Penn State coach James Franklin took to the podium at Penn State Media Day held at Beaver Stadium to give his insights for the upcoming 2025 season.
During his thirty minute session with the media, Franklin tackled various topics between offensive line depth, safety depth, new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ impact and how the new trio of wide receivers have impacted the offense.
Here are my three key takeaways from Franklin’s annual session with the media.
Franklin Continues To Emphasize Veteran Leadership
Credit: Penn State Football
At every level, the key imports into Penn State’s team via the transfer portal come with a bevy of different experiences.
James Franklin analogized the current portal era in college football to the one-and-done era in college basketball where veteran-laden teams could make long postseason runs.
“I think you guys have heard me talk about this before,” he said. “I compare college football in some ways now to college basketball when the one-and-done started, and you could have a veteran older team make a run, because, as we know, experience and talent matters.”
Franklin’s emphasis came at two specific position groups: wide receiver and linebacker.
What has Franklin beaming with confidence this preseason versus last is the amount of experience Trebor Pena, Devonte Ross and Kyron Hudson possess.
“I think the biggest thing is they are veterans that have already produced in college football,” Franklin said. “You know, Hudson was a captain at his previous institution. Had one of the catches of the year against LSU. Senior, veteran, mature. So that’s been valuable for us.”
“Peña is a sixth-year guy. Same thing, was captain at his last school. Got a lot of maturity. Got a lot of experience…And then Ross, you know, didn’t play, whether obviously it’s the Big Ten or the ACC but we were able to watch him against Iowa.
I think you guys know how much respect I have for Iowa, that program, defensively, special teams-wise, and to be able to watch him make plays against an Iowa defense, and an Iowa team in general on special teams, gave us a lot of confidence about bringing that young man in.”
One of the biggest voids Penn State had to fill was at linebacker when Kobe King opted early for the NFL Draft and the Nittany Lions had to deal with a slew of injuries.
Franklin was able to land veteran linebacker Amare Campbell from North Carolina, and continued to laud what his veteran leadership will bring to the group.
“When you talk about Amare (Campbell), he’s been a pleasant surprise,” Franklin said. “He played a ton of football for his previous school and we thought those things would translate to us, but you never really know. Once again, a mature, older player who has taken the right approach since he stepped on campus, and I think there’s some excitement about him right now.”
“He tested well this summer, he’s explosive, he’s fast, he’s powerful, he’s kind of compact. You guys will see him. He’s not one of those 6-3, 6-4 guys like some of those guys we’ve had in the past, but he can cover ground, and he has really good instincts. You can tell he’s played a lot of football and that’s going to be valuable to us.”
It was also mentioned that Campbell was recognized by Knowles as the first practice session’s most outstanding player.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Franklin Lauds Trautwein’s Ability At Creating Depth At Offensive Line
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – SEPTEMBER 01: Penn State Nittany Lions offensive line coach Phil Trautwein reacts on the sideline during a college football game against the Purdue Boilermakers on September 1, 2022 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire)
James Franklin reflected on when he arrived back at Penn State in 2014, he joked he would have pulled a few beat writers to help fill the depth chart as he only had four offensive lineman.
Today, the figure is nearly 25 players at the offensive line, with many feeling Penn State could be 10-deep at potential Big Ten caliber starters at the offensive line in the two-deep.
“We are in a different spot, right,” he said. “That’s not just good for our offense, that’s good for our defense. Iron sharpens iron every single day. It also allows us, when we talk about different weapons that we have in terms of wide receiver, running back, tight ends and trying to get them all on the field. You guys also saw us last year do some six offensive lineman sets. That is, obviously, helpful from a scheme standpoint. It’s also helpful from a development standpoint when you can get six and seven offensive linemen on the field, allows those guys to get some playing time.”
While Franklin didn’t allude to particular situations, he mentioned how both Anthony Donkoh and Nolan Rucci played right tackle as good as anyone in the nation.
“Donkoh was playing as well as anybody in the country before his injury,” Franklin said. “Rucci comes in and finishes the season as well as any tackle in the country. Then we’ve got some young guys that are fighting and battling them as well. I would also say, you guys know this, we have worked hard at creating position flexibility. So, a guy like Donkoh also has the ability to play inside. What we’re trying to do is see how do we get the best five guys on the field.”
The right side of the offensive line seems to have steep competition between Rucci, Donkoh, sophomore Cooper Cousins and redshirt sophomore T.J. Shanahan, who transferred from Texas A&M, continues to battle who is starting right of Nick Dawkins at center.
Knowles “Blending” With Franklin
First year defensive coordinator Jim Knowles during pregame warmups ahead of the annual Blue White game. (Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles has a reputation that proceeds him as a defensive genius and continues to be respected by all of the Penn State staff, including Franklin.
James Franklin recognized the Knowles’ experience but kept things in proper perspective.
“He (Knowles) installed the defense at Duke. He installed the defense at Oklahoma State and installed the defense at Ohio State and no different at anything else. Every time you go through this, you get better at it as well. He’s in a really good place…I think we are pretty far along but it’s still day three.”
Knowles’ defensive philosophy is a bit different from what Franklin and his staffs have been accustomed to in the past, being more of an attack front previously to a man cover team that Knowles prefers.
Even with the differences, Franklin isn’t yielding everything to Knowles, suggesting in the past a blending has happened to accommodate the different philosophies Penn State has had on defense.
“The majority of it is me having a list of guys that philosophically believe how to play defensive football, similar to us, and how we have done it,” Franklin said. “We have been fortunate, I think we’ve had four defensive coordinators here. Every single one of them has had a Top-10 defense at Penn State. Again, you know, with Manny (Diaz), attack front, we were gapped out, linebackers had a gap responsibility and this defense requires the linebackers to play more of a traditional linebacker and read things out a little bit more and in the secondary, we’ll just have more coverage diversity, which I think will be important because there’s going to be two or three games a year where you just can’t line up and play man, right. And that coverage diversity will be important for us moving forward.”
James Franklin said that prior to Knowles arrival the discussions around philosophies was had and it was inferred there was a mutual understanding.
