Penn State Blue-White plans, personnel notes, what’s next: Notebook

Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media on Tuesday night for a final time ahead of the program’s Blue-White Game this weekend. His session with reporters was not his final insight into the program of the week, however.

Returning for a special one-off of his coach’s radio show this week, Franklin offered a few additional notes worthy of attention as the program’s spring practices come to a close. 

Let’s dive right in on the news and notes worth keeping an eye on:

Penn State personnel notes

Cooper Cousins

Tuesday evening, we noted the appearance for the first time of Cooper Cousins at right guard during one of the Nittany Lions’ practice session windows that were open to reporters. After spending the majority of the spring at center, which appeared to be Penn State’s stated plan for the early enrollee, the move signaled two things.

1) He’s good at center.

2) It wasn’t a one-off.

The cross-training Penn State pursues for all of its interior offensive linemen would have arrived for Cousins at some point, sooner or later. But, with Cousins demonstrating his preparedness for this level, the opportunity opened to expand his possibilities for preseason camp in the summer.

“As a true freshman, he came in and was playing well for a couple of weeks at center. We wanted to get him some experience at guard as well,” said Franklin. “He came in kind of unusual as a freshman. He’s like 6-foot-6, 325 pounds, he’s down to about 315 now, looks great. But, we gave him some experience. And now coming into camp, we feel like he’s a guy that can play both center and guard for us and compete at those spots.”

Smith Vilbert

One guy who has been buzzing since the turn of the calendar into 2024 has been defensive end Smith Vilbert. Given how crowded that position is, however, even after the losses of Adisa Isaac and Chop Robinson this offseason, his potential to push any of the likes of Dani Dennis-Sutton, Abdul Carter, Zuriah Fisher, Amin Vanover, or Jameial Lyons would have seemed unlikely.

Franklin offered a new tidbit to help clarify Vilbert’s potential role this season, though. 

“A guy that not a lot of people are talking about right now is Smith Vilbert,” said Franklin. “Smith is a guy that we think has the size and athleticism to play D-end and D-tackle this year and be a swing guy for us and we’re excited about him.”

Audavion Collins

In the same vein of spring surprises, transfer cornerback Audavion Collins certainly qualifies. Something of an afterthought last season, his potential for an impact appeared blunted further by the addition of AJ Harris and Jalen Kimber this offseason in an already competitive room.

But, having taken strides through his year of development behind the scenes, Collins was described by Franklin in terms that haven’t otherwise been used thus far.

“Audavion Collins is a young man that I would describe like that. From this time last year to now, it’s like dramatically different,” said Franklin. “He’s playing with so much confidence. He’s gotten bigger.

“When he transferred in here from Mississippi State, I think he was 158 or 162 pounds, which is weird for a college player. But he’s up to 180 now. He’s playing with really good confidence. He’s showing up on special teams and showing up on defense. And he’s part of that battle for that corner job.”

Zakee Wheatley

Penn State provided something of a spring highlight reel on Friday morning in advance of this weekend’s Blue-White Game. And, among the repeated, clear winners of those highlights, safety Zakee Wheatley showed why he’s been drawing so much buzz this offseason. 

Franklin echoed the sentiment with his radio show comments on the rising fourth-year performer.

“I think Zakee Wheatley is another guy that’s really coming on right now and preparing like a starter,” he said. “And I’m really proud of it.”

Scrimmage notes

On to the scrimmage.

This is going to come as a bit of a shock to some, but Franklin set some expectations for fans in terms of what they’re going to see on Saturday afternoon. And, given the reality of the performance in front of fans at Beaver Stadium, and a Big Ten Network audience, Franklin isn’t keen on putting his program’s plans on full view for future opponents.

“We will probably be a little bit vanilla in the game, for multiple reasons,” he said. “Number one, we got West Virginia and other games that will be watching our spring game to try to see, are we going to be like Kansas? Are we going to be like Vanderbilt? Are we going to be like Indiana? The places where our three coordinators came came from. We don’t want to show them too much from that standpoint. 

“But, the other thing is, there’s an opportunity to evaluate your players when you’re not doing too much scheme-wise and just watch them play fast and aggressively and how they can make plays.”

As we’ve previewed multiple times in this space, Penn State is likely going to have some projected starters held out of action, too.

What’s next for Penn State football

Really, from the start of spring practice, Franklin has been talking about its ramifications in terms of preseason camp later in the summer. With the introduction of three new coordinators, he inferred this week that the grind of the installation has been so much of an information download that cohesion hasn’t come until more recently.

“I think we’re starting to get that now. The first 10 practices are literally trying to drink from a fire hose, just the amount of work that needed to get done in a short period of time,” he said. “But, I think the cohesion is starting to build.”

Continuing, Franklin proceeded to praise all three phases of the game as they set themselves up for development through the summer months. 

“I think the defensive players and coaches have been very complimentary of what we’re doing on offense. I think it’s going to cause some challenges for people,” said Franklin. “Defensively, I think Tom’s been able to say okay, these are the things that we’ve done well and we’re going to continue to do those things well. And then here are a few areas that we think there’s still some room for growth, to go from either number one or number three ranked defense in college football to becoming the consensus number one. So that’s really what we’re trying to do. And Coach Lustig has done a phenomenal job on special teams, too.”

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