Following practice on Tuesday, Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media, and here's everything he had to say.
On freshmen wide receivers Matthew Outten and Kobe Howard
Yeah, both of them are big phsyical guys. I mean Outten's like 212 pounds already. When we watched him in high school, he was a wide receiver, he was a wildcat quarterback, he was a running back. He kind of did it all for him, pump return, kick return, powerful guy, fast guy, explosive guy. We've seen the same things, but for those very same reasons, he's a little raw as a wide receiver. So it's great that we got him in here early, he's doing really well. (We're excited about his future. Kobe, another guy, more developed. He's already 190-something pounds, strong in the weight room, explosive.
He's played wide out pretty much his whole life, so he's a little bit more refined in those areas. But both have done a really nice job already for guys that should still be in high school.
On A.C. Collins
A.C.'s done a great job since he's gotten here. He's gotten better every single semester and every single year. Extremely competitive guy in practice.
That has showed up in games as well. We expect him to take another step this year and factor in, whether it's as a starter or in the rotation. But he's been a really good pickup for us. Positive guy. Always got a smile on his face. Always got great energy.
Really good with his teammates as well as the coaches. He's fun to be around. He's fun to coach. I'm a big fan.
On Jim Knowles and his type of coaching
Jim is a man of few words. That's in the staff meetings in the morning. That's out here on the field.
He's a believer that he's going to spend a ton of time in the meeting room and taking notes down, kind of like I do. And then make the points he needs to make to the coaches in the meeting rooms. We meet in the mornings and go through the film and he is thorough and he is detailed to the point where I think he's very, very comfortable on the field letting the coaches coach.
But from a big picture perspective, he sees it all. He's got a very good understanding of what he wants it to look like and how it's all supposed to fit together. I've been very impressed with how it's gone so far.
Like every time you have tweaks on your offense and defense, there's different responsibilities for different guys that have to take it on. There's different personalities of the coordinators and the position coaches when turnover happens and all those things seem to be going very, very well. I've been pleased.
The practices have been very competitive. It doesn't feel like offensively is in year two and defensively is only a couple weeks in. It's been very competitive.
I've been pleased with how it's going and we manage it. The way we do it and always have is the offense is limited in what they can do on day one. The defense is also limited in what they can do on day one.
It's not about the offense beating the defense. It's about putting the best Penn State team together and creating the best teaching and learning environment. That's kind of how we do it.
It's structured. I got scarred by it as a young coordinator and it was a free for all. You're trying to put base offense in and you're going against every defense that America's ever seen before.
We don't do it that way. We structure it. I think it's been helpful for everybody.
It's kind of like a teacher has a teaching progression.
On how it impacts other coaches such as linebackers coach Dan Connor?
It's really not a whole lot different. That's how Dan was the linebackers coach essentially last year. Maybe it wasn't announced publicly but that's how we operated last year. Now I think Tom was drawn to the linebackers a little bit more so he had to hover around that group maybe more than others but not a whole lot different to be honest with you.
On having Trace McSorley on staff
You guys know how I feel about Trace and his whole family.
Trace is a special guy to me. He's a special guy to Penn State. Our history and our tradition.
He chased his dream as long as he thought it made sense in the NFL and was able to play at a level that very few people get to play at for a number of years. We've been talking the last couple of years that he was probably going to get into coaching whether that was at the NFL level or with us. We had an opportunity to open up and presented it to him and had some good discussions on what it would look like.
He's been great. You look at Danny O'Brien who played for me and coached for me. You look at Trace McSorley who played for me and coached for me.
I think that helps with the learning curve because they already know the culture. They already know the expectations. I also think it helps our quarterback room.
Having somebody that played quarterback at Penn State because until you've actually sat in that chair, it's different. You guys heard me say it before, the head coach and the quarterback, it's different. So having Trace to be able to mentor that room from his experiences I think is valuable.
On the running backs room
Not only are they competing to be that third running back, but they also need to have a huge impact on special teams. They probably could have last year, but again we were trying to save their red shirt. Now it's competing to be the third back, but it's also competing for a big role on special teams which they need to.
They need to have a bigger role on special teams now that they're able to. James with the tackle. We saw him on the guard and tackle last year.
This year is it more of a concerted effort at that specific position and how do you think he's fared so far this year? All they do is win, run the ball, he knows how to run block, he's great in space, great kid, great attitude. He's got a very bright future for us. Right now this spring we've predominantly got him at tackle because obviously we've got two tackles that aren't here right now in terms of practicing.
If they were here then he'd be splitting time between tackle and guard and competing for one of those jobs as well, but it's really good experience and really good opportunity for him and the way he's going right now, he's going to end up being a part of that competition for the right tackle spot too.
On Elliott Washington and his performance this offseason
I think some of you guys recognize I've never seen that before.
In my 12 years here and 3 years at Vanderbilt, never had a guy win every single one. I tell my coaches all the time this isn't like elementary school or kindergarten or little league where everybody gets a smiley face and you try to spread the wealth so everybody's happy. Give it to the guy who's earned it.
Elliot came to work every single day. He just continues to get better. He's super explosive.
Maybe the most explosive guy we have on our team. Maybe the most horsepower in terms of speed on our team. He's a big corner at 190 something pounds.
He's shown flashes. There's a lot of excitement in the building and he's earned it. I'm proud of him.
Coach's kid. Great family. Done it the right way.
I'm proud of him and his hard work and attitude. It's paid dividends for him and I think it's going to show up in the fall. He's got to keep stacking days.
On Tyseer Denmark
We need him to help us this year. We've got to be more consistent.
Again, I'm proud of him. I think he's got a bright future. Nobody cares that he's a redshirt freshman. It's time now. We need him to take that next step, and he is more than capable of being a big-time player in this league as a redshirt freshman.
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