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. 

On two Black head coaches going head-to-head in the semifinal

You know, it’s interesting that you ask that question. I remember, and I wanted to kind of go back and jot down some notes, but to me, it just kind of makes me think of when Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith played in Super Bowl XLI in 2007 that was the first Super Bowl featuring a black head coach at all, let alone two. 

You know, obviously, Dungy became the first black coach to win a Super Bowl, which was significant. I  remember thinking that as a coach, how significant that was in the profession and how significant that  was for young coaches coming up in the profession to see those guys in that role. 

I also remember, you know, I was offensive coordinator at Kansas State at the time and working for an  African American coach in Ron Prince. I also remember at that time, there was a lot of conversations about will this impact the profession. Will this impact opportunities, you know, for guys. Earned, earned opportunities for guys. And at that time there was six coaches, African American coaches out of 127  schools at that time, 127 schools. 

And you know, I think if you look at it with Sylvester Croom, Karl Dorrell, Turner Gill, Randy Shannon, Ron Prince, who I coached for at the time, it was myself — and it’s interesting — on that staff, it was myself and Raheem Morris, who is Shola’s godfather, and Raheem is now the head coach of the Atlanta  Falcons. Ricky Rahne was the offensive GA who is the head coach at Old Dominion. Scott Frost was the defensive GA who is now the head coach again at Central Florida.

You know, really, really good staff. And then I don’t know if I mentioned Tyrone Willingham was the other one. And there was conversations about how will this impact. You know, and I look at it, since then, there’s an increase of 75 percent. There’s 16 coaches now out of 134 and I know some people will say, that’s not a huge increase.  But it is an increase. 

At the end of the day, you know, does this create opportunities for more guys to get in front of athletic directors? Does this create more opportunities for search firms? I hope so. I think at the end of the day,  you just want an opportunity and want to be able to earn it through your work and through your actions. 

So we’ll see. I take a lot of pride in it. I think you guys know there’s been some conversations in the past  I kept private for a long time. But you know, I take a lot of pride in it. I’m honored. I’m honored to be able to compete against Marcus. I’m honored to be able to compete against Notre Dame. 

Most importantly, I’m honored to represent Penn State and the young men in that locker room. For me to sit here and say that it’s not important and it’s not significant would not be accurate. It would not be accurate. 

All that’s great. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to find a way to beat a really good football team that’s well-coached, that’s well-coached. And again, I think like I’ve already stated, at this point of the season, you really have to be doing all things well to get to this point.

You’ve got to recruit well. You’ve got to develop well. You’ve got to hire well. You’ve got to have the support from the administration, which I think you guys have heard me say we do now, at a signature level, with Pat Kraft and Neeli Bendapudi and [David] Kleppinger, before that  Matt Schuyler. We have that. Pretty cool. 

So we’ve got to be ready to go against a really good team, and we’re taking advantage of each one of those days. Yesterday was our Sunday. Today is our Monday, and it’s an off-day for the players and gameplan day for the coaches. We’re a little bit ahead because we only had one-day last week. 

The schedule is a little bit different. We had a longer preparation period. I don’t know why that is from a  College Football Playoff perspective. You’d think it would be the same for each one, but this one is a little bit shorter. 

Looking forward to the opportunity. 

On the status of edge rusher Abdul Carter ahead of the Notre Dame game

He’s doing great. His attitude is great. His mentality has been really good. You know, we’ll see. But I  think he’s taken the right approach and mentality, and really, it’s going to come down to how he feels and how much practice he’s able to get during the week. 

At this point, I don’t think there’s anything that is stopping him from playing. But it’s just — it’s going to come down to, you know, how is he able to play. 

We’ll see. We’ll see. But his mentality is great. He’s got a big smile on his face. I think he’s excited about this week. But it’s too early to say at this stage, and as you guys know, I don’t usually talk about these things a whole lot. I get where we are at. This is an important piece in the story line. But Abdul is going about things the right way, and we’ll see how this thing plays out. 

