ALTOONA, Pa. -- College coaches are not allowed to discuss specific recruits, and James Franklin went about as far as you'll hear a coach go Wednesday night when talking about prized quarterback commit Drew Allar.
Earlier in the day, Allar was given a fifth recruiting star by 247Sports and moved up to the No. 1 ranking in the country for quarterbacks in the class of 2022. He's also now the No. 12 prospect in the country.
Penn State got involved with Allar early on in his recruitment, when he was not seen as a superstar prospect. But now he has turned himself into a superstar prospect, and the Nittany Lions are reaping the benefits of his rise up the recruiting rankings.
After practice Wednesday, Franklin was asked about finding a hidden gem kind of player in recruiting and then seeing that player turn into a star recruit. The question obviously was about Allar, although his name was never mentioned.
Franklin actually gave a much more detailed response and toed the line of talking about Allar without ever mentioning his name. He also talked about the luck factor involved in all of it, even referencing how the New England Patriots got lucky with Tom Brady.
"I think it's a combination of things, right," Franklin said. "It's obviously really good evaluation process and being thorough. But for me to say that's the the entirety of it would not be correct. I think it's his development. I think he's done a tremendous job from the development. I think his quarterback coach has done a really good job, as well.
"Obviously, going to his high school the other day, I think he's playing in an offense that also allows him to maximize his ability and show his talents. I think it's a combination of all those things.
"And let's be honest. There's a skill to this, there's a talent to this, and then there's also some luck that goes along with it. I think Coach (Bill) Belichick, and I think the Patriots -- you could make the argument, maybe one of the most impressive organizations in all of sports over the last 15 years -- there was also some luck involved. They got Tom Brady in the sixth round. And for anybody to say that that was the plan, that they knew it was gonna work out, would not be accurate. That was something that worked out really well.
"We were able to get on this young man -- obviously we can't get into the specifics -- and he's just flourishing, quarterbacks are flourishing. It's weird because I can't talk, I can't say who I'm talking about. So strange. That's strange."
Clifford update
Sean Clifford did take part in practice Wednesday evening. Franklin said it was not the first time Clifford has thrown this week.
Franklin said he's not sure if Clifford will be able to play against Illinois.
"I don't know at this stage," the coach said. "But we'll see where he's at by Saturday. Hopefully obviously we'll have an idea before that. But it was good to see him be able to get some reps today at practice, and all three of them were able to."
Clearly, the offensive approach will change if Clifford can play, as opposed to Ta'Quan Roberson or Christian Veilleux playing.
"It changes," Franklin noted. "I think with Sean there's a lot of things we can do. I wouldn't necessarily say that our offense will change stylistically. But you want to say, OK, Ta'Quan, what do you feel really good about? What are the 15 normal downs plays, what are the five third-down plays, what are the five red-zone plays that you feel best about? And rep those as much as you possibly can. The same thing with Christian Veilleux. But we'll see how that goes."