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What James Franklin said at his Monday presser as Penn State prepares for spring practice
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Monday marks the first day of spring practice for Penn State and the Nittany Lions are eager to turn the page on the 2020 season and start their climb back to the top of the B1G in 2021.
Penn State finished the 2020 campaign with a 4-5 record, starting 0-5 before winning the final four games of the season.
James Franklin begins his eighth season as head coach in State College and the goal is to bounce back in a big way. After seeing most of spring practice called off last season, the Nittany Lions won’t be taking the next month for granted and are striving to re-establish themselves as contenders in the B1G East.
On Monday, Franklin met with the media to talk about the team’s spring practice plans, the outlook for the upcoming season, staff changes, the quarterback situation and more. Here’s what the head coach had to say:
Franklin on spring ball: "We can't take anything for granted."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin highlighted offensive ball security and defensive ball disruption as Penn State's main goals for spring practice.
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin: "From a physical standpoint, this is the biggest team we've had."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on the quarterback room: "There's some opportunities as well for us to look in the transfer market from a competition standpoint and a depth standpoint."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on the quarterback room: "By the end of spring we'd like to have a pretty good idea of who our first team, second team, and third team quarterbacks are."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on the Blue-White game: "There's some discussions going on with that at the university level right now…we want to get to as close to possible as normal by next season."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on managing new coaching staff: "Once I'm comfortable that those rooms are being run the way we need them to be run, then I step away."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on spring ball and summer camp: "We're taking this as a tremendous opportunity to build our team from the ground up in more of a normal kind of routine."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on 2020: "We really should have took last year as an unbelievable opportunity to learn under very challenging circumstances."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin expects Noah Cain will start to practice in the second half of spring ball.
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin: "I always knew I was a family guy, going through last year really emphasized that."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on 2020: "I probably grew as much, both personally and professionally, as I have in 26 years of doing this…there's tremendous lessons to be learned."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on last year's true freshmen: "It's gonna be interesting to watch these guys take the next step this spring ball."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on Sean Clifford: "Where we were coming into last season and where we are coming into this season are different…but it also creates a tremendous opportunity, and I think that's how Sean's approaching it."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Franklin on the offensive line: "We feel good about the kind of guys that we've got to work with…we've got a pretty healthy group of names in there to come in and compete."
— Onward Sports (@OnwardStSports) March 15, 2021
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB