A rising Penn State football star for James Franklin? 'I have never seen that before.'
Penn State football returns one of the top cornerback rooms in the Big Ten and beyond.
And it only appears to be trending upwards this spring.
Four experienced corners − all juniors − are back from the group that sparked a defense ranked fourth nationally in interceptions, seventh in total yards and was lauded for its aggressive pass coverage.
Advertisement
Now, one of them is enjoying an offseason like no other.
Elliot Washington has developed from a special teams standout as a true freshman to a top backup last year − to one of the most intriguing players on the team.
Take Penn State's six graded winter workout sessions under new coordinator Jim Knowles, as evidence. Washington was stunningly named the top cornerback performer each time. He's now the favorite to start opposite A.J. Harris this season.
Dec 31, 2024; Glendale, AZ, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions cornerback Elliot Washington II (9) against the Boise State Broncos during the Fiesta Bowl at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
"I've never seen that before. Never had a guy win every single one," coach James Franklin said of Washington's workout accolades.
"I tell my coaches all the time, this isn't like elementary school or kindergarten or little league, where everybody gets a smiley face and you try to spread the wealth so everybody's happy. You give it to the guy who's earned it, and Elliot came to work every single day.
Advertisement
"(He's) super-explosive, maybe the most explosive guy we have on our team," Franklin said, continuing. "Maybe the most horsepower in terms of speed on our team. There's a lot of excitement in the building and he's earned it."
Nov 2, 2024; University Park, Pennsylvania, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Jeremiah Smith (4) is pushed out of bounds by Penn State Nittany Lions cornerback Elliot Washington II (9) after running the ball during the fourth quarter at Beaver Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images
Penn State football cornerbacks: A.J. Harris to Zion Tracy to Audavion Collins
Last spring, Audavion Collins, the transfer from Mississippi State, received repeated praise as the team's most improved defender. While he did flash his instincts and skills (26 tackles, interception) last fall, he couldn't break through with so many fighting for time.
"He's gotten better every single semester and every single year," Franklin said of Collins. "We expect him to take another step this year and factor in, whether as a starter or in the rotation. He's been a really good pickup for us. He's a positive guy, always has a smile on his face, always has great energy."
Advertisement
Penn State's cornerback room, led by longtime assistant Terry Smith, is impressively deep, even after losing starter Jalen Kimber to the NFL and Cam Miller, who transferred to Rutgers.
Impact freshmen: Which Penn State football freshmen may play right away? LaVar Arrington and 6 others
PSU podcast: Penn State football podcast: D.J. Dozier on Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, winning a title
PSU vs. Oklahoma State: Trying to copy Penn State wrestling? Zack Ryder, the latest Lion to join Oklahoma State
Harris is the No. 1 starter after earning All-Big Ten recognition last season (48 tackles, five pass breakups, interception). Zion Tracy thrived as a backup and returned an interception for a touchdown against Ohio State. And Washington led the team with six pass breakups, despite missing a couple of games to injury.
Advertisement
A trio of freshmen corners, including incoming rookie Daryus Dixson, one of the top defensive back recruits in the nation, will push the frontliners this spring and summer.
Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Penn State football: CB Elliot Washington is a rising star
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
16 minutes ago
- Fox News
Ex-MMA star Ben Askren battling 'severe pneumonia' in hospital, wife says
Ben Askren, a former mixed martial arts competitor who fought in the Olympics and UFC, was hospitalized recently with a severe illness, his wife said in a post on social media. Amy Askren revealed that her husband was fighting off a sickness in a post on Facebook on Saturday. "You may have heard that my husband Ben is going through something. He developed severe pneumonia which came on very suddenly," she wrote. "He's currently in the hospital and unable to respond to anything at this time. "We welcome all prayers for healing and for peace. We are trying to keep life as normal as possible for our children currently and doing our best to support them thoughtfully so please refrain from discussing it with them for now." Ben Askren recently signed with Real American Freestyle – the Hulk Hogan venture hoping to popularize professional freestyle wrestling. Askren, 40, was an NCAA champion in the 170-pound division in 2006 and 2007 and went on to compete for Team USA in the 2008 Olympics. He won gold medals in the 2005 Pan American Championships and the 2009 World Championships. He made his full transition to MMA fighting when he debuted in Bellator in 2010. He then competed in ONE Championship before taking on UFC. He defeated Robbie Lawler via submission at UFC 235 before he lost to Jorge Masvidal in a high-profile bout. In 2021, he fought Jake Paul in a boxing match. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
New York Times
20 minutes ago
- New York Times
How Rick Carlisle and Tyrese Haliburton evolved to lead Pacers to NBA title contention
Rick Carlisle has been around the NBA long enough to see what's over the horizon. When the now-65-year-old began his second head-coaching stint with the Indiana Pacers in June 2021, he could tell the league was undergoing a paradigm shift. The prior decade was defined by LeBron James and Steph Curry forging a superstar era that left little room for anyone else to hold the Larry O'Brien trophy. But the league's titans were beginning to age out of contention, and the NBA's burgeoning parity era was forming a superstar vacuum that would open up new ideas of roster construction. Advertisement So Carlisle had a bold idea that has now become fundamental for many of the league's top teams: He wanted to toss out the playbook. He returned to Indiana, preaching that multi-step play sets were going to look archaic in a few years. In a sit-down with The Athletic in Dec. 2021, Carlisle explained how he envisioned a future where he didn't call plays at all. He wanted the team to live in its 'flow game.' 'I think there's a balance that you always want to strike with your best players so that they don't become this guy that just does one thing,' Carlisle said in that interview. Two months before the franchise-changing acquisition of Tyrese Haliburton, Carlisle was already preaching the high-octane system that would power the Pacers' Cinderella NBA Finals run three-and-a-half years later. It didn't make sense for his lineup at that moment, but Carlisle was priming the organization for a change he knew would come sooner or later. Carlisle's vision, which has manifested in this blistering Pacers system based on reads and principles rather than convoluted plays, needed a conductor to bring it harmony. That was going to be a tall task for a coach who has clashed with a litany of point guards in his two-decade coaching career, including several with Hall of Fame credentials. In Haliburton, Carlisle has found his maestro. The coach and star guard came together at the perfect moment, with Carlisle looking for a partner he could trust and Haliburton seeking to learn from a fresh start after the Sacramento Kings discarded him. Haliburton brought bravado without ego. He was malleable, but worthy of autonomy in due time. 'He came into this really leaning into the opportunity,' Carlisle said. 'New start, I'm all in from day one, I'm going full bore, I want to learn, coach me hard. I know there's going to be ups and downs. I'm gonna navigate it. He's a guy you can always talk to about the hard times and the good times.' Advertisement Through all the ups and downs Haliburton faced this year — including mental health struggles — Carlisle's belief in him never wavered. Carlisle pounded the pulpit when Haliburton was named the league's most overrated player in The Athletic's anonymous player poll in April. His guard responded with one of the great clutch runs in the history of the game. Haliburton has finally found his place within his team and the league, and it's the driving force behind the Pacers' genuine title hopes. 'I think that it got to the point for me where when you're young, establishing yourself in the NBA, you're kind of working your way through things and trying to figure out where you stand in the league,' Haliburton told The Athletic. 