Lions' freshmen earning their stripes

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Quarterback Sean Clifford was the first of Penn State's summer arrivals to earn his stripe on his helmet, a new initiative James Franklin ran by Penn State's leadership council and started this season to try and keep the freshmen involved and motivated.

Clifford, the No. 3 quarterback who Franklin said has been at Joe Moorhead's hip since his arrival in late June, has since been joined by freshman offensive lineman Des Holmes, safety Jonathan Sutherland, defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos, Tariq Castro-Fields and Penn State's four January enrollees.

"The veterans at each position determine when a guy has earned the stripe,” Franklin said following Wednesday night's practice. "We talk about giving these guys kind of feedback of when they’re kind of starting to figure it out based on our standards and expectations, but to give them something tangible to say, ‘Look, you’re really doing a good job for us.’ Something I really kind of wanted to do year one but I didn’t really know how to implement it because do you take the stripes off the veterans? We didn't want to do that."