Talking about the burden James Franklin and the Penn State Nittany Lions are carrying moving into the 2025 season? The trauma is quite heavy. As J.D.Pickell rightly described it, “You got Drew Allar for one year, man, one year. What happened last season was just, I don’t know how you can sleep with yourself at night… you got the ball with a chance to drive down, kick one through, and go play Ohio State…”
Franklin and co.’s 2024 story is mainly about missing big milestones by a hair’s breadth. The Nittany Lions had high expectations from Allar. But their quarterback somehow failed them, coming up with only 12 of 23 for 135 yards during one of their most crucial face-offs against Notre Dame. But does that mean Franklin is upset with Allar? As of now, the quarterback has won his head coach’s heart for a special reason.
On August 12, Franklin faced the media. That’s when he was asked about his senior quarterback Allar’s offseason rituals as a fourth-year quarterback. Turns out that the quarterback’s focus has mainly been to mend his loopholes. “Yeah, experience counts, right? And specifically at the quarterback position. He’s played a lot of football here. He’s seen a lot, and he knows how to prepare. Being in the same system now for multiple years, there’s value in that for him,” Franklin shared. “So yeah, just all all the things that you talk about when you talk about high-level quarterbacks, and the ones that have done it now for multiple years. He’s a proven commodity. There’s not many of them in college football.”
NCAA, College League, USA Football 2025: College Football Playoff Semifinal Capital One Orange Bowl Notre Dame vs Penn State JAN 09 January 09, 2025: Penn State quarterback Drew Allar 15 during pregame of NCAA football game action between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. John Mersits/CSM/Sipa USA. Credit Image: John Mersits/Cal Media/Sipa USA NOxUSExINxGERMANY PUBLICATIONxINxALGxARGxAUTxBRNxBRAxCANxCHIxCHNxCOLxECUxEGYxGRExINDxIRIxIRQxISRxJORxKUWxLIBxLBAxMLTxMEXxMARxOMAxPERxQATxKSAxSUIxSYRxTUNxTURxUAExUKxVENxYEMxONLY Copyright: xCalxSportxMediax Editorial use only
Last season, accusations were brought against Allar that he had been a lot more mobile. Moving into 2025, the ceiling is high for Franklin’s squad, which expects its highest preseason ranking in more than 25 years. So, the quarterback knew he had to buckle up. He admitted his struggles to recover emotionally in January and required an additional two weeks that month to put the 2024 season behind him. So, Allar then worked on himself to be the gamechanger in Franklin’s squad. He has hit the gym and has shed weight while focusing on adding muscle. With this, he now weighs a lean 235 pounds.
Franklin shed light on how his quarterback is a player who is not going to give up on himself so easily. The head coach noted, “And he’s done some really good things and there are areas that he needed to improve on and and he’s worked hard in those areas this offseason. I think he’s going to do what he’s done every year since he stepped on campus. He’s gotten better every single year.” Allar significantly increased his rushing attempts (96) and net yards (302) and improved his rushing average (3.1 per carry) in 2024. Now, while the quarterback picture in Franklin’s squad gives some hope, chaos prevails in another position.
James Franklin opens up about his most loaded position group
Franklin now has to whitewash his image. After all, Paul Finebaum sees him as ‘incapable’ of winning a National Championship. For that, he must be counting on one of his sharpest weapons, his running back room. After all, Penn State’s running back room has been ranked as the best, not just in the Big Ten, but among all conferences. But Franklin got to mark himself safe from ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ kind of situation.
Right now, the head coach is spoiled with choices. They have two veterans, Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, famously known as Fatman. Along with them, there are young guys, redshirt sophomore Cam Wallace and redshirt freshmen Quinton Martin Jr. and Corey Smith. As the running back three battle looms in Franklin’s squad, the head coach walked the fans through it. “I think it’s still wide open. We’ve had some inconsistency there in terms of who’s practicing, who’s not, guys getting dinged up, and things like that. So, I think still wide open,” shared Franklin.
But Franklin got a fair idea of how to run the quality check. On August 7, during a press meet, he gave a glimpse of his plan. “We got a pretty good idea who Nick [Singleton] and Fat are, right? So, you know, giving them enough that they’re continuing to get better. Similar challenge that we have with Olu [Fashanu] and Tyler Warren, and a lot of guys like that situation.” So, how is he coping with the reps distribution?
James Franklin noted, “So, limit some of their reps…So, cutting Kaytron and Nick’s reps down and then giving as many of those other guys reps as possible, and then kind of rotating who goes out as the number three each day, type of deal,” said the head coach. After all, Franklin can’t mess with this position, which leads the pack in Tom Fornelli’s running back room rankings.
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