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The LCCC paramedic class held a community service project

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Student of the month announced

<p>James Franklin had been expecting far more at this point. Hoping for more from his offense.</p><p>The Penn State coach has seen freshman tailback Saquon Barkley explode onto the national scene, yes. But it hasn&#8217;t always opened things up for the passing game as one might expect.</p><p>&#8220;Obviously, we&#8217;re behind where we want to be, where (the players) want to be &#8212; everything,&#8221; Franklin said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. &#8220;There&#8217;s no doubt about it. &#8230; Some of those things aren&#8217;t quick fixes. We&#8217;re improving. We&#8217;re improving in those areas.</p><p>&#8220;But, yeah, would you love to be further along and have a much different identity at this point? There&#8217;s no doubt.&#8221;</p><p>Now past the midpoint of the regular season, the Nittany Lions are hoping to figure things out in a hurry as they head into a key stretch, starting with Saturday&#8217;s game against Maryland in Baltimore.</p><p>Franklin made a name for himself as an offensive coordinator in two stints with the Terrapins, at one point being named the program&#8217;s head coach in waiting before a new athletic director nixed the arrangement.</p><p>Though he hasn&#8217;t been back to calling plays for the Lions this season, Franklin went into a bit of detail about his increased role in the offense this season.</p><p>After losing to Temple back in Week 1, Franklin vowed to become more involved on that side of the ball but hadn&#8217;t previously explained to what extent.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very involved with the offense,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Since the Temple game, did I get more involved on game day? Yes. Have I done that? Yes. &#8230; I have been more involved on game days of saying, &#8216;Run now. Pass now. Move the pocket.&#8217; These are some things we need to do. In the past, I&#8217;ve made some suggestions, and I&#8217;ve made some more stronger suggestions here recently.&#8221;</p><p><strong>No surrender?</strong></p><p>Franklin has raised some eyebrows in the fourth quarter of both of the Lions losses this season by keeping most of his starters in the game even after the outcome was certain.</p><p>Against Temple, quarterback Christian Hackenberg was still playing in the final minute despite a 17-point deficit and was sacked twice on the last drive.</p><p>Both Hackenberg and Barkley were playing late against Ohio State down three touchdowns. Hackenberg, who had been moving awkwardly after a first-half hit, was sacked for a fumble in the fourth that set up a touchdown that made it a four-score game &#8212; but Hackenberg came back out for the final series.</p><p>&#8220;I think you guys are going to see that over time, that our staff and our players and me specifically are really, really competitive,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;And I think it&#8217;s hard to put your backups in the game before the game is over. It&#8217;s almost like waving a white flag, and that&#8217;s not kind of who I am or who we will be. We&#8217;re going to fight to the last play of the game.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a fine line, there&#8217;s no doubt about it. I&#8217;m just telling you that (with) my approach and my demeanor, it&#8217;s going to be hard for me until the final whistle blows to not be doing everything in our power to fight to win the game.&#8221;<section class="body article"></p><p><strong>Guarded decision</strong></p><p>Penn State opted to go with Wendy Laurent and Derek Dowrey at guard for much of the second half against the Buckeyes, replacing Brendan Mahon and Brian Gaia, respectively.</p><p>Franklin wasn&#8217;t happy about the job the interior was doing against Ohio State&#8217;s tackles, particularly future NFLer Adolphus Washington. But it didn&#8217;t sound like Mahon and Gaia had lost their jobs permanently.</p><p>&#8220;When you watched the game or you watched the film, that&#8217;s where they probably had a big advantage,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;That was a matchup that we did not win on Saturday.</p><p>&#8220;I think the real issue was their D-tackles matched up against our guards. We&#8217;re going to continue to look at those things, finding ways to give ourselves a chance to be successful on the offensive line going against talented teams like that. But that&#8217;s still something that we need to get solidified.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Not taking the bait</strong></p><p>New Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi has brought some bravado to the Panthers, who cracked the top 25 this week after a last-minute win at Georgia Tech pushed them to 5-1.</p><p>On Monday, Narduzzi took a not-so-subtle swipe at Franklin and Lions offensive coordinator John Donovan when talking about passing games.</p><p>&#8220;You could have a talented quarterback with a bad play-caller and make him look bad,&#8221; Narduzzi said at his weekly press conference before adding, &#8220;You see that around the country &#8212; some closer than others.&#8221;</p><p>A day later, Franklin didn&#8217;t bite.</p><p>&#8220;First of all, I don&#8217;t want to read into anything,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;There&#8217;s been comments and things that I&#8217;ve said in the past that people have read into. So I&#8217;m not going to read into anything.</p><p>&#8220;Happy for (Pitt) and the success that they&#8217;ve had, but my focus is on Penn State. Completely, 100 percent. But, yeah, I think it&#8217;s great. There&#8217;s a lot of good football being played in this state with Temple and Pitt and Villanova and Penn and East Stroudsburg (his alma mater). A lot of good football being played, and I&#8217;m happy for all of them. But I&#8217;m not going to read into anything else.&#8221;</p><p>The Lions and Panthers don&#8217;t officially resume their rivalry until next September with the first of a four-game series. But the respective coaching staffs have been butting heads during some very contentious battles on the recruiting trail, particularly in the Pittsburgh area.</p><p>Last winter the schools&#8217; offensive line coaches &#8212; Penn State&#8217;s Herb Hand and Pitt&#8217;s John Peterson &#8212; did some sniping at each other on Twitter about recruiting.</p><p>Franklin was not a fan.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t like the back-and-forth,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Me and Herb Hand had a conversation a few months ago to stop that. I think there&#8217;s been other times in other things that have happened that people have read into things that were not there, looking to try to get hits on websites or try to create some drama that was never really there</p><p>&#8220;But, yeah, I&#8217;ve said this before. I&#8217;ve got tremendous respect for all the universities in this state. Is this a competitive business? No doubt about it. But I&#8217;m focused on Penn State.&#8221;</section></p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State coach James Franklin said he has recently been more vocal on Saturdays about the direction of the Nittany Lions&#8217; offense. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_osu-franklin1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State coach James Franklin said he has recently been more vocal on Saturdays about the direction of the Nittany Lions&#8217; offense. </caption0><photoCredit0>Paul Vernon | AP 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 vs. Maryland</p><p>3:30 p.m., Saturday, ESPN</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Franklin aiming to boost Lions’ laboring offense