Spring Practice Update

Well hello everyone!  We're still languishing in the middle of the "silly season" when stories that wouldn't even see the light of day in the fall are headline news.  Yet, we press on.  I hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day, a fitting holiday given that Penn State will open the coming season in Dublin, Ireland against the Golden Knights of Central Florida.  Still, before that can happen, the coaching staff has 15 spring practices to formally meet and evaluate their players, install their offensive and defensive systems/philosophies, and create a roster.  Spring practice will then culminate in the annual Blue/White Game on April 12, which will once again be run like an actual game rather than the offense vs defense approach that Bill O'Brien employed the last 2 seasons, and confused the crap out of most fans.

James Franklin kicked off spring practice yesterday with a press conference where he started by discussing his 4 core principles: positive attitude, unbelievable work ethic, compete in everything you do, and sacrifice (which you can hear in the video here).  He drew a few eye rolls when he mentioned his “tag off” practicing strategy - a glorified version of 2-hand touch that brought back memories of O'Brien's infamous “thud” tackling.  Obviously, this tactic is used to cut back on injuries to an already thin roster, but for some reason it always gets reporters worked up.  He then moved on to talk about the obligatory position changes that always come with spring ball.  Due to various depth concerns, Anthony Zettel will move from DE to DT, while Derek Dowrey and Brian Gaia will move from the D-line to the O-line (most likely OG).  But my favorite moment of the press conference came when James Franklin described the non-stop pace he likes to practice at, saying, “there is no walking on the field ever. I told them the first day if you don't know where you're supposed to go or what you're doing when the horn blows, then sprint in a circle until you figure it out.”

In recruiting news, James Franklin picked up yet another recruit over the weekend, bringing the 2015 class up to 8 commits, and Penn State’s class ranking up to an astounding #4 nationally.  Now it’s still very early, but this is a great sign of what we can expect from Coach Franklin and his staff regarding recruiting.  If they can keep up the pace, Penn State might land their first Top 10 class since 2006!  The new commit is 4-star WR Juwan Johnson from New Jersey.  He joins 7 other future Nittany Lions:

ATH Kamonte Carter – MD (4 stars)

RB Andre Robinson – PA (4 stars)

RB Saquon Barkley – PA (4 stars)

OT Ryan Bates – PA (4 stars)

DE Ryan Buchholz – PA (3 stars)

LB Jake Cooper – PA (3 stars)

S Jarvis Miller – CT (3 stars)

Finally, some of you may be aware that the scoreboards in Beaver Stadium have been under renovation since the end of the season.  Here is an update on that; let’s just say, they look awesome!

Well that’s all for now.  Keep it here on the blog all offseason for the latest news and notes about Penn State football, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @PSUOptimus, and as always, go State!