What Penn State head coach James Franklin said about Buckeyes

COLUMBUS — Ohio State will face Penn State on Saturday in a top-five showdown, the second road game against a top-five team the Buckeyes have played this season.

Penn State coach James Franklin previewed the matchup on Monday, and he had plenty to say during his weekly press conference.

Opening statement

When you talk about Ohio State, what they’ve been doing and what they’ve done, Ryan Day in his career there and the program in general, obviously a ton of respect for what they’ve been able to do for a long period of time under a number of different coaches — and then obviously how they’re playing again this year. Statistically, they’re playing really good football pretty much across the board.

On the Ohio State offense…

Offensively, Chip Kelly there, I think Chip kinda has a reputation of a guy with a spread background and then throwing the ball around. I get that. But if you really study Chip, he’s always had a really strong running game. And you see that this year, that’s a big part of what they’re doing. 11 personnel and 12 personnel. The quarterback, Will Howard, who transferred from Kansas State, is a big guy and playing really good football for them. Touchdown-to-interception ratio, QBR, all those things, doing some really good things. Obviously a young man from Pennsylvania, so he’ll have a bunch of support here from his family and friends. TreVeyon Henderson is explosive, one of the most explosive running backs in the country who we recruited out of high school and are very, very familiar with. Quinshon Judkins, who we’re also familiar with as well, two really good running backs. And then obviously there’s a bunch of good receivers you could talk about. A guy that’s getting a lot of buzz is Jeremiah Smith, the freshman, but there’s a number of receivers that we could be talking about.

On the Ohio State defense and special teams…

Defensively, Jim Knowles, who is also a PA guy, is doing a really good job with their defense and has now for the last couple of years. Multiple, multiples of scheme defense, really probably the thing that gets talked about is their three safeties that they play with, how they do it. He’s been doing that in some form all the way back to his time at Oklahoma State, but is really doing a nice job. Their safety, Caleb Downs, who they got out of the transfer portal, is playing very well. Cornerback Denzel Burke, No. 10, and then obviously two defensive ends that are challenging. Jack Sawyer, as well as Tuimoloau, both of those defensive ends are playing extremely well, and I’ve got a ton of respect for what they do and how they do it.

On special teams, we think they do it by committee, which some programs do that. Their kickoff coverage team has been really impressive. They’ve only allowed five returns this year. Lorenzo Styles really stands out on that unit. And then when you talk about their punt coverage team, that’s another thing that stood out. They’ve only had three returns on the year, doing a really good job. Their punter is doing a really good job of punt location, hang time, things like that.

On QB Drew Allar’s status heading into the game…

“I think he’s played enough football for us that, that timeline will go all the way up to the game, really,” Franklin said, when asked what he’ll need to see from Allar this week before he makes a decision about who will start at quarterback versus the Buckeyes. “I do think, from a practice perspective, no matter where we’re at on Tuesday, we’re going to have to get both of those guys reps Tuesday and Wednesday. But it’s too early to tell at this point.

“But [Drew’s] played enough football that I think that decision will go all the way up to game time. The reality is, we’re going to have to have both guys ready. And you could even make the argument all three guys ready, which is challenging to do in a game week is to try to get all those guys ready.”

On Ohio State during the last decade…

“They’re a really good football team. They’re as talented of a roster as anybody in the country, and they’re that way every single year. They are as well this year. We have to play really well. We have to play really clean. We’re going to need a great environment. It’s a challenge. Our guys are ready for the challenge.”

On Julian Fleming…

“Obviously whenever you play an opponent where a member of our team came from that school, for me to sit here and say that it’s not a big moment and a big game for that individual, it is. Obviously we don’t want to spend time on that. I want Julian and our team to approach it the way we do every single week, which every week, it’s the most important game that we play. … Julian is a super mature guy. He’s been really good in our locker room. I’m very, very proud of him. I’m very glad he’s here. But for us, I don’t want Julian to treat this game any different than how he treated Wisconsin. When I watch Julian, he prepares as hard and as well as anybody. I want him to do that again.”