Here's What Penn State's James Franklin Said Ahead of Purdue Game

Franklin assessed the Nittany Lions as they prepare for a Big Ten trip to play the Boilermakers.

Penn State coach James Franklin looks on from the sideline during the third quarter against the Washington Huskies at Beaver Stadium. / Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Penn State football coach James Franklin held his weekly news conference Monday ahead of the team's trip to Purdue, where the Nittany Lions seek to win their fourth road game of the season. Franklin covered a variety of topics regarding his team, including the running back situation, depth at linebacker and some promising freshmen.

Here's a sampling of what Franklin had to say. Penn State will visit Purdue at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday on CBS.

On the quarterbacks' development: Ihink a really good example, Drew [Allar] is a morning guy, right, so he's in there watching film this morning at 6:30 a.m. Beau [Pribula] is typically for a number of hours in the afternoon. I think Grunk [Ethan Grunkemeyer] has really turned it on here recently, and hopefully [Jaxon] Smolik will be available again to us very, very soon and looks great. But I just think it's just a combination, right?

It's a combination of most of these guys — or all of them, excuse me —are a year older. They're a year older in their college experience. They've watched a ton of film. In some ways playing in multiple schemes is helpful. It's funny, I was listening to Jay Reed talking about it the other day, and the reality is there's things that Brett Pry did very well. There's things that Manny [Diaz] did very well. There's things that Tom Allen does very well. And there's things, like for a guy like Jay Reed that can learn from all of them, right? So I think if you look at quarterbacks, there's a lot of similarities there in terms of what Danny [O'Brien] has been able to do in his evolution as a coach as well as the players.

On Drew Allar: I think Drew looks consistently comfortable and in control in the games. I think probably the biggest thing for him that I've noticed is his mobility. I think it's been a huge factor for him and for our offense, especially vertical, vertical scrambles up in the pocket. Stepping up and climbing the pocket has been big. And then I think obviously the development of the positions around him, too, have played a major role in that too. I think Danny, Andy [Kotelnicki], the quarterbacks, the other positions have played a part in it. But I've been very pleased with their development and the direction we're headed.

On how the running backs are handling depth issues: I think good. I think if you just look across college football and even the NFL, you better have depth at that position especially if you're committed to running the football like we are. There's going to be bumps and bruises that come from that. We had two young backs that I think you guys knew we were excited about. And I think early on there was a lot of talk about Quinton [Martin Jr.], and deservedly so. But I think in the Lasch Building, there was also a lot of excitement about Corey [Smith], a different style back than probably the other three. But it was great to see him get in there.

And the long run, it's probably what everybody is excited about, although he took hell for it in the team meeting yesterday and with his teammates. The run that was probably most impressive to us is his first run, his first play as a college football player. The patience he showed, his ability, and a little bit of a dirty read to get vertical. He's still got to put on some size and do a great job in the weight room, but he stuck it up in there and had a really, really efficient run. So that's good. Those guys are being developed. I think we have talent at that position. I think they're holding up well. I think both Nick [Singleton] and Kaytron [Allen] are really good complementary pieces to each other. And we're going to need all of them as this season continues.

RELATED: James Franklin updates Nicholas Singleton's status ahead of Purdue

On cornerback AJ Harris: I think AJ has done a really good job. When you think about the history and tradition at Penn State, and we've got as good a history and tradition as anywhere in the country, but probably the corner room, there was less examples of that over time. And I think [cornerbacks coach] Terry [Smith] has changed that dramatically. That's no disrespect, I don't mean it any way disrespectful, but Terry has just done a really good job taking a position. And you talk about draft picks and you talk about All-Conference players and those types of things, and at a position specifically and how the conference has changed: a lot more spread offenses, a lot more throwing the ball around. Terry's done a phenomenal job.

Whether it's high school guys that we have developed or whether that's going out to the transfer portal — as you guys know we're not a big transfer portal team — but look a little bit at junior college recruiting used to be, go out and fill an immediate need, or just bring some veteran leadership into the room. AJ is a little bit different because you're talking about bringing a guy in as a redshirt freshman, which is unusual, typically, from the transfer portal. But obviously if you look at Kimber as well as him, Kimber played a ton of football in the SEC. And then we talk about A.J., just a very high (indiscernible)
recruited young man that we were involved with out of high school, but once he showed up on campus, he bought into everything we asked him to do. Tested really well physically, and then just embraced the competition in that room.

On depth at defensive tackle: I think Alonzo [Ford's] impact, a guy that we weren't exactly sure what we had, but continues to trend in the right direction as he's getting more and more healthy and playing himself back into shape. I think at one point he was about 325 pounds. I want to say he's about 305 right now and moving really well. So good. I think obviously Dvon [J-Thomas] and Zane [Durant] kind of lead us in there. Coziah [Izzard] is a guy we didn't have last week, which magnified it. Coziah was out last week. We expect to have him back, but that magnified it.

So they are three veteran players that have played a ton of football for us. We are going to need them to continue to play well as these other guys continue to grow. But I would also view Alonzo as a
veteran player for us. So we've got four D tackles. That's really kind of the position you want to be in, to have four guys that you feel really good about, and then a battle for that fifth position with some young developmental guys that are hungry.

On freshmen who could play in the final three games: Ssome guys that I would say fall in that category right now are Corey Smith and Tyseer Denmark, Eagan Boyer and Donnie Harbour, Xavier Gilliam, Max Granville, Jaylen Harvey, Anthony Speca, Belgrave-Shorter, and Kenny Woseley and Jon Mitchell. Some of these guys it will be this game. Some of the guys it will be next game. But the guys that have only played in one game, they're good to go. The guys that have played in two games, we'll probably try to hold them for another game.

I think Terry is a pretty good example with Kenny and Jon, he rotates them every other game. And last week it was Kenny's time to be ready to go if the game presented an opportunity. So he was able to get in there. He's played two games. Jon's only played one. So this will be Jon's game. Now Jon can play the rest of the year. And then next — not this game, but the next game — Kenny will be in a similar situation.

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