Live updates: James Franklin weekly press conference

Penn State coach James Franklin is meeting with the media on Tuesday afternoon at Beaver Stadium. His first time at the podium since the Nittany Lions’ 31-0 win over Iowa over the weekend, the session offers a chance both to look back and look ahead.

With Penn State’s dominance over Iowa of an historic nature, what are his thoughts on the performance? And, with Northwestern up next, can the Nittany Lions do it again? Facing a Wildcat program bruised, battered, and working to move past the offseason firing of Pat Fitzgerald, how do the Nittany Lions aim to remain focused?

Franklin will likely answer those questions and more as he conducts his weekly press conference. And, Blue White Illustrated is covering it all live and on-site.

Given his sentiment following the win over Iowa, the trajectory of the program remains positive on a week-by-week basis this season.

“I’m pleased with how we’re playing overall,” Franklin said. “I did think we got better this week and there’s stuff to build on for next week.”

Here and in The Lions Den, we’ll provide updates throughout the press conference, which begins at 12:30 p.m.

James Franklin press conference updates

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Press conference has ended at 1:17 p.m.

Questions for James Franklin in the room

Fourth down sneaks and Tyler Warren’s impact:

It has been good for them. And a big part of it is the rule change. Going to be interested to see if rule stays the way it is. Remembers all the way back when they changed the rule, with the USC play. For a while, you couldn’t do it, then they changed it and said you could. Will be interesting to see if it stays. 

Having a 240 pound, 6-5 quarterback, offensive line and tight ends helps, and then Tyler and the way they use him. Will do a variety of things off it. Has been really good for them. But need complements off it to keep people honest.

Yurcich:

Both him and Manny talked in the offense about what they want their units to be is winning. Both would probably admit earlier in their careers, they would admit to wanting go lead the country in points or stats. That’s ego, not necessarily team. When they go hand in hand, that’s fine, but a byproduct of what you have to do to win. That was a strong message from both coordinators on the retreat before the season.

On game day, his job is to help with that. Remind on the head set, hey Manny, they’re probably in four down territory right now. He knows it, but it’s a good reminder to hear it. For Mike, they haven’t stopped the run game, don’t get away from it. Or, we’re getting conservative, they’re sitting on their routes. 

That goes all the way back to training camp. It’s not always like that. It can be divisive. Important culturally the respect they have for each other, and putting team first in front of any ego things. That can hurt a lot of teams and organizations in general.

Stats:

Is a guy that the stats in the extremes are what you have to be aware of and concerned about. The really good and really bad. 

Yards per carry, have talked about that. In terms of Drew, it goes hand in hand with protecting the football. Goes hand in hand with completion percentage. And hand in hand that they need to be more explosive. All those things. More explosive when opportunities present themselves. But also tells story where they have called shots, but the way people are playing them, he’s not holding onto the ball waiting for a route to come over. He’s taking check down. That reduces sacks, keeps them on schedule, increases completion percentage, and those things equate to win. 

It’s all those things. But at the end of the day, also have to be more explosive. It’s a fine line. Still want high completion percentage. Want to reduce sacks. When opportunities come for big plays, have to hit it. Also the ability to get people the ball on the perimeter with a cushion, and ability to make people miss. Explosive plays don’t always have to be deep passes. Can also be a 5-yard pass where you make someone miss and take it. Running backs usually have to make multiple people miss to get that explosive play.

Not turning it over:

Just as exciting as the turnovers is the lack of turning it over. Need to continue to preach that and not get bored with that and those fundamentals every day. Has been really good. Rather than just brushing over the times where they got away with a poor decision or lack of ball security, that’s where you have problems. If after wins you don’t address the problems. Same as turnovers. Just because they didn’t turn it over didn’t mean there wasn’t coaching and teaching needed to come from it.

Special teams assessment:

Flashes of really good things. Units are playing well and fast and aggressive and hard. Need to be a little bit more consistent at specialist positions in terms of field goal percentage. Also would say they’ve gone for it on fourth down as a philosophy coming into the season that might skew the numbers in terms of chip shot field goals that would help. Punting, need to talk about field position because they’re not crushing it, but difficult for people to get returns on them. Kickoffs have been pretty consistent. So, good but need to take the next step with consistency.

Questions on zoom:

Beau Pribula and his development:

Have been very intentional with him like they were last year with Drew. Also, sometimes putting him in a series before they’ve really made a change. Putting him in with majority of the ones, which is important. Then after that series, make some more changes. Would like to get him involved more, in situation where he can actually run the offense. Being used primarily as a runner, but feel like they can use him for the whole offense. It’s borderline four minute offense, and something he does well. Gain a hat in the run game, four minute, and plays to his strengths. But important to grow those other elements.

