James Franklin says Utah's 'old-school perspective' stands out

Penn State and head coach James Franklin know that they have their hands full in the Rose Bowl. Utah, who won the PAC-12, is a tough, physical team that is going to make things difficult for the Nittany Lions all game long.

Ahead of the Rose Bowl, James Franklin explained that it’s Utah’s old-school style of play and approach that stands out to him.

“Well, I think one of the things that really stands out that if I would say not only this year but traditionally with Utah and specifically in their conference,” James Franklin said.

“I think they’re built very much so from an old-school perspective in terms of hard-nosed, physical, sound in everything they do. They’ve been able to typically dominate the fronts on the O-line and D-line. That’s something that really jumped out to me right away.”

Utah was the only team to beat USC this season. They did so twice, including in the PAC-12 Championship Game with a potential trip to the College Football Playoff on the line. They were, largely, able to do this because of their style of play.

“All the analytics things that you look at that usually determine good football teams, they’re pretty much strong in all those areas,” James Franklin said. “But I think it’s the physicality, the toughness that really stood out to us.”

The Rose Bowl will kick off at 5:00 PM EST on Monday, January 2nd.

James Franklin on determining if Penn State had a successful season

It’s hard to argue that going 10-2 with a trip to the Rose Bowl isn’t a good year. At the same time, in the same season, Penn State lost to Michigan and Ohio State. Those two teams, who Penn State expected to be able to compete against, went on to play in the Playoff. At the same time, James Franklin didn’t want to put a tangible answer on what success would look like.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s necessarily for me to determine,” James Franklin said.

“We just want to be 1-0 in this game. We want to win this game against a really good opponent. That’s for other people to discuss and talk about. The things that we talk about inside our program is obviously, again, making sure our guys are handling themselves academically and putting themselves in the best position to take care of themselves and their families for the next 50 years.”