James Franklin addresses lack of big plays this season

Behind first-year starting quarterback Drew Allar and the running back duo of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, Penn State has become one of the best teams in the country. However, head coach James Franklin has seen his team also suffer from a lack of big plays on the offensive side of the ball.

Following Penn State’s win over Northwestern, Franklin shared some thoughts on the team’s lack of explosive plays on offense.

“I think there’s some things that we can do that we’ll work on in the bye week,” James Franklin said. “But, again, overall 41-13, a win, 1-0. Obviously, there’s going to be things that we need to critique this week and do some self-scouting and some studying.”

James Franklin was initially asked about a lack of explosiveness in the running game. Singleton and Allen make for one of the toughest backfields in the game. However, Allen was injured in the Northwestern game. To this point in the season, Penn State is 15th in rushing offense, going for 210 yards per game.

For his part, Franklin does want to improve on the rushing explosiveness, but also on the passing explosiveness during the bye week.

“We’d like to be more explosive as well, although I thought we did improve this week. I still think there’s an opportunity for some more big plays in both the run game and the pass game and that will obviously be something that we’re gonna dig into deeply this week.”

Next week, Penn State will have a bye week before hosting UMass.

James Franklin praised Manny Diaz

For any issues that Penn State has had creating explosive plays on offense, the defense under coordinator Manny Diaz has been elite this season. The Nittany Lions have the best defense in terms of yards allowed per game, only giving up 210.6 yards per game. That’s helped Penn State hold opponents to 8.75 points per game, the fourth best in terms of scoring defense.

Because of that success, James Franklin praised Manny Diaz for the job he’s done.

“Yeah, I think Manny [Diaz] has done a really nice job, obviously. I think our defensive staff has done a really nice job, and I think the players,” Franklin said.

“We’re in a position where we’re keeping guys fresh. We’re playing a lot of guys. We’ve got talent and depth. And I think our guys are getting more comfortable and more consistent playing within the scheme. I think Year 2 plays a part in it as well; it’s kind of all those things. From a scheduling perspective, opening up with a Power-5 opponent who’s playing well, we’ve been tested as well. So, I think we’re doing a good job.”