'Where I'm at now, I'm really comfortable in my own skin. I feel like I've really started to establish myself in this league.' How did Carlisle, a coach who has long built great offenses while failing to forge healthy working relationships with the point guards tasked with running them, give Haliburton more trust on the court than just about any player he's ever coached? It all traces back to Jason Kidd. Before the Dallas Mavericks traded for Kidd in 2008, Carlisle was known for meticulously commanding every possession, slowing the pace down so he could keep his fingers on every dial of the offense. The high point of his first stint with the Pacers was in the 2003-04 season, when he ushered a core of Jermaine O'Neal, Ron Artest (now Metta World Peace) and Reggie Miller to the conference finals. Those teams were lucky to score more than 80 points in an era defined by methodical play sets and cramped spacing. They fell to the eventual champion Detroit Pistons, a team Carlisle coached in a similar manner the prior two seasons. In hindsight, Carlisle's approach made sense for that era and the roster he was gifted. If there is one through-line to Carlisle's career, it's his ability to adapt to the evolution of the game. But when Carlisle was hired as the Mavericks coach a few months after the franchise's trade for Kidd, he brought with him a more controlled coaching style. That didn't sit well with Kidd, and the two butted heads over who and how to run the show. The coach was still calling just about every play, but Kidd felt that as the league's best point guard over the past decade, he had earned the right to make the right decisions quickly and in the flow. Advertisement Over time, Carlisle learned to trust Kidd and let go of the rope. He embraced the uptempo freedom that came with his guard orchestrating the offense on the fly, proudly declaring the Mavericks were running a 'flow' offense that was an early prototype of what the Pacers run today. That system led to Dallas' 2011 title in Carlisle's third season with Kidd. 'I've learned so much over the years about players that appear to have quirky elements to their game and the importance of looking at what they can do and not focusing on what they may not be able to do particularly well,' Carlisle told reporters before the finals. 'It was clear when we got Ty that we needed to surround him with shooting, with toughness and depth and resources.' The championship did not mark the end of Carlisle's feuds with his lead guards. Rajon Rondo, a one-time champion and two-time assist-per-game leader, flamed out in brief and disastrous fashion after arriving from the Celtics in a midseason trade in 2014. Carlisle learned from his time with Kidd and wanted Rondo to push the tempo rather than slowing it down. An on-court argument between the two led to a one-game suspension during the regular season. Then, Carlisle benched Rondo in the middle of the playoffs and later conceded the trade was a mistake. Years later, Carlisle's relationship with lottery pick Dennis Smith Jr. grew icy as the coach turned more of Dallas' offense over to rookie sensation Luka Dončić. And while Carlisle's partnership with the Slovenian star led to historic offensive numbers on the court, the two never quite meshed off it. Then Carlisle was replaced by Kidd, of all people. Those experiences made Carlisle more open-minded to finding his ideal fit in Haliburton. When Haliburton arrived in Indiana from the Sacramento Kings, he was a hard player to value. He didn't break defenders down off the dribble like most stars do, but there was something to the way he moved around the court without losing momentum, whether on or off the ball. He'd commit the cardinal sin of leaving his feet to read the floor, but made it work more often than not. Carlisle was willing to embrace Haliburton's faults because his style of play was a step in the right direction compared to the limitations of the roster Carlisle worked with earlier that season. Advertisement 'I've learned so much over the years about players that appear to have quirky elements to their game and the importance of looking at what they can do and not focusing on what they may not be able to do particularly well,' Carlisle told reporters before the finals. 'It was clear when we got Ty that we needed to surround him with shooting, with toughness and depth and resources.' Before the trade for Haliburton, Domantas Sabonis was Carlisle's key playmaker, operating out of the high post. But with Sabonis at the five and current center Myles Turner at the four, the Pacers could not play with the pace needed to bring Carlisle's free-flowing vision to life. Carlisle pushed Sabonis to roll to the rim and then flow out to the corners if the ball didn't find him, but the center was a poor shooter at the time and preferred to be directly involved in plays. When The Athletic reported the Pacers were considering blowing up their team in Dec. 2021, Carlisle and team president Kevin Pritchard called an emergency meeting with Sabonis, Turner, wing Caris LeVert and point guard Malcolm Brogdon. They addressed the report and told the players they weren't planning on making serious changes at that moment. By the start of the next season, Turner was the only one left. Those trades yielded key pieces of this season's run, such as Aaron Nesmith and draft picks that turned into Andrew Nembhard and Ben Sheppard. The Haliburton deal also