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5 takeaways from James Franklin's season ending news conference

By Audrey Snyder/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 8 years ago

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – James Franklin said he wasn’t surprised by a handful of player transfers, but yes, there was one that caught him off guard.

Troy [Reeder] was probably the one that was a surprise,” Franklin said of the redshirt freshman linebacker who was thrust into a starting role this season, but opted to transfer to Delaware.

The Nittany Lions’ head coach was aware that at some point some of his assistants would move on for other jobs. What about when defensive coordinator Bob Shoop left for Tennessee a couple weeks ago?

“You’re always a little surprised, you’re always a little hurt because we spent a lot of time together as families and as people,” Franklin said Saturday during his season ending news conference that was forced to the phone line after a heavy snowfall. It was the first time Franklin addressed the numerous personnel changes that occurred since the season ended on Jan. 2. “Every year these guys get approached, every year these guys have to make decisions.”

Franklin even used to read everything that was written about his program, scouring articles and Twitter mentions, but even that too has changed since the beginning of January.

“I changed my philosophy this year [laughs],” he said. “I really just spent my time focused on things in our program, the players, how they’re doing academically and football-wise as well and game planning and recruiting.”

What were my impressions from Franklin’s Saturday teleconference?

If you rebuild it they will come

Franklin said time and time again during his 36-minute availability that he wants to “build this thing the right way.” Now, this isn’t new since we’ve heard that phrase time and time again as he previously said that’s one reason why he doesn’t like to dip into the JUCO ranks to fill needs, but Saturday he said that maybe some of the Lions’ special teams woes will go away when some of these players who redshirted this season are able to contribute next year.

Remember that world tour special teams coordinator Charles Huff went on last summer when he visited NFL coaching staffs looking for new ideas to help a special teams unit that needed a transformation? Huff could be going on another one this summer as the Lions must make improvements (and equally important need to maintain verbal pledges from a kicker and a punter in their 2016 recruiting class).

“I think your point is fair,” Franklin said of the special teams criticism. “Myself and Charles as well as the rest of the staff are going to sit down and find a way to make this a strength moving forward for us.”

The last thank you

QB Christian Hackenberg thanked everyone but James Franklin when the former Nittany Lion declared for the NFL Draft. Even fired offensive coordinator John Donovan got a shout out from No. 14. 

While the relationship between Bill O’Brien’s prized recruit and Franklin may never be fully understood, Hackenberg did call Franklin to say thanks.

“Christian called me the day after announcing and we had a great conversation, he was very appreciative, thanked me and the staff for everything that we’ve done,” Franklin said.  “We had a great conversation on the phone. I think Christian is going to go on and do wonderful things. … I was glad Christian picked up the phone and called me the next day.”

Looking ahead to LBs this spring

With the departures of Troy Reeder and reserve Gary Wooten Jr. Penn State should be thin at linebacker this spring. Add in Nyeem Wartman-White, who likely will be limited this spring while coming back from a knee injury, and the Lions (with Wartman-White) have six returning scholarship linebackers this spring.

Help is on the way this summer and we’ll see how Penn State closes out the 2016 recruiting class, but it’ll be worth keeping an eye on. Penn State played two true freshmen linebackers this season (mostly on special teams) and Jason Cabinda did the same two years ago as a freshman too. Needing young linebackers to step in right away, espeically with a group that’s dealt with a lot of injuries the last few seasons, will likely continue.

“That’s a position that we are a little bit thin because that one was a little bit unexpected, but we’re going to have some young players that we’re really excited about,” he said. “We also have the ability to do some things with our safeties in terms of nickel and dime that we’ve done in the past in our STAR package and things like that. The issue for us is really spring ball and not really the fall.”

Those hybrid safeties-outside linebackers were a large part of Bob Shoop’s scheme, but the good news for Penn State is that nobody knows the linebacker personnel better than the new defensive coordinator since Brent Pry will continue coaching his position group too.

Let the coaches coach

How much of the offense’s problems last year were James Franklin’s doing and how much was John Donovan’s? That too is a question that went largely unanswered as the two gave conflicting responses during the season and Franklin continued flipping a play sheet and looked to be doing more than just making suggestions while the offense faltered.

Will new offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead have full control of the offense, one where Franklin said every starting position, including quarterback, is up for grabs this spring and summer?

“One of the reasons you go out and hire and bring new people in is to get their ideas, to get their experience, all those things have to blend with the overall mission, the overall philosophy of the organization,” he said. “That’s why you hired them because you felt like their views, their philosophies, their schemes whatever it may be they aligned with what you want to do as well.”

Now, I could be wrong on this but my interpretation is that Moorhead, who also is coaching the quarterbacks, will have much more control of what’s going on with this offense than Donovan did after the unit struggled. Franklin said since his arrival that he’s a “control freak” but maybe he needs to just trust that Moorhead can make this offense work? We’ll see.

“It’s not like you go out and hire people and they’re going to be the same person or in the same role as the person that left,” Franklin said. “That’s why you’re going out and you’re trying to acquire as much talent and as much experience as you can.”

It’s not all positive on the recruiting trail

James Franklin likes to think the glass is always half full, but on the recruiting trail the head coach said he’s aware that Penn State is receiving some negative recruiting from other schools.

With the crunch to Feb. 3 on, and several prospects on campus this weekend for official visits, including uncommitted standouts Damar Hamlin and Khaleke Hudson,  the Lions’ turnover on the coaching staff is an easy way for other programs to sell prospects on why they shouldn’t head to Happy Valley.

While Franklin didn’t mention it I think it’s also worth remembering that Facebook post Geno Lewis’ dad wrote when Geno elected to transfer, one where the dad bashed Franklin and receivers coach Josh Gattis (before it went viral and the dad then backtracked and apologized).  Coaches will spin that however they want in recruiting and once it’s out there even with the dad’s apology there’s no taking it back.

“I don't think there's any doubt that we've been getting a lot of negative recruiting. It's kind of really been that way since we arrived, about Penn State, about some of the challenges that we've been through,” Franklin said.

Quickly getting new hires in place has helped Penn State keep the majority of this 2016 class together. Aiming to take the high road and not fire back with any negative recruiting of their own is Franklin’s mission on the recruiting trail, at least that’s what he says.

“All I ask is if you are getting negative things and you're hearing negative things, just share them with us,” he said. “Just let us know what you're hearing and what people are saying to allow us to be able to explain, and what we're always going to do is we're going to be transparent. We're going to tell you the truth and allow you to make an educated decision. That's myself, that's our coaches, that's our players.”

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