Advertisement
football Edit

Quarterback game plan, LSU job opening, more: James Franklin notebook

Penn State head coach James Franklin returned to the Beaver Stadium podium Tuesday afternoon following a one-week break in light of the Nittany Lions' much-needed bye weekend.

Set to welcome Illinois to Beaver Stadium on Saturday afternoon for Penn State's homecoming, Franklin and the Nittany Lions have no shortage of major happenings at work.

From the status of injured starting quarterback Sean Clifford, to the decision of who will get the start against the Illini if he's unable to play, to yet another major job opening in college football in which Franklin's name has been linked as a potential candidate, Tuesday's press conference was another busy one for the Nittany Lions' head coach.

Here's a look at some of the news, notes, and observations to emerge from the session:

Advertisement

1) Quarterbacks (Part I)

Though Franklin took some time to eventually get there, despite a few opportunities to divulge any information about his starting quarterback, the head coach did offer some insight into how Sean Clifford has responded since exiting the Iowa game early in the second quarter 10 days ago at Kinnick Stadium.

Noting that he planned to give the program's only other two scholarship quarterbacks, Ta'Quan Roberson and Christian Veilleux, even reps this week in practice, Franklin intimated a strong possibility that Clifford won't be available against the Illini.

"He has shown his toughness over the years, both physically and mentally. He kind of lives (in the facility) watching film and obviously now getting treatment and doing everything he possibly can to put him in the best position to get back as soon as possible, whenever that may be," Franklin said. "So we'll see, but it won't be because of a lack of effort on his part. He's going to do everything that he's supposed to do from the doctors and the trainers and their recommendations. Make sure that the parents are informed and involved in the process as well. And then... mentally, in terms of preparation and how he approaches the game, he is as good as I've been around.

"He's doing all the right things, not surprised by that, and hopefully that will put him in the best position to come back as soon as possible."

Get on the list! Click the image to get breaking news and daily headlines delivered straight to your inbox!
Get on the list! Click the image to get breaking news and daily headlines delivered straight to your inbox!

2) Quarterbacks (Part II) 

If Clifford is absent this weekend, Franklin and the NIttany Lions will have a decision to make at quarterback.

Or, maybe phrased more appropriately, despite Roberson's insertion into the Iowa game to difficult results, some of his own volition and some well beyond the control of the redshirt sophomore signal-caller, Franklin acknowledged that there is a decision to make.

"We are going to split the reps between Ta'Quan and Veilleux. We will split the reps," Franklin said. "Will it be a competition? I think it's always a competition, but it's probably magnified a little bit. We're looking at those guys very closely in practice and in the scrimmage periods and things like that, so we will split those reps between those two evenly and make it a competition.

"No different than any other situation, you'd like to make the decision as early as you can. We're not in a position to do that right now. So those reps will be divided evenly and once we know that it's clear, then we'll make the decision and go from there."

In spite of Franklin's assertions at the end of Penn State's preseason camp that Roberson had made the case to be the primary backup to Clifford, what has transpired in the time since has created maybe a little less certainty than there might have been in what separates the second- and third-string quarterbacks from each other.

"A player that's been in the program for a couple years should really be widening that gap and a player that's been in the program a less amount of time, he's got to close that gap as much as he can. But you also have to factor in the number of reps that they've been able to get in practice and the number of reps that they've been able to hopefully get in games," Franklin said. "It's not oranges to oranges. It's not even. But that also makes the argument, if it's close, it really shouldn't be. The guy that's been in the program for a long time and the guy that's getting the most reps should be able to widen that gap and right now, it's somewhat close."

3) Coaching rumors... again

Given the news over the weekend that LSU head coach Ed Orgeron had agreed to part ways with the Tigers at the end of the season, opening the door to another extremely high profile job vacancy in college football, Franklin's name soon surfaced among national reporters as a likely candidate for the job.

Nothing more than that suggested, in the wake of similar speculation a few weeks prior in which Franklin was asked to address the linking of his name with the similarly vacant Southern Cal job, Franklin was posed a different question Tuesday afternoon.

Rather than being asked to discuss his interest level in LSU's opening, Franklin was asked by veteran reporter Rich Scarcella as to whether or not he gets tired of having to address the rumors, particularly internally.

"I guess the best way to describe it is, I care what people think and I want to handle things the right way all the time, with the players, with the staff, with the administration. I want to use the golden rule and treat people the way you'd want to be treated," Franklin said. "So yeah, I want to come to work every single day and do my job, and help these players achieve their dreams, and the staff, and do right by the university and the community.

"I did see Sandy's comments and I do think, it's a positive from this standpoint, there could be a different conversation going on and if there had to be a choice between the two, I'd rather it be this conversation than the opposite. But yeah. Yeah, I do."

4) Quarterbacks (Part III)

Considering the contrast between Clifford's performance against the Hawkeyes two weekends ago versus what transpired when Roberson came into the game, Franklin was asked an assortment of questions Tuesday in which he needed to reflect on what transpired in the offseason transfer portal.

Given Clifford's performance and the departure of backups Will Levis and Micah Bowens, while only bringing in Veilleux through the recruiting process, Franklin was asked whether or not he felt the program had taken the right approach with the portal.

"I don't see how we could have been more aggressive," Franklin said. "We were thorough, and we evaluated every single guy that was out there. We had some guys come in and actually work out by the rules. We were committed to doing it if we found the right situation and it made sense, but just to sign a guy to sign a guy, we actually think that would have been detrimental. There's no way to get them all reps and to develop them. So for us, we did everything we possibly could."

*******

• Talk about this article inside The Lions Den

• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel

• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue-White Illustrated

• Follow us on Twitter: @BWIonRivals, @NateBauerBWI, @RivalsSnyder, @DavidEckert98, @GregPickel, @ThomasFrankCarr

• Follow us on Instagram

• Like us on Facebook

Advertisement