James Franklin talks Rose Bowl prep and roster transformation ahead of contest vs. Utah

Story posted December 19, 2022 in CommRadio, Sports by Alex Rocco

After a successful 10-2 regular season, Penn State is just a few weeks away from taking on Utah in the Rose Bowl.

On Friday, the Nittany Lions held its local Rose Bowl media day with athletic director Pat Kraft, James Franklin and his three coordinators addressing the media.

When the season concluded, Franklin and his staff hit the recruiting trail visiting recruits at their homes and high schools.

Before speaking to the media, Franklin had breakfast with 5-star offensive line commit Jven Williams and his family.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Franklin’s media availability.

Rose Bowl Returns

Franklin said the weeks following the season's end have been a balancing act between the transfer portal, national signing day and preparing for the bowl game.

The Nittany Lions started their bowl game practice Friday and will continue to do so for the rest of the month.

Contrary to last campaign, where the blue and white had six players opt out, it has only had two players elect the NFL Draft over the bowl game.

“This is who we've been,” Franklin said. “In my 12 years as a head coach, I had never had an opt-out until last year. The way in my mind that we’ve built it at Penn State is there's really no reason to opt-out.”

With key players such as Ji’Ayir Brown, Brenton Strange and Juice Scruggs returning, Penn State is retaining most of its core for the contest against Utah.

Franklin also said he’s expecting the return of three players who dealt with injuries during the final weeks of the year.

“There's no reason to rush these guys, and I haven't had a chance to sit down and talk with them and where we're at… [but] Olu [Fashanu], Caedan [Wallace] and Keyvone [Lee], we’re expecting to have all three of those,” Franklin said. “So, we’ll see how it plays out.”

Fashanu was one of the top linemen in the nation before sustaining an injury against Ohio State, which caused him to miss the final four games of the year.

Fashanu was projected as a top-10 pick in the upcoming draft, but he announced his return to the blue and white in late November.

Wallace started the first seven games of the season before missing the final five.

As for Lee, his return would add much-needed depth to the running back that had just two healthy players on scholarship for most of the campaign.

Four quarterbacks

Penn State had a quarterback controversy during the 2022 campaign while never switching starters. Sixth-year senior Sean Clifford started every game, while true freshman Drew Allar appeared in nine contests.

It appears that will stay the same, with Clifford making the start in his final collegiate game and Allar potentially getting reps late in the game.

“It's going to be a lot like it was in the middle of the season and throughout the season, where Sean gets a majority of the reps with the ones,” offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich said. “There'll be some opportunity for Drew to get some reps with the ones as well, but we've got to get Sean ready to go.”

Third-string Christian Veilleux announced his decision to transfer, leaving the blue and white with just three scholarship quarterbacks.

Allar is the presumed starter, with redshirt freshman Beau Pribula and true freshman Jaxon Smolik backing him up.

Having three quarterbacks sophomores or younger isn’t ideal, and Franklin knows that.

“When you're starting a true freshman or redshirt freshman, you may start a true freshman and have five quarterbacks on your roster, but then right after the season ends, your room's gonna change dramatically,” Franklin said. “So we've had some conversations early on as things started to play out.”

Manny Diaz’s future

In addition to the transfer portal and national signing day, programs have to deal with the possibility of their assistant coaches pursuing other jobs.

One coach whose name has been consistently brought up is the Nittany Lions' defensive coordinator Manny Diaz.

Diaz was a three-year head coach at Miami before leading one of the top defenses at Penn State. Diaz was a finalist for the FAU head coaching job, but he looks to be done searching for other jobs this cycle.

He mentioned he still wants to return to head coaching soon.

“In terms of ambition, I’d like to be a head coach again. I enjoy it. I think there's some unfinished business with the way things happened a year ago,” Diaz said. “I think the second time around, you are a little wiser in the opportunity. I don't think you necessarily let the opportunity choose you. I think you choose the opportunity a little bit differently.”

Diaz noted he won’t take a head coaching job anywhere, it has to be the right fit. In his first season with the blue and white, he led it to the No. 10 scoring defense.

Diaz said he loves being in Happy Valley, and it would have to be an amazing job for him to leave.

“It's called silly season for a reason because a lot of it is just noise, rumors, stuff that can be put out by other schools,” Diaz said. “The great thing is I've got a great job. And it would take an amazingly great job to leave a great job.”

Alex Rocco is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email alex.rocco1702@gmail.com.