On the Penn State offense under the direction of Andy Kotelnicki

Well, a couple things. No. 1, I kind of manage it like the same way I’ve always managed it. I think as an offensive coordinator, as a defensive coordinator, I may say to Tom Allen, let’s make him earn it here. It’s third-and-long, trying to decide on the headset whether we are going to go after him or play more coverage. That’s the stuff I’ll probably say, they are discussing, and him and Anthony Poindexter on the headset. Hey, what do we want to do here. I may jump in here and say, hey, I agree with Dex, let’s go after him here or let’s make him earn approximate. 

Same thing on offense. There’s times where maybe you had not taken a shot in a while and I think we need to loosen him up and be aggressive. Or at midfield and we’re in two down territory, and I’m saying,  Hey, you’ve got two downs; so call this third down as if you’ve got two, if you’re going to go-for-it-on fourth-down, type of deal. Allow us to be aggressive and take a shot or pick up the first down. It’s more things like that. It’s governing the big picture. Do we need to run the ball here; we need to milk the clock; we are ahead by two scores or three scores and we want to run the ball here and manage the clock as much as possible.

The creativity we want and that’s a big reason why he’s here. The explosive plays which are typically tied to the creative plays. It’s funny, though. Last week we ran the toss, where Tyler Warren tossed it to  Drew and tried to take a shot down the field, and everybody thought that was a bad decision, because it didn’t work. 

When it works, everybody thinks it’s the great decision. The double pass to Tyler Warren to throw back.  If that didn’t work against USC, they would say, ‘Oh, my God they tried to get too cute’, right. 

For us, we work at these things. We want it to be aggressive. We want it to be just part of our identity;  this is what we do. And I think it creates a lot more headaches for the defensive coordinator, and the defensive staff that’s trying to prepare for these things. 

At the end of the day, it’s about execution. You’ve got to rep it enough that the guys know what to do.  So like for example, it’s not always going to play out the way you repped it in practice. So have you repped it enough that when the ball is supposed to go here, and that’s not open and it’s been open every single time in practice, have you given them the look where, okay, that’s covered, and what’s — what’s our answer right here. Are we throwing the ball away; where’s an outlet, are we trying to get back to the line of scrimmage, whatever it may be. 

I think that’s the important thing is we want the creativity. We want the explosive plays. That’s probably the biggest difference in our offense this year is the explosive plays, which is a big reason why he’s here. But those are also tied to the creativity and also all the things that you have got to try to prepare for during a week, right. So it’s all of that. And for me, it’s just, you know, either pushing Tom and [Joe]  Lustig and Andy to be more aggressive when I think we need to, or when there’s times that we need to be a little bit more conservative. That’s kind of how I see it. 

And during the week, we’ll have some discussions, or during practice I’ll see some things or we’ll discuss some things. I’ll give some feedback. But I want us to be aggressive. I want Tom to call the game aggressive; I want Stig to call the game aggressive, I want Andy to call the game aggressive and creatively. 

On Penn State’s aggression on fourth down, which is similar to that of Notre Dame

It really has not changed a whole lot. If you go back to Vanderbilt, we were doing those things there. I  think some years, you maybe do it more than others because maybe you’re better at running the ball or better at short-yardage situations or better on the offensive line. 

When we got here, I think you guys know this, I think we had three or five offensive lineman in the whole program. I would not say our strength was the offensive line, and I say that and people are like are shocked by it. 

You’ve got to play to your strengths, and sometimes your strength is to punt and play good defense and early on, that was our strength when we got here. Bob Shoop had done a really good job for us. We had a little bit more depth and talent on that side of the ball. You know, if you go all the way back to  Vanderbilt, that’s what we did. Now, it’s probably hard to find that because no one covered us or followed it. But that’s the reality of it. 

So you know for a lot of different reasons, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to win games and give your team the best advantage. Sometimes it’s going to be being aggressive and going for it on fourth down, and some years it’s going to be punting based on how your team is built and constructed and what your strengths and weaknesses are. 

In terms of our DNA and my DNA, we would like to be aggressive. And historically, I think, again, if you just look at the numbers, it may or may not say that. But again, that may be because it was a couple 

years where I didn’t feel like that was in our best interests based on what our strength was and who our strength was.