James Franklin explains how Penn State counters defenses scheming against the spread

Defense vs. offense across the sport of football is always a tug of war. Offenses seemingly only get better by the year; more creative, more explosive, more talented over time as well. But for every step forward the offense takes in the sport, defensive coordinators across the nation adjust and find new ways to scheme against the new developments.

Well, Penn State coach James Franklin is experiencing that feeling on the offensive end. Because, likewise, as defenses scheme to defend new styles like the spread offense once upon a time, it’s Franklin’s job to get back to the drawing board and find adjustments to beat the new defensive systems.

So here was Franklin this week, discussing that push and pull of offense and defense across the sport and how he’s adjusted to new defensive schemes.

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James Franklin goes in-depth on defensive scheme

“You know, for a while, everybody’s running the wishbone and it’s a nightmare. And then over time people start to kind of figure that out, go away from it. The spread kind of the same way. You get more comfortable and have different strategies to to attack it. The pistol has always been something — obviously, became very famous at Nevada with coach Holt. And the advantage there is…a lot of defenses are trying to determine and dictate how they’re going to defend your run game based on what you can run, based on the back’s alignment or pressures based on where the back is aligned. Whether it’s the man side or the zone side and how to attack your protection.

“So by putting the back in the pistol or in the slot or however you want to turn it, it hides some of those things, at least for a period of time. So I do think people are getting more comfortable and getting more creative on the defensive side of the ball. And the offense has to do things to be creative as well. The things that you were talking about — just so i’m clear about the things that we’re doing much different this year — at least last week, going to more gap schemes and doing more of that as far as transitioning into heavier versus doing more inside.

“I think we’re probably under center a little bit more and I think the quarterback sneak is probably the biggest difference. Wouldn’t say the gap schemes are significantly different. I do think you’ll be in under center. A big strength of our personnel is our tight ends. Another big strength right now of our personnel is our running backs. And being as multiple as we possibly can. So I don’t know if it was this group or the press conference or the quarterback club, sometimes they all run together.”