Penn State football notebook: James Franklin wraps up National Signing Day
Penn State tied a bow on its 2022 recruiting class on Wednesday as it gained two more commitments on February’s National Signing Day.
James Franklin then met with the media to not only wrap up the 2021 season but to discuss his latest recruiting class and the future of the program as well.
So on his 50th birthday, here is what Franklin went in depth on regarding the past and future of his Nittany Lions.
National Signing Day
Franklin and the rest of the Penn State coaching and recruiting staff wrapped up what they call late signing day on Wednesday by grabbing two players to add to their 2022 recruiting class.
The Nittany Lions started the day by signing Lackawanna Junior College transfer Tyrece Mills, a safety who Penn State had been in contact with for a while prior to making the announcement official on Wednesday.
He becomes the latest JUCO safety to come to Happy Valley from Lackawanna, joining the likes of Jaquan Brisker and Ji’Ayir Brown.
Franklin said that they see Mills playing in all three safety spots throughout his career and that he has some of the skills which Brisker and Brown as well as Marcus Allen possessed when they came in.
“We've had a lot of success obviously with that position specifically when it comes to Lackawanna Junior College and what that staff has done over there,” Franklin said. “I think the biggest thing is his physicality. You're talking about a guy that I think can play really how I look at it, any three of the safety spots which are the two deep safeties, but also that field backer.”
“I think he has a chance to play all three of those spots for us.”
The other member of the 2022 class that Franklin was able to ink on Wednesday was three-star offensive lineman Vega Ioane over Washington and Minnesota.
The official commitment came live during the press conference with Franklin just before noon and the head coach was able to announce it live in the middle of his presser.
“Just so you guys know, we can now announce officially, Vega Ioane is signed in our class as well. A six foot four 330 offensive lineman out of Graham-Kapowsin High School,” Franklin said. “We’re talking about a guy that was part of a state championship team this year as well. A guy that we think is going to physically have the opportunity to come in and compete early on in his career.”
Wrapping Up 2021
As the 2021 season moves further into the rearview mirror for Franklin and his staff, they have been able to do some self-evaluation and see what can be changed prior to the fall.
Franklin was asked about the team’s struggles to run the football which was a common theme for Penn State in 2021 with the 13th ranked rushing attack in the Big Ten.
“There's no doubt about it. We have to be able to throw to win games, we have to be able to run to win games and there's going to be games where the run needs to be the emphasis,” Franklin said. “There are going to be games where we're going to need to run the ball to win. There's gonna be games or we need to throw the ball to win. We have to have the ability to do that throughout a season and throughout games.”
The Nittany Lions head coach cited that his team had a chance to effectively run the ball in many games over the course of the season.
He even used Penn State’s Outback Bowl loss to Arkansas as an example and admitted that he may have gotten away from it too early.
“I think if you look at the bowl game, we got away from the run and we should have run the ball more,” Franklin said. “We were having success doing it and we should have done that. That's part of my responsibility as well in the offseason studies and making sure that we're committed to doing that during spring ball, that we're committed to doing that during the summer and that we're committed to doing that during the year.”
Offseason Competition
With signing day now completed, Franklin has a pretty good idea of what his roster is going to look like in 2022 aside from a few late transfers that may trickle in.
Of course the biggest questions will always surround the quarterback position these days with Sean Clifford returning despite the addition of 5-star quarterback Drew Allar.
Franklin was asked if that will be a competition moving forward or if Clifford will be guaranteed the job but as usual deferred his answer to every position being an open competition.
“Sean's our returning starter and there's no doubt about that but there's competition at every position,” Franklin said. “Obviously it's more challenging at any position to unseat a returning starter who's been doing it for a couple years but there's competition across the board. Across the board and every single position and you rebuild your team every single year. There'll be competition at every single position, including the quarterback.”
Another competition that seems to be never-ending is the daily battle to improve the program by upgrading facilities, coaches and personnel.
It’s been an issue which Franklin preached on what seemed like dozens of times this season but he was once again emphatic in bringing up the small factors that lead to wins when the season comes around.
“It's also all the things that we do off the field, that we're willing to compete in everything year round which you guys have heard me say for eight years,” Franklin said. We have got to be willing to compete year round because all of the little losses that you have throughout the entire calendar year, those add up. All the wins that you have throughout the calendar year, they add up and we have to be willing to do those things in all areas year round for us to have the type of success that we want to have consistently.”
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