Franklin's blueprint for Penn State football paying off, but with one big caveat [opinion]

STATE COLLEGE — It was suggested, early in James Franklin’s tenure at Penn State, that he was building something like a program in the mold of LSU.

That is, the goal was to stockpile athletes and size and speed and win less with offensive wizardry and precision than with defense and special teams and physicality.

Saquon Barkley and Joe Moorhead and Trace McSorley intervened. Two 11-win seasons and a Big Ten title later, Barkley and Moorhead have moved on. The remarkable McSorley will, too, soon enough.

We started to get a sense of what comes next this spring, and in a superfluous Blue defeat of White, 21-10, in the annual intrasquad scrimmage at Beaver Stadium on Saturday.

“We got a lot out of today,’’ Franklin said. “We got a lot out of this spring.’’

He added that, “one guy that really stood out to me was Zech McPhearson.’’

McPhearson is a third-year cornerback from Maryland who might not even play much, except on special teams, this fall.

He is depth.

Penn State has a ton of defensive backs, and wide receivers, and defensive linemen and linebackers. So many guys who can run.

That makes practice better. It makes the battles for playing time fiercer. It makes every special team better. It makes injuries easier to patch over.

Franklin and his staff have worked relentlessly, since he got here, to develop this soil. It’s starting to look fertile.

Fighting for jobs

Guys you’ve barely heard of were flying around Saturday — Damion Barber and Jan Johnson and Joe Dumond and KJ Hamler and Mac Hippenhammer and Donovan Johnson and Jesse Luketa and Dae’Lun Darien and Immanuel Iyke and a dozen others.

Micah Parsons you’ve heard of, and he looked as advertised Saturday. But he might get a fight for playing time from, say, Johnson, a high school quarterback/wrestler and now, maybe, a Big Ten starting linebacker.

Franklin has talked in the past about his team, and especially the beleaguered offensive line, getting nastier.

That doesn’t seem like a problem any more.

“The young guys are definitely coming in with some fight,” said junior linebacker Cam Brown. “Everybody’s got a little bit more grit on them.”

The coach came away from a raucous and at times sloppy practice two weeks back with a different tune.

“I want us to play really competitive, and with a lot of emotion,’’ he said. “The hard part to teach a team is, how do you take that all the way to the edge without crossing the line?’’

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially for a coach who can now withhold playing time.

Two cautionary notes: First, the 2018 football team has specific holes you can’t just throw athletes at — middle linebacker, safety, tight end, kicker, et al.

Second, there is a final frontier, even in recruiting and roster-building terms, at the most important position on the field.

Fortune is not a strategy

Since Christian Hackenberg (pre-Franklin, in 2013) Penn State has signed six quarterbacks. Only one, Sean Clifford, has ranked among the top 200 players in his class, and barely, at No. 196.

Granted, McSorley and Tommy Stevens have routed the odds. But that’s good fortune, not a strategy.

Consider the programs Penn State still aspires to.

Clemson sent Deshaun Watson to a starting gig in the NFL. The next up, Kelly Bryant, has been almost as good. After Bryant comes the No. 1 player in the high school class of 2018, QB Trevor Lawrence.

At Alabama, the No. 4 dual-threat QB in the class of 2016, Jalen Hurts, led the Tide to two straight national title games. Then the No. 1 dual-threat QB of the class of 2017, Tua Tagovailoa, replaced Hurts in the championship game and won it.

Ohio State got a brilliant run from J.T. Barrett. He’ll be replaced by one of three guys, two of whom were in the top five nationally in their classes.

Georgia recruited the No. 2 pro-style QB in the country in 2016, No. 3 in 2017, and the No. 1 dual-threat QB (Justin Fields, who originally committed to Penn State) in 2018.

Oklahoma lost the Heisman Trophy winner, and figures to replace him with a five-star recruit, Kyler Murray, who might also be a very early pick in the June baseball draft.

You can’t do without speed and size and athleticism and depth.

But are they enough?

Mike Gross covers Penn State football for LNP. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MikeGrossLNP.