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James Franklin was asked to evaluate where Penn State stands at the midway point of his third season as head coach. His answer could apply to just the 2016 season as well.&#8220;If you take everything into consideration,&#8221; Franklin said Wednesday, &#8220;really take everything into consideration &#8212; you take what happened here, you take recruiting, you take transfers, coaching changes &#8212; I think we&#8217;re pretty good.&#8220;As coaches and fans, you probably always want more, you&#8217;d always like better. &#8230; But if you took the emotion out of it and you weren&#8217;t a Penn State fan and you listed all the (obstacles), I think probably a lot of people would&#8217;ve take where we&#8217;re at at this point.&#8221;That point is a 4-2 record, which saw the Nittany Lions go 3-0 as favorites and 1-2 as underdogs. They closed out the first half with their best performance of the season, a 38-14 rout of previously unbeaten Maryland.Here&#8217;s a look at how the position groups have fared.QUARTERBACK: BPenn State&#8217;s offense has grown along with Trace McSorley and the sophomore signal-caller is looking noticeably more comfortable. His emergence as a credible run threat can open things up for the rest of the offense.Some early issues, namely ball security and leaving himself vulnerable to big hits when on the move, have improved.RUNNING BACK: ADespite every opponent basing their defense around stopping him, Saquon Barkley leads the Big Ten in rushing yards (fourth in yards per game) and touchdowns.Even when he has been swarmed right at the handoff, like the second half against Minnesota, he found a way to respond with a game-winning score. His role as a receiver also figures to grow.RECEIVER: BThe Lions have been forced to throw deep more than usual and, for the most part, the guys catching the ball have come through, leading the Big Ten in catches of 20 yards or more.The coaches would still like to see more consistent separation against man coverage, but overall Penn State has been able to depend on multiple players with DeAndre Thompkins and Mike Gesicki making big gains from a year ago.OFFENSIVE LINE: CAndrew Nelson&#8217;s injury comes just as the unit was showing some real chemistry, something that&#8217;s been in short supply the last few years because of constant re-shuffling.On an individual level, there are still more missed assignments and shaky execution than the coaches would like, which was to be expected given that Nelson was the only player who was at the same position as last year.DEFENSIVE LINE: CTwo poor performances against Pitt and Michigan lingered into October as the phrase &#8220;gap responsibility&#8221; became drilled into the heads of those following the team.Things began to improve at the end of the Minnesota game and carried over into a strong showing against an above average Maryland offensive line and rushing attack.LINEBACKER: DObviously there&#8217;s a rather large asterisk here because of the unprecedented chain of injuries that has struck the unit. But it was a disappointing start to the season even before all three starters went down.Missed tackles have been a problem for much of the year and with so little experience available, the Lions have had to stay more vanilla than they would like.DEFENSIVE BACK: BThe secondary hasn&#8217;t been tested much at all because the toughest opponents didn&#8217;t need to throw the ball to win and the best quarterback the group has faced is the bland Mitch Leidner.But safeties Marcus Allen and Malik Golden have both stepped up with injuries elsewhere to the point that Allen leads the Big Ten in tackles. John Reid has been strong and backups have made big plays at corner.SPECIAL TEAMS: BThe Lions are still waiting for that one big play &#8212; a touchdown, a block, a game-changing return &#8212; but the progress has been noticeable.Tyler Davis has done everything asked of him at kicker, Blake Gillikin is a big upgrade at punter, the return men have some skill and teams have now had to account for Joey Julius in their own return schemes.COACHING: BDefensive coordinator Brent Pry deserves credit for piecing together two wins despite having to string together a linebacker corps from walk-ons, true freshmen and converted safeties.Consider that in overtime against Minnesota &#8212; a pivotal moment in the season &#8212; Pry was forced to use Manny Bowen at middle linebacker, a spot he had never taken a snap at before. The Lions stuffed a run, forced an incompletion and came up with a sack on that series, forcing a long field goal try that was countered by a winning touchdown for Penn State.The offense under Joe Moorhead is still rounding into form but is already a sizable upgrade over what the Lions were working with the previous two years.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State coach James Franklin and his staff had to frequently adapt on the fly in the first half of the season. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/web1_AP897179408657-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State coach James Franklin and his staff had to frequently adapt on the fly in the first half of the season. </caption0><photoCredit0>Joe Hermitt | AP photo, PennLive.com </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Derek Levarsedlevarse@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</shirttailMeta></div>

Midterm grades are in for Nittany Lions