Franklin really likes Hagans, avoids Stubblefield question

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State held a winter press conference Tuesday, with James Franklin recapping the recruiting cycle and addressing other topics heading into the spring.

New wide receivers coach Marques Hagans also was available to the media for the first time, and Penn State brought in more than two dozen members of the 2022 freshman class to discuss their first season with the program.

Here are my 10 takeaways from the news of the day.

1. Franklin lauds Hagans, but remains mum on Stubblefield

Franklin doesn't get into explaining personnel decisions, really at all. So, it was probably too much to expect him to offer insight into why he made the switch in firing wide receivers coach Taylor Stubblefield and replacing him with Marques Hagans from Virginia.

Franklin was asked about the move Tuesday, and didn't budge on addressing anything regarding Stubblefield.

"As you guys know, I try to share as much as I possibly can with you guys that I think is appropriate. I don't necessarily think that is appropriate in this setting," the coach said.

At this point, we may never find out what happened with Stubblefield, and whether he was fired for recruiting reasons, on-field development reasons or something else.

Franklin then quickly pivoted to talking about Hagans and what he likes about him. On that subject, he had a lot to say.

"I will tell you that our excitement for Marques Hagans is really high," Franklin said. "If you look at his resumé, he's got a really good resumé. When you talk to whether it's NFL head coaches, if you talk to college head coaches, if you talk to search firms and things like that, you know, a guy that played quarterback and played quarterback at a high level for really good coaches in a complicated West Coast system, played wide receiver in college and quarterback in college, played five years at wide receiver in the NFL.

"Then 11 years at his alma mater and beloved there. I mean, everybody you talk to, just loves Marques. And to be honest with you, very similar in how Coach (Anthony) Poindexter; how people feel about Coach Poindexter. And then having Coach Poindexter on my staff, and I think you guys know how I feel about him and his family, and for them and for him specifically to vouch for Marques and the family, you know, that carried a lot of weight.

"And then you go through the interview process. You go through the interview process. We talked to a good number of guys, and it just became obvious that this was the guy that we needed to bring into our room and kind of within our family, and so far, so good. It's been really good having him around. You know, I think it's going to be exciting getting his family to move here as well."

2. Main focus right now is on leadership

Penn State is losing a lot of veteran leaders, including Sean Clifford on offense and Ji'Ayir Brown on defense. Those guys were terrific leaders for the program.

This time of year, along with spring ball, means establishing new leaders. That may sound like an old sports cliche, because it gets talked about so much, but finding capable leaders isn't always so easy.

"Probably the biggest (focus of the offseason) is leadership and really identifying leadership as a staff and players as well, being transparent and open about that and then really working hard at trying to resolve that," Franklin said.

"I thought our leadership last year was as good as we've had in my 12 years as a head coach. I thought those guys just did a phenomenal job. ... We had really established guys, not only from a makeup perspective but also from a leadership perspective in our program. And I wouldn't say that we have that right now from a leadership standpoint. We have to identify who those guys are. They need to have strong voices. We need to be aligned with the players and the players aligned, from a leadership standpoint, with the coaching staff."

3. Will the Lions add a veteran QB from the transfer portal?

Penn State is REALLY young at quarterback right now. Drew Allar played a good bit as a true freshman, but he's still never played a meaningful snap in a close game outside of one series at Purdue in the opener.

Behind Allar is Beau Pribula, who didn't get on the field as a true freshman. The third scholarship is true freshman Jaxon Smolik, who just arrived on campus last month.

Yeah, there's a ton of potential with Allar. But if something happens to him, the Lions are extremely green at the most important position in sports.

So, Franklin was asked if he will consider trying to find a veteran QB from the transfer portal who could come in and be a backup. The coach didn't rule it out, but did address the problem with trying to find such a player.

"In a perfect world, you'd love to have a little bit more experience and a little bit more age in that room," Franklin said. "But at the end of the day, it's about talent, and I think we are talented in that room.

"I think the challenge of the transfer portal, I think you can do it and I think there's some options that we can look at and are still open to. But I wouldn't say based on how that room looks that maybe it is attractive to a lot of the quarterbacks out there that we would want to bring in. So, we'll see how that thing plays out, but you never know. We would be open obviously at every single position to try to bring some guys in."

Franklin did acknowledge that, even though both are young, Allar and Pribula must step up and be leaders.

"We are going to need both of those guys not only competing, but taking on a significant leadership role," the coach said. "Again, no one cares that they are young. They are in that position and a big part of that position is leadership."

4. Strong close to recruiting class

Penn State signed offensive lineman Chimdy Onoh on signing day last week to wrap up its 2023 recruiting class.

"Chimdy was a really good get for us late," Franklin said. "A guy that we think has tremendous upside, has position flexibility, whether it's tackle or guard. Really enjoyed getting to know him and his family. ... Thought it was a really good get for us to really end the class."

5. Winter workouts begin

The Lions held their first winter workout session Tuesday. Franklin said there will be eight more winter workouts before spring ball.

Here's some video of the workout to get you pumped up

6. New positions

Cristian Driver spent last season at defensive back, but he is now a full-time wide receiver. Franklin mentioned that would happen back in November, and Driver confirmed Tuesday that he had switched positions.

Driver is the son of former NFL wide receiver Donald Driver.

Also, Tyrece Mills, who played linebacker last season, has moved to safety.

7. Every Super Bowl ... except

There was a funny moment Tuesday when Franklin showed his sense of humor. He was asked about what having Miles Sanders in the Super Bowl does for the program, and the coach offered up this line:

"Yeah, I'm not going to bring up the statistic you guys love about the Super Bowl."

He was, of course, referring to this classically awful Penn State graphic:

8. Allen and the media

Running back Kaytron Allen is not comfortable at all doing interviews. I'm not gonna get into too much more on it than that. But after interviewing him twice (Rose Bowl and Tuesday), I can say he probably seems less comfortable doing those than any Penn State player I've ever covered.

We'll see if he improves in that over time and feels more comfortable sharing details. I hope so, because Allen is extremely talented, and he's going to be a huge factor the next couple of years.

9. How fast was Allar's fastball?

Allar talked about playing different sports growing up and how they helped him become a better quarterback. He played baseball and said he mostly played third, short and first.

I asked if he ever pitched and how hard he threw.

He said 86 mph, but that he hadn't pitched since he was a freshman in high school. So ... he was throwing 86 mph as a high school freshman????

"Yeah," Allar said.

Goodness.

10. Looking ahead

It was fantastic for Penn State to roll out so many players to the media like it did Tuesday.

We'll have much, much more from the interviews in the coming days, including stories on Hagans, Allar, Pribula, Abdul Carter, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Drew Shelton, Storm Duck, Malik McClain and others.