WILKES-BARRE — Make no mistake about it and head coach James Franklin can’t stress it enough: There’s still plenty of work to do in order to get the Penn State football program to where he wants it to be.
Coming off a year in which the Nittany Lions saw their fair share of highs and lows but capped it off with a thrilling 31-30 overtime victory over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium to give them a winning record, Franklin enters his second year at the helm optimistic, as always, about what the future has in store for his squad.
Thursday, prior to speaking along with wrestling coach Cael Sanderson and women’s volleyball coach Russ Rose at the 12th and final stop of the annual Penn State Coaches Caravan in front of a crowd of more than 300 — the largest of any of the stops — at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, Franklin conveyed his confidence and excitement for the upcoming season. He also pointed out that these summer months are going to be crucial to the team’s success.
“We’re looking forward to the season,” he said. “Year 2 is completely different than Year 1. (The players) know me, I know them better, I know Penn State better, I know the Big Ten better. We retained our entire staff so there’s familiarity there.
“We’re bigger and stronger and deeper. I think we’ll play faster. They kind of understand what we’re trying to do and why now.”
Last season, despite the NCAA sanctions being lifted in the early portion, Penn State’s lack of depth took its toll. After starting the season 4-0, the Nittany Lions stumbled to a 2-6 finish in the regular season before pulling out the Pinstripe Bowl win.
That team had just 13 seniors and this year’s age breakdown won’t be much different, as it has just 11 returning seniors.
“We’re still really young,” Franklin said. “Our team is going to be dominated by true freshmen and redshirt freshmen and sophomores. It’s probably going to be like that for a couple years.”
But there is, however, a key difference that this year’s returning players — no matter their age or class — will have. Those players will be able to become leaders on their own and it starts with the summer workouts over the next couple months leading up to the beginning of fall practice in August.
“I think they’re probably more important by far than last year,” Franklin said when asked about how vital summer workouts are toward success. “In the summer, (the coaches) have such limited contact with the players. So with the limited contact, you really want the players to take ownership of the team. It’s really good for leadership but it’s really good for those guys to just get out there and coach each other and coach the players (and) coach the incoming freshmen.”
At this time last year, Franklin and his staff were in place for just over four months, making it hard, he acknowledged, for the veterans to take that ownership when they were still figuring out the playbook, its concepts and philosophies themselves.
With a year under their belts and no changes to the staff, that leadership can begin to develop much quicker, Franklin said. Of course, the Nittany Lions were able to do this last season but the system was new to everybody.
Now, junior quarterback Christian Hackenberg can work extensively with his wide receivers and tight ends, offensive lineman Angelo Mangiro can work in detail with the other linemen as could linebacker and Valley View graduate Nyeem Wartman-White with the front seven on the defensive side of the football.
“It was almost impossible to do last year,” Franklin said. “(But) I think that’s a huge advantage for us going into Year 2 that we didn’t have last year. This year, I think that’s an area where we can make tremendous strides.”
The results of this summer won’t be seen immediately. Franklin and his staff will put their faith in the players to get themselves ready for preseason practice and the season that follows.
There will always be work to do, but if the Nittany Lions can take care of business in the summer, it could go a long way toward seeing more success than last year.