one-on-ones against our d-line in some of the competitive periods that we go against our defense from the beginning of the year to now or from last year to now, it's dramatically improved. But again, not as much as we would all hope. You'd like it to be a little bit faster.”

Tackling all the issues 

Penn State’s tackling woes popped up again against Michigan and Franklin said the problems are a combination of things. Players aren’t always swarming to the ball and they’re not always using the right technique. They might over run a player or playing against shifty playmakers —and with this being their third consecutive ranked opponent there’s no shortage of playmakers they’ve gone against. 

DE Carl Nassib didn’t play last week beyond the first quarter and while Franklin doesn’t discuss specific injuries, it sounds like a lot of Lions are spending time in the training room this week.

“We’re banged up,” Franklin said while addressing the tackling. “We're banged up right now this week probably more so than we've been in a long time. That's shown up as the season has gone on, but probably more so this week than really in the year and a half we've been here.”

Quotable: On kicker Joey Julius, Penn State’s 265-pound kicker who has taken some hits while trying to make tackles this season: “We've got to either kick it better so the other guys can cover the field, or he's going to have to put a neck roll on.

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