Franklin sees improvement on Penn State's line

As the Nittany Lions wrap up the first week of preseason camp, there's one thing that coach James Franklin is certain about: Everything's different compared to last year.

After practice Wednesday evening, Franklin repeated that this change may be most noticeable on the offensive line, which struggled last season.

"They're not seeing blitzes every down from our defense and things like that, but the offense is having more success than we've had," Franklin said. "The depth and the competition is dramatically different. We've got a lot of young players making plays that are in consideration for playing time, probably more than we had last year."

Franklin praised senior Wendy Laurent, who has seen work at center and guard, and said he is fighting hard for a starting job.

But Franklin said no one - including top junior-college transfer Paris Palmer - has "grabbed a hold of" the left tackle spot just yet.

Since a shaky start at the spring Blue-White game, the 6-foot-7, 297-pound Palmer has improved, Franklin said, but "he's probably playing in a lot of ways like some of the offensive linemen played last year. Tentative, not as confident, not as aggressive as we want to be.

"You see those guys who played last year. . . . They're playing with more confidence. They're more aggressive. They're more sudden in their movements. And [Palmer's] not right now. He's not playing with that type of confidence, which I guess is expected to a degree. We've just got to speed up his maturation as much as we can."

Linebacker Daiquan Kelly is headed to Massachusetts, where he will redshirt for a year, NJ.com reported. Kelly was kicked off the Penn State team Saturday for a violation of team rules.