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By Andy Stine
astine@altoonamirror.com
UNIVERSITY PARK -- Tuesday was the first day of spring football practice at Penn State, which means it was also the first day of Abdul Carter's transition to a defensive end.
Last season's First Team selection by the coaches at linebacker is making the switch to a position that was vacated by Chop Robinson and Adisa Isaac. Robinson is an expected first round pick in next month's NFL Draft, while Isaac is a possible second day prospect.
PSU coach James Franklin said the move to defensive end was a choice made by Carter rather than the coaching staff.
"We're excited about it," Franklin said. "We lost some defensive ends this past year that were highly productive. We feel really good about the current room, but obviously injecting Abdul into that room is going to be a positive for us."
Franklin thought Carter would fit best as a defensive end when he was being recruited, but Carter and his family insisted that he was a linebacker.
The reality is we just wanted him in our program, and knew he was going to be a really good player wherever he decided to play," Franklin said.
Size should not be an issue either at a position where the Lions traditionally like to rotate in multiple players. Carter will be joined by Dani Dennis-Sutton, Amin Vanover, and Zuriah Fisher as key returners from last season.
"There's an opportunity there," Franklin said. "Having depth and talent and the type of length we want in the defensive end position, I think this is going to be a win-win for everybody."
The new guys
Spring football is usually important for new players and coaches to a program, and Penn State will have no shortage of that with all three coordinators being new to the program.
Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki was hired away from Kansas, while Tom Allen was brought in as defensive coordinator after being fired as Indiana's head coach. New special teams coordinator Justin Lustig was brought in from Vanderbilt, where he held the same position.
"I think the most important thing is we have to get through the 15 practices, and the coaches and the players feel like we have a really good understanding of how we want to play and who we want to play in all three phases," Franklin said.
Endorsing WRs
The passing game struggled through most of last season, especially with the wide receivers. It probably didn't help that QB Drew Allar was a full-time starter for the first time. Ke'Andre Lambert-Smith was the leader at the end of the season with just 673 receiving yards, and he was a glaring non-factor at the end of the season.
Franklin did pull off a huge addition out of the transfer portal with a veteran in Southern Columbia native Julian Fleming transferring from Ohio State. Otherwise, there will be a lot of familiar faces in the receivers' room.
"I don't think we've ever really had a talent issue at wideout," Franklin said. "I didn't really feel like we needed to go out and do a whole lot in the transfer portal, but we needed to make sure we had enough competition at every single position to bring out the best. I think Julian's helped with that.
"He's brought an element of experience and maturity that has been really good. He's approached things the right way since he stepped on campus"
Saquon's return
PSU letterman and fan favorite Saquon Barkley signed a 3-year, $37.75 million dollar contract with the Eagles earlier this week.
Make Franklin, who said he talked to Barkley earlier this week about the deal, one of the many fans on the eastern half of Pennsylvania that are excited that he's returning to the state.
"For him to come back and be able to play within the state in Philadelphia, he said that was one of the first things that was kind of the sales pitch to him. Just a really cool opportunity."