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Penn State's James Franklin sets high bar in spring drills

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - "Better" isn't good enough for James Franklin anymore. At least that's what the Penn State coach told his team at practice on Wednesday.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - "Better" isn't good enough for James Franklin anymore. At least that's what the Penn State coach told his team at practice on Wednesday.

"It's not just coming out and practicing well and getting better," Franklin said. "There are a lot of teams around the country that are doing that, so what are we going to do to differentiate ourselves?"

Coming off a season that included a Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl loss to Southern Cal, Franklin wants more out of his team this time around.

"For where we want to go, we have to practice at a level that nobody here has really seen before," the third-year coach said. "We have to be one percent more focused on our assignments. We have to have one percent more effort in practice. We have to elevate a little bit."

And in the team's first four spring practices, Franklin saw that improvement.

The coach took that into consideration when he started making a preliminary depth chart on Tuesday for the Blue-White game, which is slated for April 22.

"I don't want to go [first-string and second-string] against everybody else," Franklin said. "I want to go ones versus twos, and hopefully, for the first time, be able to have a really competitive scrimmage. So that should be fun and that should be exciting. I think that's what all 107,000 fans that will show up to the game want to see."

Handling the hype

At Penn State men's hockey's final news conference of the season Tuesday, coach Guy Gadowsky said he met with Franklin earlier in the season for advice after the Nittany Lions climbed to No. 1 in both hockey polls in January.

Although Gadowsky said he couldn't compare his situation to the football team's accomplishments, he admitted the "noise" that comes with the hype of being a top-ranked program was a distraction.

Gadowsky said the one-hour talk with Franklin was "very, very valuable."

D-back commits

Defensive back Trent Gordon, who plays at a high school in suburban Houston, announced Wednesday that he has orally committed to play at Penn State.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound Gordon, the 12th player to commit to the Nittany Lions' freshman Class of 2018, revealed his college choice on Twitter.

Gordon, who plays for Manvel High, is rated as a four-star prospect by Rivals.com and has gotten three stars from Scout.com and 247Sports.com.

Gordon chose Penn State over Michigan, Florida, Louisiana State, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and UCLA. He is the second defensive back in the Nittany Lions' 2018 class, and the second from Texas, joining safety Isaiah Humphries of Sachse.

- Joe Juliano