3-2-1: Leading the way

For the first time since ending their 2020 season with a win against Illinois on Dec. 19, Penn State players met with the media this week as they progressed through their second week of the program’s spring practices.

Throw in a midweek James Franklin 15-minute media session, followed by an appearance from cornerbacks coach Terry Smith, all punctuated by Thursday’s Penn State Pro Day at Holuba Hall, and the week has been a busy one for the Nittany Lions.

What were the primary takeaways, observations, and questions to emerge from the week that was? Let’s dive in to talk about them here:

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1) At quarterback, the picture clarifies

Eight games into Penn State’s 2019 season, the notion that quarterback would be a position of heightened interest in March of 2021 probably would have seemed absurd.

At the time, redshirt sophomore Sean Clifford had engineered an 8-0 start to the Nittany Lions’ season, thanks largely to a performance in which he made plays with his arm and legs and protected the football superbly.

That the same cannot be said of Clifford’s time since, however, has led to this spring’s intrigue.

Asked Wednesday about how Clifford has looked this spring, coming off a 2020 performance in which he struggled mightily at the beginning, lost the starting job for a game, then rebounded to produce the serviceable performances that would send the Nittany Lions out on a four-game winning streak, Franklin expressed a general sense of satisfaction by what he’s seen thus far.

“He's a vet. He's a smart guy. He asks really good questions. He's had a lot of success and he's had a lot of adversity and with that comes maturity, comes wisdom, comes experience,” Franklin said. “He is a guy that really wants to be good and really works at it, both mentally and physically. I think Coach [Mike] Yurcich has been pretty impressed with him, in terms of his ability to take information from the meetings and transfer it to the field... He's been impressive so far.”

Franklin wasn’t alone in his assessment of Clifford’s performance this spring. Bringing an element to the field and away from it that holds significance among his teammates, Clifford has continued to garner respect from within the huddle.

“He's just the leader everybody on the team knows we're gonna get out of him every day,” center Mike Miranda said. “He's super consistent. The energy that he brings and the focus that he brings to each practice, all of us on the offense and all of us on the team know that he's a guy that we can lean on because of that.”

Now the presumed starter ahead of the 2021 season, Clifford’s competition for the role was slashed dramatically this offseason as primary backup (and one game starter) Will Levis bolted for Kentucky and fourth-stringer Micah Bowens headed off to Oklahoma. Leaving only third-year quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson, who has no career pass attempts in his first two seasons on campus, as well as January enrollee Christian Veilleux, the Nittany Lions are spending the spring working to sort out and solidify the entirety of the position, acknowledging its significance to the program’s potential this season.

“I think like it is for a lot of positions, but probably magnified at the quarterback position, is consistency,” Franklin said, offering a perfect contrast to Miranda’s compliment while revealing the biggest hurdle at the position moving forward. “Ta'Quan has really done some nice things since he's been here and this spring as well, but it's about consistency. Most of these guys make really good flash plays or a big-time throw or decision or whatever it may be, but it's really about consistency... I think Ta'Quan is showing more of that right now. Veilleux is pretty far along for a true freshman, in terms of being able to operate what we're asking them to do.

“But that's an important thing for us to figure out is, we got to make sure we have a two and a three that we feel good about, and also you'd like to get to a point where your two is truly competing and pushing your starter. All those things are important and I think this spring will help with that, but if I had to guess, that'll go into fall camp as well.”

2) Phil Trautwein’s impact continues to show

Two points of interest emerged this week regarding Penn State’s offensive line.

Though the Nittany Lions will be without the services of veteran performers Will Fries and Michal Menet, each moving on after their senior seasons to pursue NFL careers, plenty of experience remains within the group. According to Miranda, Trautwein uses that as a springboard to keep things interesting and varied and competitive from practice to practice through the season and including this spring.

