James Franklin analyzes Penn State's collective buy-in on defense

Penn State had one of the best defenses in the country this season, ending the regular season with a shutout win over Michigan State. After that game, head coach James Franklin analyzed the team’s collective buy-in on the defensive side of the ball.

Franklin explained that one of the biggest things that the Nittany Lions have done is buy into playing good football instead of playing for individual stats.

“I think there’s a difference to buying into statistics and buying into playing really good football,” James Franklin said. “And one of the things that I think happens sometimes is, a guy maybe doesn’t have a certain amount of catches or a guy doesn’t have a certain amount of tackles or whatever it may be, interceptions, whatever it may be. I’m still a big believer that when true football people like you guys, the scouts, are studying the tape, they’re playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”

James Franklin pointed to the defensive line for an example of what he’s talking about. On the defensive line, it’s some players’ jobs to take up blocks, while others earn that statistics. However, the player making the play can’t do it without help from the player taking up the block.

“There’s a ton of times where you’re a defensive lineman, and you run a twist and you’re the penetrator and the guy who’s looping the twist gets the sack. Well, the penetrator causes the sack and real football people that are studying it, understand that. Our guys have bought into that on offense, defense, and special teams,” Franklin said.

“And the reality is, when you do your job and your teammate does his jobs, the plays that are supposed to come to you will come to you. And we’ve done a good job of that. We played really good defense, really have been fortunate. We played really good defense since I’ve become a head coach. I think Manny [Diaz] and his staff have taken it to another level. But we’ve been playing good defense for a long time.”

Penn State’s defense was so good that it earned defensive coordinator Manny Diaz the Duke job. He’ll be moving there while James Franklin looks for a new coordinator to keep the defense rolling.

James Franklin opens up on future of defensive staff after hiring new coordinator

With Manny Diaz’s departure, there is always a chance some staffers leave. While James Franklin doesn’t have a crystal ball, he also doesn’t think there will be too many staffers leaving Penn State to follow him, though.

“I think more times than not when we can do that that’s what I’d like to do, and I’m very clear and up front about that on the front end with the coordinators I hire. So we’ll see how this thing plays out, but I’ve been very clear and transparent about that. And again, I think I’ve shown that over time,” Franklin said.

“That was a big part of hiring Manny. ‘Hey, I really would like to keep the staff in place. I’ve got good guys. They’ve been loyal to Penn State, they’ve been loyal to me.’ Although we’re trying to hire a new defensive coordinator, a lot of times coordinators want to bring people with them. I totally get that. We were able to do that with Manny and he brought Coach [Rick] Lyster with him as an off-the-field person and it worked out really well for everybody involved.”