Like most head coaches, James Franklin’s relationship with publicly releasing a depth chart is lukewarm at best. All the same, the vast majority of his tenure at Penn State has resulted in some degree of obligatory preseason depth chart. Sometimes with a healthy dose of “or” smattered across it, but something has almost always been released. During the season, Penn State has simply released the previous game’s depth chart within the next week’s game notes, a maneuver that has served a somewhat limited utility.
This year, for seemingly no particular reason, a preseason depth chart won’t be released. Franklin confirmed on Tuesday during his first weekly press conference of the year that the depth chart is pretty well set, but that didn’t mean it needed to be made public.
“We got a pretty good idea of of who we’re starting pretty much everywhere,” Franklin said on Tuesday. “Like I’ve told you before, when we practice we send some guys out with the first team. We send some guys out with the second and the third team and and most of the depth chart and roster is set. I think more times than not we try not to put that information out there because I don’t necessarily see the value. And for me the most important thing is the guys in our locker room, whether it’s from a leadership or chemistry standpoint, and we’ve got that so all the other stuff out there in the universe or in the Internet or wherever else, I don’t think that’s a huge factor for us.”
In Franklin’s defense, Penn State’s starting group is not that great of a mystery, and knowing a team’s three-deep depth chart is interesting but not absolutely essential for really anyone at this point. While the “Is Drew Allar starting?” saga will drag on for a few more days [don’t put it past Penn State to announce that move on social media] it is unlikely to have a twist ending. It’s also worth noting, as West Virginia opted not to name a starting quarterback on Tuesday, that Franklin could very well simply be holding serve, a firm believer in not giving away anymore information than his opponent has. Then again, if Penn State needs that sort of edge in a game it is favored to win by 20 points, the Nittany Lions might have bigger problems on their hands.
As for Allar, Franklin continued his summer-long tradition on Tuesday saying nearly every nice thing he could about his sophomore quarterback without saying the words “starter.” A sign in its own right.
So whatever the case might be, time will tell the old fashion way when both teams take the field Saturday.
