Inside the Den: Penn State football Wednesday media notes and takeaways

Penn State head coach James Franklin and the Nittany Lions welcomed reporters back to the Lasch football complex again Wednesday afternoon and evening for a midweek practice availability.

And this time, for the first time since August, it wasn't raining in State College.

Allowing reporters and videographers into the outdoor session for about 20 minutes Wednesday afternoon, then reconvening later Wednesday evening to speak with head coach James Franklin and offensive lineman Caedan Wallace, the availability offered yet another opportunity to preview Penn State's game with Indiana.

With that in mind, here are some of the notes and takeaways to emerge from head coach James Franklin's post-practice press conference Wednesday as the Nittany Lions work toward a Saturday date with the Hoosiers at Beaver Stadium:

Three takeaways from Penn State football's midweek press conference

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Though Franklin had previously discussed defensive tackle Hakeem Beamon this season, the Nittany Lions' head coach had yet to make an official pronouncement.

Wednesday night, that changed.

Asked about Beamon's status, the Nittany Lions' redshirt sophomore who has not seen action in any of the program's first four games this season, Franklin provided a definitive answer to that end.

"Hakeem loves football, so in practice, he's always good, because he loves to play football," Franklin said. "But he will be unavailable this week and he will be unavailable for the season."

Declining to elaborate beyond that, the answer puts to bed the second Nittany Lion defensive lineman expected to start or be a heavy contributor this season, joining injured defensive end Adisa Isaac.

A regular contributor for the Nittany Lions during the 2020 season, Beamon was expected to potentially claim a starting role as a three-technique DT opposite P.J. Mustipher this season. In eight games of action last year, Beamon finished with seven tackles, including 1.5 TFLs.

Only because this is the first time I've ever heard a Penn State player characterize anything as a "mission for the week," it caught my attention that Nittany Lions' starting right tackle Caedan Wallace did so when talking about the program's approach leading into Indiana.

Coming out of a storyline from the weekend in which Franklin and the Nittany Lions all discussed not having the "edge" desired in practice or the game against the Villanova Wildcats, Wallace laid out the bottom line proposition ahead of the program this week.

"We won, but we have the whole game week to focus on we have goals and stuff we have to work on. So we celebrated it and we focused on our mission for this week, which is physicality," Wallace said.

The sentiment has been echoed by Franklin both at his Tuesday press conference and in his comments Wednesday evening, suggesting strongly a push on a program-wide basis to establish a toughness that hasn't yet been consistent through the first four games of the season.

The question Franklin got about the run game Wednesday night came from a little different angle than simply, "what's wrong with it?" that had largely dominated the conversation Saturday and again Tuesday.

Rather, asked about how the schemes have changed in the running game from offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca to new OC Mike Yurcich this season, and what impact that has had, Franklin acknowledged a few slight changes before pinning down his major point of emphasis.

"I don't really see that as being the issue," Franklin said. "We have to be a little bit more physical. I think we got to play with a little bit more of an edge. I think we got to play to the echo of the whistle. I think we got to make sure that our pad level and our hat placement is correct, and I mean that about our tight ends as well.

"I also think our running backs, there's going to be some times where it's not a clean hole and you got to be able to lower your shoulder and run somebody over and get it a dirty four yards. And I think the more body blows that you throw like that through a game, the explosive plays will come, but we got to be willing to stick our foot in the ground and get down downhill as a runner and run people over, and we got to be able to be physical and finish blocks and make sure that we're doing a great job with our double teams."

Noting that some of what Wisconsin did to start the season has lingered in Penn State's approach up front in the ensuing games, creating a "fine line" to the approach on double-teams, Franklin's thrust of being close elicited an optimistic tone from Wallace when diagnosing the issues and potential corrections.

"Everyone has to do their 1/11th. Everyone has to step up. It’s never on a specific unit. It’s a collective on the front seven and the running backs," Wallace said. "We’re going to improve this week. We’re going to run the ball."

The conversation about the quality of Penn State's practices last week was addressed by Franklin following the game Saturday, and again Tuesday, then by quarterback Sean Clifford Wednesday afternoon.

Given another crack at it Wednesday night, Franklin confirmed the sentiment that Penn State had picked up its standard as he'd hoped during its practice sessions Sunday and Tuesday this week.

"I thought Sunday was really good. I thought Tuesday was really good," Franklin said. "Sometimes I know you guys hate to hear this, but I like to watch the tape first. But I thought overall, Sunday and Tuesday were really good."

Seeing the atmosphere around the program, and the ability to continually develop and grow, as being essential to the avenue the Nittany Lions have toward winning week-in and week-out, Franklin noted how important not just this week's effort has been but also how it will dictate the success of the program moving forward this season.

"You got to address it. I think I've made the statement about being able to grow and deal with issues or challenges or areas of weakness even after a win, and be able to really emphasize it and be tough about it be, critical about it, to try to get it fixed," Franklin said. "The best teams are able to do that. They're able to grow significantly through wins, not just from a confidence standpoint, but from a correction standpoint as well, and we need to be able to do that.

"We've been emphasizing that the last couple of weeks. I think we have taken some strides in some areas, and we're gonna need to do it again."

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