James Franklin, Drew Allar praise 'total team effort' as Penn State holds on for 26-25 win at Minnesota

It was a perilous Saturday evening in the Twin Cities for Penn State, but the Nittany Lions pulled out a 26-25 win over Minnesota to keep it’s College Football Playoff hopes in good shape

And after quarterback Drew Allar connected with tight end Tyler Warren on an extended-play fourth down conversion to ice the game, head coach James Franklin was singing his praises to CBS Sports’ Jenny Dell. She noted Franklin had wanted Allar to be present before the on-field postgame interview began.

“It’s just about these guys,” Franklin said, gesturing toward Allar. “That was a huge play at the end, kept his composure all game. Tough place to play. You’ve gotta get P.J. [Fleck] and Minnesota a ton of credit but at the end the day, our guys found a way to win. Starting with this guy and a bunch of others.”

Allar finished the day 21-for-28 passing with a touchdown and 244 yards, plus another rushing touchdown. And his highwire act to complete a pass to Warren to ice the game wasn’t the only gutsy moment for the Nittany Lions.

Facing fourth and short in its own territory, Penn State ran a fake punt with fewer than five minutes remaining to keep the ball out of the Gophers hands.

That, plus a stout defensive performance in the first half had Allar singing the whole teams praises.

“I think any time you go on the road in the Big Ten or just Big Ten in general, it’s going to be a test,” Allar said. “Obviously it was a challenging place to play, my first time being here. It was a really cool atmosphere to be a part of. Minnesota’s a great team. They play extremely hard for all four quarters. But it was a great team win. Defense had the offense’s back in the beginning and the offense stepped up a couple times. The special teams had a huge 4th and 1 conversion for us, so it was a total team effort.”