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<p>A decision on Saquon Barkley may be out of James Franklin&#8217;s hands. A decision on his kicker is not.</p><p>Barkley remains hampered by an ankle injury that has kept the rookie running back sidelined for the last 10 quarters. Franklin said team doctors will make the call on whether he can play Saturday at top-ranked Ohio State.</p><p>&#8220;He practiced last week limited, he&#8217;ll practice this week limited,&#8221; the Penn State coach said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. &#8220;We&#8217;ll see what happens.&#8221;</p><p>There are no injuries to deal with in the kicking game for the Nittany Lions, but Franklin wanted to give starter Joey Julius a break mentally after the redshirt freshman missed two extra points last week.</p><p>Backup Tyler Davis came on for an extra point and a 30-yard field goal in the fourth quarter of the win against Indiana. But barring a poor week of practice, Julius will still have the job entering the Horseshoe on Saturday night.</p><p>&#8220;If we were playing today, Joey would be our guy,&#8221; Franklin said.</p><p>Lions coaches will continue to chart every kick by both Julius and Davis during the week, as they did when Julius narrowly won the job at the end of training camp.</p><p>Franklin was terse over the weekend when asked about Julius and the kicking game, offering a one-line response, but was far more supportive on Tuesday.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;ll be a competition like it is every week,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;But we&#8217;re not in the business of, (when) a guy has a rough day or makes a mistake, of changing our plan or our mind.</p><p>&#8220;I mean, Joey is our guy. He&#8217;s done a great job all offseason. He&#8217;s working really, really hard. He&#8217;s grown so much in the last year that he&#8217;s been in the program. Now he&#8217;s going to have to come out and show it every single day at practice this week, and we&#8217;ll make a decision later in the week.&#8221;</p><p>If Penn State is to have any shot of knocking off the defending national champs, missing extra points or short field goals isn&#8217;t an option.</p><p>Of course, for any single kick to matter, the Lions will likely need a healthy Barkley to break off some big plays and force the Buckeyes to respect the run.</p><p>Though Franklin said Barkley has been lobbying to get back on the field since getting rolled up on at the end of a run against San Diego State, it won&#8217;t be up to the player or the coach.</p><p>&#8220;The days of the coach making decisions on who plays or not are long gone,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;They&#8217;ve been gone for a long time. We&#8217;ve got doctors, we&#8217;ve got trainers that make those decisions. Obviously we watch him at practice, we talk to them. We get an idea of where we think they are. But ultimately at the end, the doctors and the trainers will make those calls. That&#8217;s what they&#8217;re paid to do. That&#8217;s what their expertise is in.</p><p>&#8220;I took a (kinesiology) class in college once. Didn&#8217;t fare so well in it. So I&#8217;ll leave those things to them.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Infirmary report</strong></p><p>Aside from Barkley, Penn State played last week without fellow running back Akeel Lynch, punter Chris Gulla and senior center Angelo Mangiro.</p><p>Franklin singled out the play of Wendy Laurent, who filled in for Mangiro against the Hoosiers, saying that the junior &#8220;has improved as much as anybody in our program. &#8230; I&#8217;m really, really proud of him.&#8221;</p><p>He&#8217;s played well enough that Franklin said the staff is at least considering keeping him in the lineup when Mangiro is ready to return.</p><p>&#8220;He does create some flexibility for us,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;He&#8217;s made the argument that he needs to be on the field, so whether it&#8217;s (Mangiro) playing guard or whether it&#8217;s (Mangiro) playing center and Wendy playing guard, I think both of them create some flexibility.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Huff reprimanded</strong></p><p>Penn State running backs coach Charles Huff has placed a large emphasis on ball security, repeatedly using the slogan, &#8220;The ball is the program.&#8221;</p><p>When redshirt freshman running back Mark Allen juggled a handoff and lost the ball for a turnover against Indiana, Huff lost his cool.</p><p>Allen appeared to say something to his position coach as he was returning to the sideline, prompting Huff to grab the player near the collar of his jersey as he was walking by, abruptly jerking him forward.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s not a place for that,&#8221; Franklin said.</p><p>&#8220;That was something that&#8217;s been addressed very clearly with our staff. Individually, me and Charles had a conversation about that, (and we) had a conversation with the overall staff. There&#8217;s obviously a lot of details and specifics that go into it that we don&#8217;t need to get into right now. I know who Charles Huff is as a man, I know who Charles Huff is as a coach, and those things have been addressed.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State running back Saquon Barkley (26) hasn&#8217;t seen the field since the first half against San Diego State and is questionable to face No. 1 Ohio State. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_barkley-wait.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State running back Saquon Barkley (26) hasn&#8217;t seen the field since the first half against San Diego State and is questionable to face No. 1 Ohio State. </caption0><photoCredit0>Gene J. Puskar | AP file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p><p>Penn State at Ohio State</p><p>8 p.m., Saturday, ABC</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Barkley’s status still up in the air for Buckeyes game