James Franklin on where Penn State stands with NIL, the wide receiver room, and more

Penn State has been working to improve its standing in the realm of name, image and likeness compensation for its athletes, but according to head football coach James Franklin, there’s still plenty of work to be done.

Franklin spoke to the media Tuesday for the last time before his team takes the Beaver Stadium field for Saturday’s Blue-White game, and said the program has been working to right the ship.

“I think over the last year we’ve made significant progress,” Franklin said. “... What I’ve been doing is, instead of talking to you guys about it, we’ve been working to solve it.”

That has come into focus after former men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry left for Notre Dame, in part because of the NIL situation at Penn State.

Franklin said the reasoning for his departure was no secret and pointed to it as proof that the Nittany Lions have work to do in that regard.

“We’ve made significant ground up in the last year, but again we’ve got to keep the pedal to the floor,” he said. “I think we obviously just saw some decisions that weren’t completely made (because of NIL) in the basketball program, but that was a big part of it. We know that.”

Part of the issue was the initial implementation of how NIL would be utilized at Penn State. The initial legalization of NIL compensation came in the summer of 2021 in Pennsylvania.

That is when programs were first tasked with figuring out how it would be utilized.

Then-athletic director Sandy Barbour helped begin the athletic department’s initial program, which set out to teach athletes how to be entrepreneurs and find ways to profit off the new legislation.

Franklin said the initial plan set the program back.

“We’ve still got a ton of work to do,” he said. “We started out the first couple years where we said we were going to teach student-athletes how to be entrepreneurs. That was our NIL model. So we were two years behind everybody else. ... If you give somebody a two-year start in basically a three-year model, I think it’s pretty obvious.”

Evaluating the spring

Franklin said the team had a good practice Tuesday evening and the team was largely where he expected it to be as spring practice winds to a close with the Blue-White game Saturday.

One of the primary positions of concern for the program is wide receiver, where two players have clearly taken a step forward. Franklin has continued to point to wide receivers KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Harrison Wallace III as players who are impressing this spring.

But when asked who was competing behind them, the reviews were less glowing.

“The rest of the wideouts,” he said.

Who had stood out?

“KeAndre and (Wallace),” he said.

There will be help on the way with Kent State WR Dante Cephas, who committed in January and is expected to join the program sometime this summer.

His arrival could be crucial in determining the third receiver on the depth chart. If he comes in and performs at the same level he did with the Golden Flashes — where he tallied nearly 2,000 receiving yards over the last two years — there shouldn’t be an issue.

But if he doesn’t, questions could begin to arise.

In an ideal world for the Nittany Lions, they would have three receivers set to start before his arrival just in case things don’t work out. Instead, the opposite seems to be true.

“I still think there’s still a question mark at wideout,” Franklin said. “Who’s gonna be the third wideout? That’s still a pretty open competition with a number of guys still competing for the job and then some talent still coming in.”

Recruiting the portal

One of the key changes the program will have to handle is the new transfer portal window. Transfers must enter the portal from May 1-15, allowing the Nittany Lions to evaluate their own roster before it opens and players are allowed to leave their own teams after spring ball.

Cornerbacks coach Terry Smith, who is also the team’s defensive recruiting coordinator, said the timing of spring ball will allow the team to have a fuller picture of what it needs heading into this next portal window.

“It helps us to control the recruiting process,” Smith said about the new window. “... Spring ball in itself will help us figure(the team’s needs) out. From whatever the needs we see, then we’ll go try to grab a guy or two. We’ve done a good job the last couple years of bringing guys that have had immediate impacts on us. That’s the goal. It’s to try to bring some guys that fit a couple pieces and add some value to the team.”

Quick hitters

• Smith said Johnny Dixon and Kalen King have separated themselves this spring with the way they’ve played at the position.

• The cornerbacks coach said the loss of Joey Porter Jr. to the 2023 NFL Draft, where he will almost certainly go in the first round, is mitigated by their talent level and the rest of the room stepping up.

Scenes from practice