Penn State offense competitive during camp, Franklin’s plan is coming together

Penn State head coach James Franklin has seemingly had one goal this year. Entering the second decade of his tenure as the head coach of the Nittany Lions, he didn’t want to spend the first month of the 2024 season working out the kinks in his offense, defense, and special teams. But after hiring three new coordinators this offseason, that reality seemed inevitable. Heading into an unprecedented year of opportunity – a 12-team expanded playoff and challenge – heading to the West Coast for games, he needed to make a change.

“I think you guys heard me say this before. We are really not in a position in year 11 in the program to start all over,” Franklin said during training camp.

But so far, the feedback has been very good with how the team has adapted to that change. Part of that is a credit to Franklin for changing how his team operates with new coordinators. Instead of having everything be brand new in February, all three new coordinators worked to fit their playbooks into Penn State’s existing structure of language and scheme as much as possible.

“And again, that’s so that we don’t have 50 players learning a completely new system. We have, you know, kind of a blend, a combination of one coordinator and then the things that need to change.”

The Penn State offense showing signs of life

The traditional rhythm of football preparation for a season is that the defense is typically ahead of the offense throughout the offseason. In incredibly generalized terms, defense is more simplistic than offense. Yes, defenders need to be on the same page and not make mental mistakes, but that unit has more latitude for individuality.

On the flip side, an offensive play is a tightly choreographed dance with intricate moving parts that all need to work in synchronicity. When you expand that thought to include the sometimes hundreds of plays an offense has in a playbook, it’s no wonder that offense lags behind. But for Penn State, that’s not happening this year.

So far, the plan is paying off during training camp.

“It’s more even than it’s been in the past,” Franklin said when asked about the competitiveness between offense and defense at practice.

“So it’s more competitive than it’s been in terms in terms of the score. And we keep score every single day we put it up there. We track explosive plays, we track turnovers, and then we track competitive periods and who won the periods. And I want to say it’s, it’s been tied more than it hasn’t been.”

New Rules give the offense an advantage

We’ve talked before in the offseason how it’s a valuable time for the passing game and skill positions to hone their skills. You can’t hit during summer practice, but you can throw. New rule changes allow the coachings taff to work with their players during the summer too. According to Franklin, Penn State has taken advantage.

“So I think we are in a good spot there. I think some of the rule changes over the last couple years that allow you to have essentially OTAs in the off-season where you are actually able to coach, that’s helped.”

Some specifics on what’s changing and staying the same

Franklin went into a surprising amount of detail, espeically on the defensive side when discussing how new coordinator Tom Allen has adjusted to the Penn State scheme.

“We became more of a man coverage team with [former DC] Manny [Diaz]. It’s interesting. When you look at the statistics, not as much as you would think, but more of a man coverage team. And, I think we’ll we’ll continue that. We just had so much success with it,” Franklin said after practice on Aug 8.

After experiencing Diaz’s style, Franklin explained why he’s eager to keep that defensive mindset.

“When you get access with soft coverage and zones, it’s comforting as an offensive coordinator, quarterback, to know they’re giving you field access. So being able to take all them easy yards away, it creates pressure, and that’s how we’d like to continue to play. So that’s been very similar.”

Comparing Diaz and Allen to find Penn State’s path forward

To Franklin’s point, Penn State didn’t play as much man coverage as the data would suggest. One reason for the discrepancy is that Diaz would blitz and play soft zone concepts behind them. But when three receivers are out in pass patterns and only four coverage players, a zone can quickly devolve into man coverage in spirit.

But Diaz and Allen called roughly the same number of pure man concepts over the last two seasons. Obviously, Diaz had more talent at Penn State and more success in these situations, but the structure is there for a successful transition.

The Penn State offense ahead of schedule

But even with the team’s work to simplify the transition, the offense still has plenty to learn.

“I would say on offense, there’s probably more change than on defense and special teams. But probably not as much as you guys would think,” Franklin said.

However, the new offseason rule change for coaches, the expanded roster of on-field coaching, and the team’s plans are giving the offense a fighting chance. There isn’t that same feeling of newness that can bog down the offense.

“There’s enough that we kept the same, but still there’s enough wrinkles that it could make the kids play slow and have hesitation. I think the coaching staff has done a really good job of grinding through it. And, I think the players have done a really good job all summer so that it doesn’t feel like that. It doesn’t feel like, ‘ah, we’re working through some things.’ It doesn’t feel like it. So I’ve been very pleased with that.”

But no matter how good Franklin and his offensive staff feel about their current situation, the job isn’t finished.

“What I would say is we’re still inconsistent with that, where, in terms of, to me, it should come down to like, one or two reps in every period who wins. And we have that. But then we have other days where the defense dominates a period, then we’ll have other days where offense dominates a period. And what I talk to the guys about is we just, we can’t have, like, a bad quarter on offense or a bad quarter on defense. We gotta, we gotta make sure for the games that we want to win, we got to play really well in all three phases.”

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