included the since-departed Buddy Hield, whose leadership was instrumental to the development of Carlisle's system and Haliburton in particular. Though the Pacers' playoff hopes were already out the window upon Haliburton's arrival, it was immediately apparent he was the right fit for Carlisle's revolution. Carlisle wanted to find players who knew how to craft a story on the fly in unlimited ways. Haliburton's kryptonite is stasis. His engine needs to stay in high gear and stalls out when he shifts into neutral. He thrives in the chaos. The looser the game gets, the calmer he plays. That unique style works for a system that aims to bend defenses rather than breaking them down off the dribble. Carlisle knows the Pacers, even after last season's trade for former Raptors All-Star Pascal Siakam, don't have the scoring talent to barge through stationary defenders. The solution: Never slow down enough for that limitation to matter. Most teams get down the floor in six or so seconds, then start their plays with 16 seconds left on the shot clock. But with Haliburton needing to play in constant motion, the Pacers usually hit the first screen with 20 on the shot clock, giving them the time they need to run through countless actions until an advantage eventually pops up. To the Pacers' opponents, it looks like chaos that induces panic. To Carlisle, Haliburton and the Pacers, it is their comfort zone. Advertisement After spending so long building the Pacers' signature style, the last step for Haliburton was to identify times when it would hold up better without his hand on the wheel. In last season's Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics deployed physical defenders who got into Haliburton's shirt and kept him from building momentum. Indiana got swept and actually played better once Haliburton went out injured. Faced with a similar situation in Thursday's Game 1 against an even more physical Thunder defense, Haliburton sat back and watched Nembhard take over. Then, when the game reached its chaotic crescendo, Haliburton seized the moment. It took two decades and several lives as a coach, but Carlisle and his point guard are finally simpatico. Just like his star guard does every night, Carlisle had to poke and prod until he found what worked. Tyrese Haliburton is unique in every single way as a playmaker. Because of that, so are his Indiana Pacers.
New York Times
24 minutes ago
- New York Times
Astros DFA Forrest Whitley, former top pitching prospect in baseball
HOUSTON — The Houston Astros designated right-hander Forrest Whitley for assignment on Sunday, putting their tumultuous, nine-year partnership with the pitcher in peril. Once touted as the top starting pitching prospect in baseball, Whitley had withered into a mop-up reliever incapable of procuring outs during lopsided games. He had a 12.27 ERA and six walks across 7 ⅓ major-league innings this season. Advertisement Each of the last three games Whitley entered featured at least a 10-run separation between the two teams. Whitley still surrendered seven earned runs across the 4 ⅔ innings he threw. Houston now has seven days to either trade Whitley or pass him through outright waivers, where all 29 teams will have a chance to claim him. Whitley is still just 27 years old and still wields tantalizing stuff, but his lack of minor-league options may give teams pause when deciding whether to pursue him. Because Whitley has fewer than three years of major-league service time, he would not be able to elect free agency if he clears waivers. If Whitley does clear waivers, Houston would then outright him off the 40-man roster and to Triple-A Sugar Land. The Astros selected Whitley with the 17th overall pick in the 2016 draft and paid him a $3.148 million signing bonus. Before the 2019 season, Baseball Prospectus, Baseball America and MLB Pipeline all labeled Whitley as the sport's best pitching prospect. A freefall ensued, first due to a 50-game drug suspension Whitley incurred before the 2018 season. A slew of injuries followed, including Tommy John surgery in 2020, a lat strain in 2023 and this season, left knee problems that caused two trips to the injured list. 'I told (manager Joe Espada) this, I told the pitching coaches this: I honestly feel embarrassed every time I have to go on the IL or something pops up,' Whitley told The Athletic last month. 'I don't want it to be a reflection of my work ethic. I feel I do everything I can to stay on the field, and it just hasn't worked out lately. 'I feel like I have a certain level of responsibility to give back to the people that have supported me that I don't.' Whitley has thrown just 174 ⅔ innings since 2019. Lesser-touted prospects passed him within Houston's organizational hierarchy and his hold on a 40-man roster spot became more tenuous with each lost season. He entered spring training in February cognizant of his situation, calling this season his 'last chance.' Advertisement 'Every day I throw the baseball, it reminds me of why I keep doing this stuff,' Whitley said last month. 'I know when I go out there, I'm going to be competitive. I know exactly what to do. I have the stuff to get the best big leaguers out. I just have to go out there and do it and make sure I'm out there every time.'
