James Franklin looking to use Michigan game to help prepare for Minnesota

After struggling to slow down the Michigan Wolverines’ running attack on Saturday, the Penn State Nittany Lions will have to face another run-dominant opponent this Saturday in the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Head coach James Franklin knows his team did not do too hot against the run and will be looking for them to make the proper corrections this week in practice to prevent a repeat performance against the Golden Gophers.

On Tuesday, Franklin explained how he’s looking to use what happened in the Michigan game to help prepare for Minnesota.

“Yeah, I think there’s similarities. And I think we also know this is a copycat business, right,” said Franklin. “So people are going to watch the film and take some ideas. Minnesota wants to run the ball. They want to constrict kind of the life out of the game in terms of time and possession — all those types of things.

“So, we’re going to have to be ready to defend the run and the play-action passes that come off of it for them. And they got a really, really productive back that they do a great job within their system. So, that’ll be a challenge. There’s no doubt about it. We’re going to need to be ready. The corrections that we made on Sunday from the previous game. As well as getting prepared for what Minnesota is going to try to do. Obviously, it’s going to be a big storyline in this game.”

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Minnesota has a decent rushing attack, but they are no Michigan. Given how Penn State was able to slow down the Wolverines for the majority of the game, if they can find a level of consistency defensively, stopping the run, the Nittany Lions should be able to come out of Saturday’s game victorious.

Franklin calls on the Big Ten for changes after halftime incident against Michigan

Penn State and Michigan had an exciting matchup for most of Saturday’s contest. However, at the top of everybody’s list to talk about from that game was the interaction that occurred between both teams during halftime. On Tuesday, Penn State head coach James Franklin was not too inclined to address the matter in its totality. Still, he did offer suggestions to prevent this from happening in the future.

“I prefer to talk about these things in the offseason, but the one tunnel is a problem. It’s a problem and has been,” said Franklin. “And to me, we need to put a policy in place from a conference perspective. In my mind that’s gonna stop it. We’re not the first team to kind of get into a jawing match in the tunnel. For me, I want to focus on getting my team in the locker room, not jawing back and forth.”

After a hotly contested first half, things picked up where they left off before either team touched the field. The two teams got into a jawing match in the locker room tunnel and had to be seperated by coaches and officals before finally heading back onto the field for the second half.