Training camp update: James Franklin shares his major critique of Penn State so far

In just over two weeks, the most anticipated Penn State football season in recent memory is set to begin. The Nittany Lions received another boost to their expectations this week, coming in at No. 2 in the first AP Poll of 2025.

But inside the Lasch Building, the Blue and White are fully devoted to preparing for the three-month grind that begins on August 30 against Nevada. From installing a new defense to welcoming key transfer portal additions at wide receiver and linebacker, there’s been plenty to do this offseason.

James Franklin is pleased with the progress his team has made over the first two weeks of training camp, but there’s still work to be done. The priority now becomes fine-tuning the offensive and defensive playbooks, which have largely been installed.

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“There’s not a whole lot more we’ll be putting in, so we can refine things,” Franklin said this week. “We got to play cleaner. I like what we’re doing, but there’s just too many missed assignments and things like that.

“Bad football will get you beat long before good football will win you games. And we’ve done a good job of that, but we got to get those things cleaned up right now and start refining.”

Penn State enters the year as the Big Ten frontrunner and a favorite to win the national championship. For that title quest to be fulfilled, the Nittany Lions will rely on the foundation laid this month.

“The other thing, as you guys know, is when you get into a game week, you’re gonna have a smaller package of what you do, and you’re gonna have a smaller package of what you’re expecting to see,” Franklin said. “So that helps, too. But it allows us to go back during the season and say, ‘Okay, we did this during training camp. Remember? We’re going to use that this week in our package.‘”

We will have one more update from the Nittany Lions during training camp before game week No. 1 officially kicks off.

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