James Franklin: Penn State football feels sense of urgency this spring

Spring has officially sprung — for Penn State football, that is. The Nittany Lions officially kicked off spring practice for the 2024 season this week. These 15 workout periods are always important, but the intensity has been turned up a notch or two around the Lasch Building this year. This week, James Franklin explained what has led to the increased sense of urgency, and what he hopes the Nittany Lions can accomplish by the end of spring ball.

Penn State football has a new sense of ‘urgency’ going into spring

This winter was one of the busiest around the Penn State football program in quite some time. For the first time since James Franklin arrived in Happy Valley, the Nittany Lions will go into 2024 with a clean sweep of new coordinators.

While there’s newfound optimism about what Andy Kotelnicki, Tom Allen, and Justin Lustig can bring to the table, Franklin noted this week that there’s also an enhanced sense of importance around this spring practice period.

“I think there does seem to be a sense of urgency,” Franklin said about the start of this season’s spring practice compared to years past. “But the reality is, we’ve got three new coordinators, so for me to compare this first day [of spring ball] to the last couple of first days, that probably doesn’t make sense. But there does need to be a sense of urgency between now and the end of training camp. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.

“I think it’s obviously really important. It’s always important, but I think when you add different pieces of the puzzle, it magnifies it…Really the issues are the same as they always are, but it’s just magnified. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. We need to feel like coming out of spring ball that our players have a bunch of confidence and understanding of how we want to play in really all three phases.”

James Franklin was complimentary of the progress that has been made in this offseason of transition so far. But at the same time, he recognizes that kickoff in Morgantown will be here before we know it.

“Been a lot of work going in,” he said. “Very appreciative of the entire staff, how it’s been handled. The players as well, but we’ll have a pretty good idea after today, kind of how we’ve done with this process up to this point, but very, very important that we lay the foundation this spring so we can build on it all summer and be ready to go on the road in a hostile environment that we know West Virginia will be.”

What is James Franklin looking to accomplish coming out of spring practice?

With a limited amount of field work over the next month, time is of the essence for the Nittany Lions. Still, James Franklin says there are tangible items that Penn State football needs to accomplish by the time the Blue-White Game rolls around on April 13.

“I think the most important thing is, we have to get through the 15 practices, and the coaches and the players feel like we have a really good understanding of how we want to play, who we want to play in terms of our depth,” he expressed. “And then on top of that, [we need to know] what are our strengths and what are our weaknesses, and be able to play to those strengths and be able to work on those weaknesses between now and the start of training camp.”