“Traut's actually kind of crazy with the rotations. There are guys who will work in at all three groups sometimes, the ones, twos, threes. They'll throw guys in with the ones just randomly to see how they'll perform, see how they'll handle the situation. He'll move guys up for a practice, move guys down,” Miranda said. “He just likes to see how guys handle certain situations and how they handle certain adversity, or how they handle a new opportunity for them.

“So there's a lot of rotating around, but we all know each other really well. We can all really play together well, so it's not much of an issue at practice.”

Asked about that approach and how it is balanced with finding a starting five and getting that group more opportunity to gel, Franklin made clear that isn’t necessarily a concern this offseason.

“We got a pretty good idea of who's going to be in our two-deep,” Franklin said. “I think there's some pretty good competition in that two-deep where, maybe a couple practices a guy that’s with the twos is really doing some nice things, and maybe the guy with the ones had an off day. I think it's an important message that we send that you better come to work every single day and consistently do your job or we got somebody behind you that's pushing you every single day to be your best and for us to be our best.

“I think it's one thing to talk about it, it's another thing to throw a guy in there and get him some reps. It helps us create some of that true, real depth for guys that are getting opportunities to go against the ones. But I think it also sends a message that we have good enough depth that you better come with the right mentality and the right approach every single day, and if not, there's somebody breathing heavily on your neck, itching and clawing and scratching for that opportunity.”

Commending Trautwein for having built a rapport and culture within the position group that has blossomed and continued to grow in his 14-month tenure with the program, Franklin cited the positive feedback he hears from the parents of offensive linemen as indicators of the overall health of the unit.

“Those guys love practicing and getting better,” Franklin said. “Caedan Wallace's dad sent me a really good message the other day, he was in town and took a couple of guys out to dinner, and they were just all talking about how much fun they're having and how they're competing and how much they're learning. That's important. This game is hard, it's tough, and it's demanding, but it should also still be some fun.”

3) Some insight into this year’s Blue-White... Practice?

The time and place for that fun just might not be within the constraints of a typical Blue-White Game this year, however.

For the first time since the program revealed its plans for its final practice of the 2021 spring session, plans that include an event at Beaver Stadium that will welcome the families of players and personnel, plus cheerleaders, the Blue Band, and the freshman class of students on campus, Franklin was offered an opportunity to discuss his preferred approach to maximizing the 15 allowable sessions this spring.

“I think the practices are extremely valuable in the spring,” Franklin said. “We didn't get spring ball last year and a lot of other programs did, and there's value in that. Practice matters or you wouldn't do it. So for us, (we are) just being really strategic about our practices this spring, about using all 15 to get better and really challenge our guys.

“We got a pretty challenging early part of our schedule, not only from a Big Ten perspective but also from an out-of-conference perspective as well. I think it's a motivator for our guys and we're going to have a pretty good idea of who we are very early and be tested. You can probably make some comparisons to maybe the 2016 season where we faced a pretty tough schedule very early on and we were able to grow from that as the year went on.”

1) Will Penn State have a dominant receiving presence this fall?

Surely, Jahan Dotson would be an easy choice in the affirmative given his performance last season. Reeling in 52 catches for 884 yards and eight touchdowns in nine games, Dotson finished well ahead of the Nittany Lions’ next leading receiver, true freshman Parker Washington, who tallied 36 catches for 489 yards and six scores.

But, within the early assessments of offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich and his plans for the Nittany Lions this season, a theme beyond his tempo, explosive plays, and scoring is just beneath the surface.

All of which is to say, the answer to the question is no; not if Yurcich, and maybe more important, Franklin, get their way, and even if Dotson has an excellent season.

Aiming to significantly vary the distribution of the touches from what transpired in 2020, Franklin made plain in his Jan. 18 press conference just how important that element is to having a dynamic, hard-to-defend offense.

“I want to get more guys involved. I want to get more guys touches. I want to get more guys' hands on the ball,” he said. “I think it makes you more difficult to defend when the ball can go to a number of different people.”

Given the offseason departure of tight end Pat Freiermuth, though, there’s another message to be taken from within that statement.

