Three takeaways from Penn State football's midweek press conference

With run game concerns, player availabilities and more on the mind this week, Penn State Nittany Lions football coach James Franklin met with reporters on Wednesday after practice.

Let's dive into some takeaways from what he had to say.

One of the major themes of this week has been Penn State's run game after it struggled to get off the ground against FCS Villanova on Saturday.

Franklin offered his take on what Penn State football needs to do to get that fixed.

"We have to be a little bit more physical," he said. "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."

Offensive tackle Caedan Wallace also spoke with the media after practice.

He acknowledged that Penn State's run game has been a focal point of practice this week, and he feels like the results will change against Indiana.

"We're going to improve this week," he said. "We're going to run the ball this week."

Franklin announced Wednesday that Penn State will be without defensive lineman Hakeem Beamon for the remainder of the season.

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

Beamon did not play in any of Penn State's first four games of the season and could be seen in street clothes before the Nittany Lions' game with Villanova last week.

Beamon played 166 snaps for the Nittany Lions last season. No reason for his unavailability was given.

Penn State redshirt freshman tight end Tyler Warren has earned a considerable amount of snaps through three weeks of the season — including some at quarterback in the Nittany Lions' take on a wildcat package.

As the third option on Penn State's depth chart at tight end, Warren has seen 86 snaps through four weeks.

Franklin was asked if Warren needed to make any specific improvements to get more involved on Wednesday, and Franklin noted that "it's not really about Tyler."

"We want to rotate all three of those guys," Franklin said. "Right now, he's third on the depth chart of three really talented guys. There's not a situation that we would be uncomfortable putting Tyler in the game. I don't think there's a significant gap between the three of them, but we think we can play all three of them and are comfortable doing it in any situation.

"Obviously, you got Brenton, who's played a lot of football, you got Theo, who has had a chance to play some football last year, and Tyler's getting his first game experience, but he's a poised guy, a confident guy, he's athletic; it's a strong room, and we're pleased with Khalil [Dinkins] right now. Khalil's doing some good things for our future as well, so, it's a strong room we want to continue building on."

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