Live updates: Penn State coach James Franklin holds Auburn week news conference

Penn State head coach James Franklin returns to the Beaver Stadium podium Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press conference. And this time, his Nittany Lions are set for a Southeastern Conference showdown.

Traveling to Auburn, Ala., this weekend, No. 22-ranked Penn State will meet a 2-0 Tigers team looking to avenge a loss in Happy Valley last season.

Can the Nittany Lions stay unbeaten on the young 2022 campaign?

Franklin will look back at Penn State’s performances through the first two weeks, including its most recent 46-10 romp over Ohio, as well as preview the matchup with Auburn, and tackle a number of other topics during his 12:30 p.m. press conference.

Blue-White Illustrated’s Nate Bauer is posting live updates from the news conference inside The Lions Den forum. Click here to access those.

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Follow our live updates, presented in reverse chronological order, here.

Opening statement: Could be better with penalties. Drive start has been a positive this year, and that’s without a whole lot of turnovers. Barney Amor a big part of that. Lost the sack battle. Won the explosive play battle on both sides of the ball and overall.

Players of the game: Nick Singleton. Chop Robinson. Devyn Ford on ST. 

Big Ten Freshman of the Week, Nick Singleton.

Positives: Won the game. Need to celebrate and enjoy winning. Doesn’t want to be a coach that doesn’t appreciate the wins. A lot of programs couldn’t do that Saturday or Sunday. Played a lot of guys. 34 offense, 36 on defense. 

Need to be more disruptive with sacks and turnovers. Punts have been good on special teams. Need to be better on PAT and FG protection and production.

Live updates: Penn State coach James Franklin press conference

(Updates will begin at 12:30 p.m.)

Press conference has ended: 1:06 p.m.

On speed of receivers: Have gotten faster this year. Maybe compared to previous years. Talking about unit from top to bottom. Thinks they are faster. Thinks they have more consistency from top to bottom for ball skills, fundamentals and techniques. That helps. More true competition through the entire unit. But speed is always something if you can have guys that can go 80 and take the top off the coverage and beat 1 on 1s, there’s a lot of ways to do that but speed is a big part of that.

Try to recruit that as much as they can. Camp is important for that.

On Omari Evans: Another guy who was here for spring football, which helps. He has some skills and talents that aren’t really coachable. God given talent and ability with his speed. Got a true evaluation of him at a camp through recruiting process. Some of those things are showing up. He hasn’t played a ton of WR, so that development has been important. It’s knowing system inside and out, knowing defenses. And then getting him in the weight room. Speed never an issue. About strength, fundamentals and techniques, understanding how to attack defenses. How to change and modify routes. Getting on field and having success helps. On field success at Beaver Stadium or on the road helps. Hopefully that will continue.

On challenges of handling QB room: In general across the country, it’s a challenge. But at end of day, you just have to manage your team and people appropriately. Have honest conversations, tell people where they’re at. You hope people will have patience to battle and compete. A bunch of examples of guys who stick it out and it works well for them and for the team. There’s less of that because of new rules and dynamics. But at the end of the day, you want to be as transparent and honest as you can. And have honest conversations with them and their parents. Has to be a two-way street.

On receiver depth: It’s expanding. Getting Jaden Dottin back has expanded that. Omari is getting confidence and coming on as well. Kaden coming on. From a rotation standpoint, still where they were at.

On long field goals: 52 yards or more is Sander Sahaydak.

On QB getting ball out more quickly: There are times they need to do that a little more. But not all of those sacks fall under that category. Sometimes it’s knowing where your target is and launching it that way out of bounds.

On Adisa Isaac: Working to get his weight back to where it’s been in the past. He’s had a really good combination of strength, speed, and quickness, and hasn’t gotten the size component completely back. He’s a few pounds down, which will help him not only in this game but as season goes on, and from durability standpoint. He’s getting more confident and comfortable each week. Was in a good place week one, but obviously coming back from injury missing significant time, there’s more confidence that comes with it. He’s steady eddie in his approach.

Defensive thoughts

On Abdul Carter last week: It was really important for him. He has the ability to find the ball in traffic. He’s one of the more explosive guys. Not getting more reps in game one was not good. But he’s gaining more confidence and Manny is gaining more confidence in him as well. He can use those skills with less thinking, which makes him a more violent, fast player.

On Curtis Jacobs saying he’s excited to put hard hat on and play that type of game: It’s interesting he said that because dad had a bunch of arguments during recruitment process of wanting him to be a receiver. He has the right mentality at LBU and athleticism to make the plays, based on his background. He’s the total package and has played really well. Played last week really well. 

Approach will be tested this week. Will put guys in conflict with play action and RPO. Glad to be talking on Tuesday about a LB having that approach. That will be reinforced all week long.

On Olu Fashanu start to the season: High production, low maintenance. Academic people love him. Strength and conditioning, trainers, equipment staff. He’s one of those guys. He just goes about business, does everything the right way, is extremely focused.

His play strength is exceptional. DE will put a good move on him, he’ll recover with his play strength, it’s impressive. He’s just consistent. That’s the difference at this level, the guys who can consistently do it. His process and habits are really good. Not a surprise to any of them the level he’s playing at right now. Has been super impressed by him.

