James Franklin sounds optimistic note at QB ahead of Ohio State clash

Penn State football head coach James Franklin looked at ease Wednesday night.

One day after a weekly press conference in which the Nittany Lions’ leader misspoke about this week’s opponent, a handful of instances referring to the No. 5-ranked Buckeyes as “Illinois,” Franklin stepped back in front of reporters, cameras, and microphones.

Surrounded after the Nittany Lions’ midweek practice session, leaving just two more days of preps before traveling to face Ohio State at the famed Horseshoe, here’s a look at the news, notes, and observations to emerge from Franklin’s 12-minute media Q&A:

Penn State football: Takeaways from James Franklin's Wednesday presser

Penn State Nittany Lions Oct. 27 practice observations: Quick hitters

Franklin said Tuesday, and Clifford followed it Wednesday afternoon, by noting that the fifth-year senior quarterback was “feeling good” coming out of the Illinois game over the weekend.

By Wednesday night, Franklin circled back to the subject in offering an updated, bottom-line assessment of Clifford’s status coming into this Saturday night’s game at the Horseshoe.

"I think you always have to have the Plan B prepared, but last Sunday, we knew it was kind of day-to-day,” Franklin said. “This Sunday, in my conversations, I think he's got a real good chance to be as close to 100 percent as we've seen in a couple of weeks.”

Clifford finished completing 19 of 34 passes for 165 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions but took four sacks on the afternoon against the Illini.

Whether or not Clifford has the same second-string signal-caller behind him for Saturday night could be another story.

The big news from Penn State’s practice Wednesday, during the session in which the media was permitted to watch for about 20 minutes early in the practice, was the absence of second-string quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson.

A small glimpse of a practice that typically spans about two hours, that Roberson wasn’t in attendance for that portion was addressed by Franklin following Wednesday's practice.

Asked whether or not Roberson has practiced this week, Franklin said simply, “Yes.”

And, upon a follow-up asking how he’s handled the aftermath of the Iowa game and the weeks in between, Franklin said: “pretty well.”

"I think he and Veilleux have both handled things pretty well. They both have gotten a bunch of reps. Veilleux’s reps have dramatically gone up. With Sean’s situation at that stage, Veilleux is the number three, so I think they both handled it pretty well. You’re trying to compare and contrast, but it’s two different scenarios a little bit. But I think they’ve handled it pretty well.”

Later in the session, Franklin was asked whether or not there is something the media is missing about Roberson’s non-participation in Saturday’s game, particularly deep into the overtime sessions when he still had not been given a snap over Clifford.

Franklin said this:

"I think like I've stated before, we felt like through practice, hours of evaluation on the field, hours of evaluation of film, that Sean gave us the best chance to win,” Franklin said. “Although he was limited, we felt like he gave us the best chance to win at this time based on everything we know. I remember having a similar conversation with you guys a few years back about Trace McSorely.”

Asked about the nature of Penn State’s schedule this season, one in which the Nittany Lions opened at then Top 25-Wisconsin, returned to face Top 25-Auburn at Beaver Stadium two weeks later, and had to travel for the program’s second Big Ten crossover game on the road against the conference’s west division’s two best teams, Franklin indulged himself and the impact that it had on the Nittany Lion program this season.

“From a scheduling philosophy, whether it's the Big Ten scheduling philosophy, whether it's our scheduling philosophy; our beginning of the season was very challenging, was very physical, was against very physical style teams, and with that, comes wear and tear and an importance of development from a depth perspective,” Franklin said. “One of the other things that we've been able to do in years past is play a lot of guys early on, develop them for depth later in the season, and you really didn't get to do either early on this season, so that's the nature of it.”

Even so, he continued, the situation was not one that caught the Nittany Lions by surprise.

“We knew it was coming,” he said. “We need to be prepared for it throughout summer, throughout the offseason and things like that once we decided to go with that type of schedule.”

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