UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s football program started off the week in the national spotlight for reasons beyond its latest win.
The 14th-ranked Nittany Lions (3-0) went on the road and defeated Auburn, 41-12, last Saturday, but ESPN recently put out a series of teaser videos from Penn State’s walk-on tryouts that have gone viral on social media.
Franklin went into greater detail about these videos during his Tuesday afternoon press conference, as well as the start to freshman running back Kaytron Allen’s college career and how on-campus housing can impact recruiting.
Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the most salient talking points from Franklin’s latest media availability:
Hardly a walk-on
During Penn State’s first week of classes this semester, the Nittany Lions held walk-on tryouts, or run-on tryouts as Franklin refers to them. In addition to there being hopeful non-scholarship players looking to make the team, former New York Giants quarterback and two-time Super Bowl-winner Eli Manning was on the scene.
But instead of simply watching, Manning— with some cosmetic help — went undercover using the alias “Chad Powers” and tried out for the team. Manning’s appearance was for his ESPN+ show “Eli’s Places”.
“I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to disturb our process of what we needed to do and not become a distraction,” Franklin said of Manning’s participation. “Once I was comfortable with the fact that we were going to be able to do that and it would not impact our normal routine or become a distraction, then we were all about it.”
Franklin said he and the program have a “pretty good relationship” with the Manning family, as evidenced by sixth-year quarterback Sean Clifford’s participation in the Manning Passing Academy throughout college.
Though Franklin believes his job as head coach is to educate young people and put Penn State in the best position to win football games, he also understands the value of behind-the-scenes opportunities such as having Manning come to State College.
“This is a game,” Franklin said. “It should be fun for the players, for the coaches, for our fans, for our alumni and for the community.”
Fatman no more
Allen, who is known by coaches and teammates by the nickname “Fatman,” hardly looks the part these days. The 5-foot-11 running back checks in at 201 pounds these days, according to Penn State Athletics’ website.
But on national signing day, Allen was listed at 225 pounds.
“He’s less and less of his nickname,” Franklin said. “He’s probably changed his body as much as anybody in our program.”
The modifications to his physique have gone a long way for Allen. In a crowded backfield that also includes a two-year starter in junior Keyvone Lee and five-star freshman Nicholas Singleton, Allen turned in his best performance to date last weekend.
Against the Tigers, Allen averaged over 5 yards per carry and racked up two touchdowns to complement his 52 rushing yards. Franklin expects Allen to put the “right weight” on in the future; but for the time being, the head coach will gladly take the player his young tailback has transformed into.
“He just physically looks different,” Franklin said. “I think with that, he is quicker, he’s faster, he’s more explosive. I think he’s really playing really confident, really good football right now.”
Dorm, sweet dorm
In light of freshman linebacker Abdul Carter’s stellar start to his collegiate career, Franklin was asked about another promising young player in freshman defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton. Franklin discussed how Dennis-Sutton’s experience as a boarding student at McDonogh School in Maryland has helped make his transition to college life a bit more seamless.
But Dennis-Sutton’s single housing setup in high school nearly served as a reason for him to take his talents elsewhere.
“He had his own dorm room at McDonogh, and that was a big part of the recruiting process,” Franklin said. “A lot of schools that we recruited against either have athletic dorms or football-specific dorms.”
According to Article 16, Section 5 of the NCAA’s Division I Manual, during the academic year, an institution “may not house student-athletes in athletics dormitories or athletics blocks within institutional privately owned dormitories or apartment buildings (when the institution arranges for the housing) on those days when institutional dormitories are open to the general student body.”
Franklin discussed Auburn having recently built South Donahue Residence Hall, which according to the university’s athletics website contains more non-athletes than athletes, yet houses “almost the entire football team.” Penn State, meanwhile, houses its football players for at least their first year on campus in general dormitories.
In the world of recruiting that now has the component of name, image and likeness to take into consideration, it seems that housing arrangements can be an important factor, as well.
“We lost a kid a few years ago because we didn’t have singles for the football team like other schools do,” Franklin said. “That kid got drafted and now is playing in the NFL, and we almost lost Dani over it.”