Really good. But want to continue to develop that. Then obviously a place for getting him in situationally throughout the game as well. Red zone, third down, or changeup. Had a play they were going to run and James vetoed it at the last minute. Bigger package than what people have seen so far. He prepares well. Steady Eddie. Really good protecting the ball.

Explosive plays, time of possession: 

In team meetings, Mike gets up and talks, Manny, and Stacy. When you’re talking football, or situational football, one thing important is Mike talking about how defense helps the offense. Manny talking about how the offense helps the defense.

Manny talked about, they were on the field, and next time they were on the field, the score and clock changed. That’s helpful and impactful. 

To him, always looking for balance. And right now, have shown the ability to run to win. Shown ability to pass to win. Need to be able to show that they can grind it out to win, which they have. But also need to show they can be explosive to win. Have done it at times, but not as much as they have grinded it out. But also have been impacted by how people defended them.

Iowa played soft on perimeter and weren’t going to give up the big play. They didn’t bite on anything. Some of it is how people are defending them trying to stop the two running backs by overloading the box. But also like Illinois with a safety 25 yards deep, in their way, or with soft corners.

So they have to be able to show they can grind it out or be explosive. Run it to win, pass it to win, and continue to grow and develop in explosive play area.

In the locker room at half, point made to the offensive coach was do not get bored with grinding this game out because it is working in a style that will allow them to beat this Iowa football team. The fourth and 1 conversions. The sequence of calling the plays, knowing when they’ll go for it on fourth. It wasn’t like they went to the half demanding to be explosive.

If you look at yards per carry in first half, then third, and fourth quarter, just kept chipping away. Not good in first half, but third and fourth were excellent. Sometimes it’s how to win the game AND control the game.

Having to deal with visitors asking for money to come to campus:

As you can imagine. Had discussion a year ago when something came out from that school, and they talked about a number, and asked if his number was similar, and people were shocked by it.

Schools being mentioned, everyone is dealing with same challenges and issues. Sometimes things are said publicly that people weren’t aware of before. But they’re all the same challenges because most people are dealing with the same guys.

Competition preventing complacency:

Backup goes in and the starter respects them, that helps. Same vice versa. The locker room knows. Competition in practice, good on good.

Cool thing on Saturday: When KeAndre caught that pass on Saturday, unreal play, first person to congratulate KeAndre was Kalen King. Their practice battles are legendary. So that was a really cool moment for players on the sideline to see. It’s pretty heated at practice sometimes. But ultimately supportive.

Team this deep, talent margin so thin, how to handle players who might be unhappy:

Running back position is good example. Look at two deep as starters. Really have tried to sell everybody on fact that they’re sharing the reps, which helps in the fourth quarter. Helps in a long season, hopefully a very long season. Look at them defensively, have 86 less reps than last year at this point in the season. Then obviously, games where they have gotten guys out. And six less plays a game on each side of the ball. Guys have embraced idea of what do you need to do to win. What do you need to do to develop roster, continue to stay deep, and ultimately it’s about what you do with the reps you get. 

Have been pretty good there with culture, buy in to that. Everyone wants a few more catches, a few more carries, but ultimately people pleased with how they’re coached, being developed. And Sunday helps because of the developmental scrimmage. Threes and fours, even guys that play, are much more bought into that this year than in the past. Have made them more competitive, a little more fun. The veterans stay out there and cheer them on. That helps too. 

Not perfect, but it’s been good.

Assessing wideout play:

Has been pleased with the group. Need to be more consistent as a group. KeAndre has shown what he can do. Getting Trey back was big, cleared but not totally back. And then a group that has shown flashes but needs to continue to grow. Five guys that can play and have shown good things in games and practice. Overall, good, but need to get better in that area.

Opening statement

Positives from the game: Won the game. Shutout. But what they’ve preaching is that they got better. Three biggest plays were fumble caused by Jaylen and Dani, recovered by Curtis. If you look at the game, it started out the way Iowa wanted it to go. They got a first down, pinned them deep with a punt, then Penn State didn’t do a good job coming out, punted it back. So that turnover was huge. 

Fourth and 1 from the 48 yard line was the second biggest play. And third was the punt that hit their player in the back. Biggest plays that got it going. 

Amazing stat: After the shovel pass for the fumble, Penn State ran 80 of the next 96 plays in the game. That’s amazing. Of the 16 plays they ran, they went for -5 yards. 

Preparation was excellent and it translated to the game. Need to build on that. The D squads have been excellent. Leading the nation in time of possession, turnover margin, total defense and pass defense. 

Not a big stat team, but sometimes stats tell a story and reinforce things you’re doing right, and let you look into things you need to do better.

Areas for growth: Need to be better opening drive on offense and defense.