An important element from a philosophical standpoint is nice enough in concept, but the implication here is that Franklin also believes the program has the horses to do it and do it well. Whether at running back with the eventual return of Noah Cain, flanked by Keyvone Lee, Caziah Holmes, Devyn Ford, and John Lovett, at tight end with rising contributors Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson (plus buzz-worthy redshirt freshman Tyler Warren), or at receiver with Dotson, Washington, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Cam Sullivan-Brown, Daniel George, Malick Meiga or Jaden Dottin, Penn State doesn’t believe itself lacking for players who can produce.

“Having Jahan back I think is important for us and gives us a really good building block. And there's a number of other guys, obviously,” Franklin said, citing Washington and Lambert-Smith. “Cam Sullivan-Brown had some injuries this year that limited him. There's a number of guys that we're going to need to step up, and we need to have a two-deep at the receiver positions that we feel good about and try to get as many of those guys involved as we possibly can.”

2) Will Penn State finish with more takeaways this season?

Given Tariq Castro-Fields’ interview Tuesday, the answer here after 2020’s misfire has been upgraded to “definitely maybe.”

I mean, we’ll see. Right?

Certainly, Penn State stressed how much it wanted to see turnover generation in its secondary ahead of 2020, and how it believed that to be a realistic possibility given its talent and depth not only in the secondary but also within its pass rush.

That, of course, didn’t happen, as Jaquan Brisker, Lamont Wade and Keaton Ellis were the only secondary performers to finish with interceptions, each notching one apiece last season. But in the context of a rash of injuries that affected the cornerbacks' room and some of Penn State’s difficulties creating pressure in the trenches, Castro-Fields’ assessment might be enough to leave the Nittany Lions feeling more optimistic about the possibilities in 2021.

“I'm super excited with where the group is right now and what we can accomplish in the near future,” he said. “Those guys got a lot of experience with me not being able to play last year, so it just gave them that little knowledge and then also having the experience to kind of play more free. They still can lean on me whenever they need to, with any questions or whatever it may be, but they're getting their own way of things and developing their own skills and things like that, so I'm super excited for the group we have right now.”

Considering the potential they still believe exists for Brisker as he finishes out his career with a third year at Penn State, plus the assessment Franklin gave of Ji’Ayir Brown as leading the team in turnovers this spring (“he’s just much more comfortable and confident”), along with the early jolt of energy Anthony Poindexter has provided the safeties, the at-times liability of 2020 could become more of an asset this season.

Could be. Maybe. We’ll see.

Penn State will have two first-round picks in next month’s NFL Draft

The first disclaimer to make here is that I am decidedly not an NFL guy, and even more decidedly not an NFL Draft guy. It’s just not my thing.

But if I’ve learned anything about coaches and personnel decisions that are made in front offices, the game has a special proclivity for being drawn in by potential. That probably applies to plenty of things, but specific to the NFL Draft, it’s a temptation that can be impossible to resist when understanding the challenge of finding players who are truly able to stand apart from their peers.

In Micah Parsons, the Nittany Lions have had that type of a performer since the second half of the 2019 season when he went on a tear and capped it all off with a game-breaking afternoon in the Cotton Bowl. The word of the day for the linebacker was “versatility” afterward, whether coming from himself or those who took in his pro day performance on Thursday, but the bottom line with Parsons is that he is capable of excelling at just about anything.

While Parsons was able to put that type of potential on game film, described as a likely top-five pick by Mel Kiper for 2021 in January 2020, that slam-dunk status wasn’t as evident for Jayson Oweh. Even after wowing everyone Thursday with unheard-of testing numbers for a defensive lineman, Oweh still wouldn’t classify as a slam-dunk, certain star in the NFL.

The sheer uniqueness of his athletic gifts suggests that he could be, though, and I’m willing to bet that one NFL franchise will feel the same way on the first night of the draft on April 29. Now projected 16th overall by NFL.com’s Gil Brandt (but in the second round in plenty of other mocks) Oweh’s lack of sacks last season isn’t going to prevent him from finding a spot in the first round.

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