Sept. 5, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State Football showed signs of both potential and promise in its 2016 season opening win against Kent State. Even with a wealth of positives, the Nittany Lions are keenly aware of some areas for improvement.
"Overall I think there are some really good things to build off of, but we have a lot of things we need to get cleaned up," Franklin said. "I know people say we have a big game coming up this week so we'll look at this past week and learn from that and move on to the next one."
Before getting into the week ahead, let's take a look at some of the positives from Saturday's fifth consecutive win over the Golden Flashes.
Blake Gillikin's Rookie Debut
Six Nittany Lions earned their first career start against Kent State, with one of those starters being true freshman Blake Gillikin. Gillikin is the third true freshman starting punter for PSU since 1946 and made his debut averaging 47.0 yards on the day, which is fourth among freshmen in Penn State history and tops among true freshmen. His punting average ranks him ninth nationally and first in the Big Ten after week one.
With the top punting job closely contested all throughout camp, Franklin noted after the game that there's still room for Gillikin to improve.
"I went to him right when we start our typical warmups when we do a sky punt and he knocked it about 12 yards out of the endzone," Franklin said. "I said to him that his legs were a little live today and he was excited about the game so just to make sure he understood that."
Under the Radar
Sophomore John Reid made a statement when called upon at punt returner in Saturday's win. Across four attempts against Kent State, Reid highlighted the evening with a 21-yard haul on a punt return in the third quarter for a career-high mark. Franklin praised Reid's strength and ability following the game, mentioning that it was late last week that the staff became confident in their decision to put him at punt returner.
"He always caught the ball but his fundamentals early on weren't great," Franklin said. "As you know John, he is the type of guy once you decide to make him the punt returner, he's going to stay out there after practice on his own with managers and [Jordan] Wombacker, one of our punters, and get in a bunch of work. He's done that and I think he has the chance to be a weapon for us down the road."
Success in the Secondary
While sophomore Amani Oruwariye's interception for a 30-yard touchdown return certainly shined a light on the depth in the secondary, junior Marcus Allen also came through in the clutch. Allen forced the third fumble of his career and recorded the second recovery of his career in the second quarter to swing the momentum in favor of the Nittany Lions, who were tied at 6-6 at the time of Allen's impact play.
"I mentioned to you guys all summer that we felt really good about our back seven with our linebackers and defensive backs," Franklin said. "I thought Marcus Allen played really well, I thought John Reid played really well and obviously Amani [Oruwariye] made a big play for us."
Saquon being Saquon
Penn State rushed for 145 yards in Saturday's win, with 105 of those yards coming from sophomore Saquon Barkley. Notching his sixth career 100-yard rushing game and eighth career rushing touchdown, one might think the tale of the box score has Barkley pretty pleased.
"I felt like it was half of what we are capable of doing," Barkley said, reflecting on the overall offensive performance. "We were still capable of having 33 points on the board, but we left about 21 out there."
Pittsburgh Connections
Looking toward next week, the Nittany Lions will renew a long standing series with the Panthers on the road in the Keystone Classic presented by People's Natural Gas. Having met regularly from 1900-31 and 1935-92, Penn State and Pittsburgh will square off for the first time since 2000 - in the 97th outing between the two teams.
As the Nittany Lions prepare to renew the series, there's no shortage of hometown connections. For starters, Penn State has eight Nittany Lions from the Pittsburgh area on its roster.
On the staff side of things, offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, who is also from the area, served as a graduate assistant for the Panthers from 1998-99. Offensive line coach Matt Limegrover is also from Pittsburgh and assistant head coach and cornerback's head coach Terry M. Smith is from nearby Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.
Nittany Lion junior cornerback Grant Haley's parents also met attending Pittsburgh's School of Medicine. Haley's mother, Carla Neal-Haley, attended Penn State and was a member of the track and field team.