With Penn State getting set to meet Wisconsin on Sept. 4 at Camp Randall Stadium, the Nittany Lions have turned the corner from preseason camp to game week preparations.

Wednesday evening, that meant a trip for the program over to Beaver Stadium for the second time this month for practice. Set to return to the stadium one last time on Saturday for an 11 a.m. scrimmage, focusing intently on recreating a dress rehearsal environment for the Nittany Lions’ date with the Badgers, the clock is ticking toward the season’s opening kick.

Allowing the media into some of the early individual periods at practice, head coach James Franklin then reconvened the group for a post-practice weekly interview as well as interviews with assistant coach Ty Howle, tight end Brenton Strange, and safety Jaquan Brisker.

Late Wednesday, BWI detailed some of the practice observations from the 20-minute availability.

Now, let’s turn our attention to take a deeper look at some of Franklin’s comments afterward:

1) Franklin spent the most time Wednesday talking about the program’s backup quarterback battle between redshirt sophomore Ta’Quan Roberson and early enrollee Christian Veilleux.

But it wasn’t the most compelling element of his nearly 11-minute session with the media.

Rather, with the starting quarterback firmly established in fifth-year senior Sean Clifford, and a new coordinator in Mike Yurcich, and an endless swath of potential in the surrounding cast of the Nittany Lion offense, Franklin offered his strongest indication yet of confidence in the unit’s preparedness for the first game of the season.

Acknowledging the fact that the program has been hard at work, within the rules that govern college football’s offseason, Franklin contrasted the effort against that of the offseason leading into the 2020 season.

”It's hard for me not to compare everything to last year just because that's the most recent thing we've gone through, so comparing it to last year, it's not even close,” Franklin said. “Having spring ball, having all the summer walkthroughs, I think we're in a good place. There are some things that we do that I think are challenging.”

Extrapolating Franklin’s comments, those challenges are understood intimately in the form of what Penn State’s defense has experienced this preseason.

Determined to revive an offensive philosophy that produced three of the top 10 scoring offenses in Penn State history in 2016, ’17, and ’19, all with double-digit wins in tow, Franklin expressed his optimism for what’s to come from the group at hand.

“I’m excited,” he said. “We got to go out and do it in games.”

2) Asked about the true freshmen who have impressed this preseason, Franklin’s first comments contained no surprises on the subject.

“The guys that came in at mid-semester, there's an advantage there,“ Franklin said. “Kalen (King), I think you guys are aware, Kalen has done some great things, whether it was the spring game or spring ball, and he just continues to grow and evolve. He's a playmaker. He's got tremendous confidence in himself.

“One of the things that I think has been good for him this camp is he's gotten beat some, and that's part of that maturity and that growth process of being able to bounce back and bounce back quickly at that position. So I think that's been good for him. But he's probably a guy that's stood out.”

Having already established himself as one of the primary stories of the spring, Franklin’s reiteration of the point might not seem like news this preseason. But, honestly, maybe it should be.

That King has been described as the most well-prepared true freshman Franklin has had in his coaching career is probably indication enough, but his comments so close to the start of the season should serve as an indicator as to just how much King is likely to see the field this season.

No doubt, that corner position already includes two experienced players with high expectations in Tariq Castro-Fields and Joey Porter Jr. But Franklin’s continued praise of King is a clear sign of the significant role on tap for the true freshman this year.

3) The first question Franklin took on Wednesday evening was about the left guard position and whether or not a starter had been named.

Flatly, he said, one had not.

“It's probably a group of four to five guys that we're rotating right now to try to figure that out,” Franklin said. “There have been flashes of certain guys, but that has not been resolved yet.”

Whether or not that group of competitors vying for the starting role extends to four or five is probably open to some debate.

Anthony Whigan and Sal Wormley, whom Franklin described at preseason media day as having “really come on and factored in,” have appeared to be the primary candidates by every indication this preseason, with Harvard graduate transfer Eric Wilson repping with the twos at the position and Des Holmes appearing at both guard spots.

4) I won’t completely ignore the backup quarterback conversation here, for what it’s worth, other than to continue to acknowledge the wildcard situation that Penn State would find itself if Clifford wasn’t available at any point this season.

That notion seemed to be backed up completely by Franklin’s post-practice comments in which he explained that doing well with practice reps and scrimmage opportunities isn’t the same as game experience.

“Until they get into a game, it's a different story,” Franklin said. “And there have been flashes of both of them at times.”

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