WATCH: Blue & Gold staff previews Notre Dame vs. Penn State

Blue & Gold’s Mike Singer, Jack Soble and Tyler Horka preview the Orange Bowl matchup between Notre Dame and Penn State for a spot in the national championship game.

In what area does Notre Dame match up best against Penn State, and where might the Nittany Lions have an advantage against the Fighting Irish? The guys discuss that, as well as rumors about the Cincinnati Bengals being interested in Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden and much more.

The show aired live on the Blue & Gold YouTube page Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET. Watch a replay of this week’s show in the video player below.

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What Penn State coach James Franklin said about Notre Dame before Orange Bowl

Penn State head coach James Franklin spoke to local reporters in State College on Saturday. He answered many Nittany Lions-specific questions, some of which have been omitted from the following transcript. He did provide a lengthy opening statement that mostly centered on Notre Dame, though.

Here’s that opening statement in its entirety plus a few more notes from Franklin from the Saturday before the Orange Bowl, which pits No. 7 seed Notre Dame (13-1) against No. 6 seed Penn State (13-2) at Hard Rock Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, Jan. 9.

Opening Statement

Appreciate everybody being here, especially the people that are here in person. Really appreciate you guys covering Penn State Football. 

A couple things, I think the first thing I wanted to say, and I think you guys know this, but we have 14  players that we recruited that have come early and this is the first time we’ve done this. You know, they are basically here taking everything in. Not really contributing a whole lot but just sitting in meetings,  watching practice. We talked about it with the leadership council ahead of time, and they were in support of it. And those guys have done a really good job being respectful of the veterans in the program and not creating a distraction, which was a long conversation ahead of time. That’s been really good. 

The only negative, and the reason I bring it up is we’ve got a couple guys from Florida who have never seen snow before, ever, in their life. And I’m telling them, like we’ve got significant snow right now. And  I’m saying, right, haven’t had snow like this in two years. I struggled getting to work this morning and I  never struggle driving in the snow. 

They are looking at me like, sure, sure, Franklin. Recruiting speech; we don’t get a whole lot of snow. Literally they are looking out there, and not only have I never seen snow before but not this much. But it’s been really cool having these guys here. I think it’s a positive and it will really pay dividends for us and them down the road, just learning our culture, how we operate. They will get to spring ball practices. They will be way ahead. 

So a ton of reasons that we did it. More importantly than all that, I just wanted to make a comment about, obviously, the tragedy in New Orleans, and our thoughts and prayers and support goes out to the families and the victims that were involved. Terrible, terrible, terrible thing for that city, for those families, for our country. It’s sad in so many ways, in so many ways. So our thoughts and feelings from Penn State Football go out to everybody that was impacted by that. 

Want to take a minute of a pause, because you hate to jump into the next topic after that. 

But we’re expecting a large crowd in Miami. I thought last week, especially under the circumstances, I  don’t think people understand when you’re playing SMU at home, and you’re filling up a 107,000-seat  stadium with pretty much all of your own fans; SMU small private school, that was impressive. That was a great home environment. And then very next week, all the short notice, you’ve got to travel again. I’m talking about for four answer, to travel again, and I thought last week’s support was awesome. 

I have to give Boise credit, too, I thought they did a great job. The energy in there was really good. But here we are again, and you know, this is the challenge of the playoffs. But our fans have been great. Our fans are special. We recognize that, and we’re expecting a huge crowd in Miami, and I challenge everybody to wear white and White Out energy. We want that place rocking. Probably more hoodies than tee shirts from what I’ve heard on the weather report but we need that place rocking, and we appreciate the support that we always get.

Couple other things I did want to cover with you guys. You know, we did not submit, and I want to say this to you guys because it affects your job. We did not submit the availability report in the Boise game, and the reason why, again, I know that impacts you guys doing your job but the reason why is the  College Football Playoff, it’s not a requirement. And what happened the week before is SMU did not do one, and we did. So until this is a consistent mandate across college football, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for us to do one when they are not. So just so you guys know, I want you to understand, that was the reason behind that. 

Finally, getting into this game, Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman, have known and followed Marcus for a long time. I think you guys know Gerad Parker. Gerad was on the staff there. Gerad was with us, Gerad and Marcus are really good friends. Heard a ton of good things about Marcus from Gerad. Watched his career for a while, obviously. You know, being promoted there and getting a job like Notre Dame and has done a great job and has really run with it. 

I think in a lot of ways, they are built similar to us. You look at their turnover ratio numbers, you look at their explosive play defense in terms of defending and limiting explosive plays. You look at the middle eight, they are built in a lot of ways that I think we are in terms of emphasizing the statistics that matter. 

And they do a great job of not beating themselves, which I think is a really important thing in college football. It starts with that, and then you kind of go from there and play to your strengths and things like that. 

But I think they do a really good job of those things. Obviously the quarterback’s production jumps out at the you. Total production, his impact in the game specifically as a runner and big body guy, but also can make plays in the passing game. Running backs, they are legit. They have a massive offensive line. 

Defensively when you talk about them on the defensive side of the ball, you know, Al Golden, who is one of us, he’s a Penn Stater. I’ve known Al for a long time; been a head coach; been in the NFL. He’s done a great job with their defense. Again very sound, very aggressive, very disruptive. 

I think they do a really good job on the back half as well. His blitz packages are challenging. A lot of stuff that I think he’s done over his career as a defensive coordinator, but also time in the NFL in terms of attacking the quarterback, they do a really good job. 

And then obviously Coach [Mike] Denbrock on the offensive side of the ball has also done a really good job of playing to their strengths, running the ball, quarterback run game and keeping you honest with the passing game. 

I know last week, I think it’s [Marty] Biagi, special teams coordinator. I know he got a lot of love in the game on special teams, but you look at it, they have done it all year long on special teams; one of the better special teams units in the country. 

Obviously a well-rounded team. Obviously, you don’t get to this point in the season without being good in all three phases. So far, got a ton of respect for what we’ve seen on film and what we’ve studied, and we’ve got a lot of work to do. Excited about the opportunity. 

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