Everything Penn State head coach James Franklin said after Tuesday's spring practice.

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Just real quick, I want to give men's hockey and Coach Gadowsky some love, obviously first frozen four in program history. Awesome to see not only what our men's hockey team did, but really the whole athletic department. Again, Pat Kraft done a phenomenal job in supporting and resourcing all the different programs.

So really cool to see our men's hockey. I was able to go to Allentown and be a part of that, which was great. So it's been kind of a special year from that standpoint, two big events within the state that I was able to get to.

So pretty cool to be able to support those programs.

Yeah, he's been good.

Kind of like I mentioned, he's progressed every single year. We need him to continue to take another step this year in every area, just like he already has. I pretty much answered this question in detail, but he just needs to take the next step in really every area, which is what he's done every year since he's been on campus.

So I fully expect him to do it again.

Yeah, Jaxon has done a heck of a job. We didn't really know coming off the injury where he would be, but both of them are doing really well.

And that's not coach speak. They're both doing very, very well. So I think this is going to be a competition that's going to go on for a while.

I thought Jaxon would come off the injury a little rusty. He has not been. Both of them are playing really well. So we've got to continue to build on that

Yeah, so Fat has really improved. As you guys know, we've talked about. He's never had an offseason since he's been here.

He looks faster. He looks more explosive. I think Stan has done a phenomenal job.

You guys have had a chance to be close up and personal with Stan and his drills. I think Stan's drills have been really intentional. And those guys, I think, are really doing well right now.

So for him, I think that explosiveness and that speed that he's playing with right now is going to be big. It's going to be big for him. With Nick, it's a lot of the open field running, a little bit more creativity in his game.

He's been a guy that obviously, extremely strong, extremely explosive, extremely fast. But we want to work on those open field runs so he can get more ADR, 90-yard runs, which we think he is capable of getting. So a lot of that stuff.

He's just a veteran, veteran, running backs coach. I think his head coaching experience has been very helpful for him before he transitioned to being the head coach at Temple who's considered the best running back coach in college football and has got a resume that backs that up, especially when you talk about guys that he's coached at Villanova, at Ohio State, at Texas. It's an impressive list of NFL players and Hall of Fame players.

He played the position, so just a lot of experience there. He's done a really nice job and he's done a good job connecting with a room, but that was going to be a challenge. Obviously, that they had had the same running backs coach their entire career, so those changes are hard, but they seem to be embracing it and so does Stan.

I think Stan's having fun. As you guys have heard me talk about, sometimes this head coaching stuff, there's some wonderful aspects to it, but there's also the challenge that it takes you away from the thing you fell in love with in the beginning, which is coaching the guys and having your own position, so I think he's enjoying that as well. He also had a cool experience, as you guys know, his daughter is on the gymnastics team at LSU, and they were here this weekend, so pretty cool for him and his family too.

I think good. So I think you kind of have our expectations about how it's going to go based on our last defensive coordinators that we've had and how their installs have gone in terms of tweaking what we do defensively. And then you also have Jim's time at Duke, his time at Oklahoma State, his time at Ohio State, and how he's refined his process of being able to put it in, and then also spending enough time with our defensive staff saying what does it need to change.

So I've been very pleased. The practices have been very competitive. We're in year two on offense and what, three months on defense, and it's been really competitive out here.

So I think that's a real positive for us to lay a really good foundation, then we'll be able to do some stuff over the summer and then training camp and then obviously get into the season and we're going to have to be ready to roll for week one. So I'm pleased with where we're at and talking to Jim and the defensive staff, Coach Poindexter. I think everybody feels the same way.

Yeah, as you guys know, Ta’Mere was a big get for us. I've always felt like he's had a very, very bright future.

He's had some injuries that have been setbacks for him. So getting him back healthy and confident and playing fast, he's really flashing right now. Obviously with Rojas being out, that's more reps that he's able to get.

So sometimes those injuries with experienced players, sometimes they're a blessing in disguise because it creates opportunities for guys like Ta'mere to get a ton of reps. But he's been good. He's been really good.

And I just think as much as anything, it's his confidence in being able to just go out there and play and not be thinking about the injuries that he's had in the past. So playing very well right now, but we're going to need to continue that all summer and then into the season next year. But right now, he's trending in a direction that we had hoped when we recruited him.

Yeah, just a very smart player, a very headsy player, got really good instincts, plays clean. And, you know, he's got some athleticism to back it up as well. So to your point, it's still his first spring.

So still a lot that he's learning. But I know Coach Connor's been very, very pleased with him. This spring will be really important.

But what I'm excited to do is watch him in fall camp once he's really into the system and has had all summer to kind of refine it and gain confidence and take his game to a whole other level.

Yeah, Xavier Gilliam has been a guy that's, as you guys saw in the winter workouts, really flashed. He's doing it here as well.

The Wafle kid, you know, has done some really nice things. Randy Adorika's been a pleasant surprise for a kid who's still supposed to be in high school. You know, really a bunch of those guys.

Mupoyi, Cook, we're young, you know, really after Zane. And then when we get Alonzo back, that will help us with two older guys. And then we've got a bunch of young guys.

Liam is starting to work back in right now, and he's a big bodied guy. There's a ton of guys, Cook. There's a ton of guys that are going to be battling.

It'll be very, very competitive in my mind. Right now, I think you got everybody knows Zane Durant. Everybody knows Alonzo from last year.

And I think Gilliam knows three guys. And then there's going to be a battle for four and five between five or six players. So it'll be very, very competitive.

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