Penn State Football: 3 Takeaways from James Franklins spring press conference

As Penn State Football begins spring practice today, head coach James Franklin met with the media for the first time in about two months for a state of the union on the program 

Penn State Football head coach James Franklin met with the media Monday for about 45 minutes to address the state of the union of the program as the Nittany Lions begin spring practice.

The Nittany Lions did not have spring practice last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic so today marks a major sign of a return to normalcy for the program.

Franklin mentioned he has coaches and players who have been with the team for two years now and have yet to participate in a spring practice session so this will undoubtedly go a long way to getting the team ready for Wisconsin on September 4th.

The headlines will be about installing the new up-tempo attack of offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich’s scheme and the possible quarterback battle between Sean Clifford and Ta’Quan Roberson that figures to take place this spring and summer.

However, the Nittany Lions have a few questions they must answer this spring outside of who will be under center.

Let’s take a look at three key takeaways from Penn State Football coach James Franklin’s meeting with the media:

1.Quarterback decision could be made by the end of spring? 

When coach James Franklin brought in offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich he did so to elevate the play of the quarterbacks to a level that can get Penn State Football to where they want to go.

Franklin reiterated that Yurcich feels good about the three scholarship quarterbacks they currently have in that room, but that they could still look to the transfer market, however in a different capacity then some might have originally thought.

The head coach mentioned adding quarterback in more of a depth/competition capacity, stating he would ideally like to have four to five scholarship players at that position, so it seems if you read between the lines that any addition would be more of a numbers thing than someone who will compete to be a starter.

The most telling comments Franklin made about the quarterback situation was that he would like to have a quarterback depth chart set by the end of spring in terms of who the number 1 is, number 2 and number 3.

It begs the question how much can really be decided in spring ball? and lends itself to an assumption that Clifford may have the inside track to winning the job. Sophomore Ta’Quan Roberson would have to play out of his mind in spring to take the job from Clifford who has 20 collegiate starts under his belt.

No doubt that fall camp will have some say on who starts week 1 at Wisconsin, however it is telling that Franklin wants to have a set depth chart after spring ball while they install a new offense under Yurcich.