James Franklin reacts to Pat Freiermuth being named John Mackey TE of Week
Penn State football tight end Pat Freiermuth has won the weekly Mackey Award, and James Franklin is excited about his progress.
Heading into the 2019 College Football season, Penn State football was well aware of the fact that they could have one of the best tight ends in the nation. After debuting as a freshman last season, Pat Freiermuth managed to reel in 26 catches for 368 yards and eight scores.
He accomplished that on part-time minutes. Heading into the 2019 season, Freiermuth has the position locked up to himself as long as he is healthy. During his Sophomore debut though, Freiermuth’s health wasn’t in tip-top shape.
As he attempted to stretch out and grab a slightly inaccurate pass from his quarterback Sean Clifford, Freiermuth ended up taking a dangerous hit to the head. Although his sudden head injury didn’t force him to miss time beyond week one, he wasn’t able to return to action two Saturday’s ago, which made his seasonal debut quite underwhelming.
The underwhelming performance would not become a trend, though. As Freiermuth made his way back to the field against Buffalo for week two, the Penn State tight end re-introduced himself to the college football world with a promising performance.
This past Saturday, Freiermuth collected eight catches for 99 yards and two scores. His second touchdown happened to be his highlight of the night as he caught a quick pass from Clifford and showed off his athleticism as he rushed to the end zone for 28 yards.
Happy Valley was thrilled with Freiermuth’s progress during his second week, and the college football world wouldn’t let it go unnoticed either. For week two, Penn State’s star tight end has been named the John Mackey Award winner for his performance against the Bulls.
James Franklin reacts to the news
@JohnMackeyAward has named Pat Freiermuth of @PennStateFball as the John Mackey Tight End of the Week! Honorable mentions include Jacob Breeland of @oregonfootball
— John Mackey Award (@JohnMackeyAward) September 10, 2019
Denzel Carter of @TulsaFootball and Kyle Fourtenbary of @WMU_Football #TE #Week2 #CFB #CBFAwards #NCFAA pic.twitter.com/uwM5VJXA5M
During his weekly press conference, Penn State head coach James Franklin found out about his Sophomore tight end being named college football’s best tight end for the second week of the season. As expected, Franklin was far from surprised about hearing the news.
Next. 4 Players that stood out to Franklin vs. Buffalo. dark
“We think we have one of the best tight ends in college football,” Franklin told reporters according to CBS Sports’ Tyler Donohue. “We think that will continue to grow.” While Franklin leaves the door open for other tight ends around the league to receive credit, Franklin does believe deep down that Freiermuth is the best at his position. And the CFB world may find out soon enough.