James Franklin’s first Tuesday news conference mixed the normalcy of ridiculously secretive college football coaches with the looming realities of playing football during a pandemic.
Traditionally, the Nittany Lions would release a depth chart for the public heading into a game. Seeing the depth chart whets the appetite of fans wanting as much information as possible about their team before the contest.
Of course, sometimes it doesn’t matter since often the chart changes quickly based on several variables. Remember last season when Penn State thought Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez would start instead of Luke McCaffrey? Coach Scott Frost went with the freshman McCaffrey, and Nebraska went on to a win. (And Penn State lost its fifth consecutive game.)
So what’s Franklin’s reasoning behind not listing his planned starters?
“Multiple schools in the conference haven’t been releasing it for many years,” Franklin told reporters on Tuesday via Zoom. “Then this year, we found out that Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Purdue either were not releasing it or were thinking about not releasing their depth charts. It just didn’t make sense for us to do it if others weren’t doing it.”
College football coaches, especially those who run prestigious programs as Franklin does at Penn State, will do anything to make life easier for themselves and harder on their opponents. Franklin proves this when elaborating on why he’s not giving a chart.
“It saves some work and saves some time if that info is already out there,” he said.
The eighth-year coach acknowledged that despite the efforts to mask possible lineup changes to the public, the athletes inside Holuba Hall know what the deal is as the team prepares for Wisconsin.
“For the most part, our players know where they stand based on the rotation at practice,” Franklin said. “If there is a change, then they see it reflected in their reps in practice.
“One of the things that I made sure this past week is that all of our coaches have had clear communication with their players and have a really good understanding kind of where they’re at. But for the most part, the players see it the same way as the coaches.”
Barring injury or an extreme emergency, it’s highly unlikely Wisconsin will have to worry about Penn State making a last-minute change at quarterback, like the aforementioned Nebraska situation.
Sean Clifford is the starter, while Franklin delicately pointed fans toward Ta’Quan Roberson as the backup.
“I sit in the quarterback meetings every single day, and one guy (Clifford) is taking 90 percent of the reps with the ones. Ta’Quan is taking 90 percent of the reps with the twos,” he said.
Franklin noted true freshman Christian Veilleux is running with the third-string offense. Roberson hasn’t thrown a pass in a Penn State game since the last game of the 2019 season against Rutgers, but Veilleux has no college experience.
Franklin hopes Roberson can find some playing time this season in controlled situations.
“He’s thrown for a high percentage throughout camp,” Franklin said. “When he’s confident pre-snap, he becomes very effective. He’s opened up a lot of eyes. We’d love to get him some reps where we can. We want him to get meaningful reps in games.”
Franklin revealed another tidbit that could make Roberson’s adjustment to possible game action smoother. Roberson gets his work primarily with the second string, which means he’s possibly had several reps with a potential starting left guard, as Harvard transfer Eric Wilson and Anthony Whigan will share the role, according to Franklin.
“Whigan has been with us for a while and has had the right attitude and the right approach and has worked his tail off,” Franklin said. “Eric’s a young man who transferred in. I think it was an adjustment when he first got here, but he continues to get better. So they will both play. They’ll both play on Saturday.”
Whigan has 11 games of experience with the Nittany Lions. He’s mostly played on special teams. Wilson’s Harvard team didn’t play a game since the Ivy League canceled their 2020 season.
Assuming both teams continue to follow protocols, there will be a game between two ranked programs. Names on a depth chart won’t matter. However, issues continue to surround the idea of playing football during a pandemic. Just as an example, Winston-Salem State University’s game against UNC Pembroke this weekend was canceled because of an outbreak within the Pembroke program.
Franklin and his family are vaccinated. His youngest daughter, however, is autoimmune compromised. So he’s cautiously excited about having his family back at games after they couldn’t spend any time with him last year.
“My family’s probably not going to come to the games until an hour after they start to make sure everybody’s in,” Franklin said. “We want to make sure they’re not caught up in the crowd. Then they’re going to stay an hour after the game, so it clears out.
“There are still many things that I think we were all doing to try to navigate this in the best way we possibly can. But I will tell you, even with that, there’s so much excitement about playing games with fans again.”
Nubyjas Wilborn: nwilborn@post-gazette.com Twitter @nwilborn19.
First Published: August 31, 2021, 9:05 p.m.