On if Auburn will be a “Mike linebacker kind of game”/Ji’Ayir Brown: In terms of plays Ji’Ayir is making, compared to Marcus Allen, it’s a fair comparison. He takes on OGs, defeats blocks, timely tackles in space. So in terms of similar types of plays he’s making.

But this game, big believer it starts up front with front four and front seven defensively. This game, you look at running backs and their style of play over the first two games of the year, will have to play well up front. No doubt about that. Then have skill and ability to play action pass off it and shots down the field. Need to be able to do both. But how front seven plays will be based stylistically on how they want to play on offense.

On how Drew compares to Sean or Trace at young point in career: That’s a lot of how they prep and practice. Twos get a lot of reps in practice, which helps. With Trace, one thing with him was over his career, he was just so durable that a lot of those opportunities didn’t present themselves which they normally would. But being able to say they could make sure they get Drew experience like last week, especially as a freshman, it’s different. Maybe a redshirt or redshirt sophomore with a ton of practice reps would be different. True freshman doesn’t have either. So it’s important.

But the way they practice and train is important. Some people give few reps to backups. Penn State tries to balance that for practice reps and experience, but keeping starters fresh. Hopefully putting program in position for current and future success with the way they’re handling in.

On YAC in this offense: Accuracy at QB and strength/ability to run past as WR. The fundamentals and ball security of catching ball cleanly and confidently. Parker Washington can make the tough catch while still being able to transition or not slow down to catch it. Catch radius and ball skills make guys faster than they actually are. All those things they emphasize as much as they can. Those guys spent a lot of time working on it in the summer, but not more or less than in the past.

On pre-prepping last week for Auburn and before the season: Sometimes in the past, might transition inside or modify some practice. But were fortunate to be outside for as many practices as possible. Turned heat on in Holuba and closed doors. And then travel, worked on flying into there, but that wasn’t able to get done. So flights are challenging, hotels challenging. Hotel is an hour from campus. They used to stay an hour from campus as the home team, too. So they have a plan for it. But it is a little different from how they normally operate. Kevin Threlkel will go through them at the end of practice so guys aren’t caught off guard. 

But for the most part, routine will be similar. They’ll be as prepared as they can be fore the environment. But at the end of the day, have to execute in the moment.

On run defense: It’s hard to get a true evaluation of it. When you talk about disruption plays, TFL and sacks, knew going into the year that they had questions at LB for returning experience. But got those guys a ton of reps and they’re getting better every day. Is a huge believer that it starts up front with DL and setting the tone, especially with inexperience behind them, it helps and takes pressure off.

But this will be a challenge. If you make a mistake against this crew, it’ll cost you. Guys who can make big plays. So has to be sound. Make sure fundamentally are prepared and execute they way they need to. Will be challenged by run, athleticism, environment, and why they need to have great practices Tuesday and Wednesday, especially in the run game.

Then on top of that, you have to understand the play-action opportunities that come off the run game as well.

Opening comments

On prepping for Jordan-Hare Stadium: It’s one of the better environments in the country. Football is really important there. Lot of pride. Penn State has a ton of respect and appreciation for it.

Really prepped for it last week. Went all silent count in practice last week. As everyone knows with music as loud as possible. Everyone thought, we’re at home last week. But they were starting prep without telling anyone that’s what they were doing. Will show them pictures of everything. The War Eagle before the game. The band. The scoreboard side of the end zone has been problematic. San Jose State had three penalties that knocked them out of low red zone.

Will be challenging. But still have to go out and execute. Not just with starters. With anyone that could be in the game.

On Drew Allar‘s progress since spring: Spring ball is invaluable for the guys that can come in early. Having him here early, as well as other QBs, to learn, study, get comfortable, get familiar with system to truly have a chance to compete.

All knew he had physical traits to be successful, but he’s done a really good job with how to prepare and study the game. Sean has had a big impact on that as well. Same with Mike Yurcich.

He’s already at a point where game has slowed down for him a little bit. He can anticipate pressure and coverage. Has done nice things they need to continue to build on. Got all four guys reps in spring, in camp, and once they made decision to move him to No. 2 spot, his rep count has increased and been invaluable. 

Still got a lot of areas and room for growth, which is exciting. But he’s doing really good things.

Auburn: Has known Bryan Harsin for a long time. It’s still early in the season, so still makes sense to talk about returning starters from last season. Experienced team coming back. Has known OC for a long time. Harsin’s most trusted assistants are all guys he has trust with. Impressed by Tank Bigsby and backs in general. WR Johnson ran a 10.3 100m. Change of pace QB Robbie Ashford, who they recruited out of HS and is an explosive athlete.

Opening statement: Could be better with penalties. Drive start has been a positive this year, and that’s without a whole lot of turnovers. Barney Amor a big part of that. Lost the sack battle. Won the explosive play battle on both sides of the ball and overall.

Players of the game: Nick Singleton. Chop Robinson. Devyn Ford on ST. 

Big Ten Freshman of the Week, Nick Singleton.

Positives: Won the game. Need to celebrate and enjoy winning. Doesn’t want to be a coach that doesn’t appreciate the wins. A lot of programs couldn’t do that Saturday or Sunday. Played a lot of guys. 34 offense, 36 on defense. 

Need to be more disruptive with sacks and turnovers. Punts have been good on special teams. Need to be better on PAT and FG protection and production.