Read everything Penn State coach James Franklin said following the Lions' 28-13 win over Wisconsin

MADISON, Wisc. — Penn State coach James Franklin met with reporters following his team’s 28-13 win over Wisconsin. The 11th-year leader of the Nittany Lions started with an opening statement.

“A couple things to jump out to me right away, just a gutsy win on the road against a team that’s really trending in a real positive direction, tough environment to play in,” Franklin said. “Just a gutsy win. You lose your starting quarterback, you lose your starting d-end, you lose your start in the offensive tackle. Next man up. No excuses. I just thought it was a gutsy, culture win, from my perspective, I also thought it was, you look at Beau Pribula; the other thing that stood out to me is unselfish team and unselfish players. Here’s Beau Pribula in a quarterback battle, waiting for his number to be called, and when his number’s called, he’s able to capitalize and take advantage of it.

“I did think the offensive coaches did a really good job of changing how we had to call the game once he went in to play to his strengths, and obviously J-Reed’s interception was a game-changing play. Just proud of our guys, proud of our guys. Sometimes we’re too close to it as coaches and fans, and I know we want all the wins to be pretty. That was one of the prettiest and ugliest wins we’ve had. But if you really watch college football and just don’t study Penn State, you’re going to have to find different ways to win games throughout a season. And our guys were able to do that today.

More: Penn State-Wisconsin takeaways: Lions overcome injuries, get big performance from Beau Pribula in win

“So, very proud of them. You look at the takeaway, the turnover battle, we tied there. The explosive play battle, we won that. The third down battle, we won that. Sack battle, we did not. Starting field position, that was the difference in the game, especially early on. That’s why it was so challenging. I think their punter is really good, and they were playing field position the beginning of the game. But we just kept starting out of deep out of our own territory, and they were starting in good field position. That was the story early in the game, in my mind.

“So just proud of our guys, just proud of our guys, but those are probably the significant stats that kind of jump out to you. Khalil Dinkins continues to make plays when he gets opportunities, that was cool. And then our defense, not only they played really well, but then specifically, third quarter defense continues just be a tremendous strength. So just proud of our guys.”

Read everything else Franklin said and watch him say it in the video below.

On if Drew Allar was held out for precautionary reasons

“As you know, I’m not going to get into a whole lot of medical stuff right now, especially when I don’t have a whole lot of information. I wouldn’t necessarily describe it that way. It was, ‘Is he going to be mobile enough to give us a chance to run the offense the way we want to run the offense?’ And it really came down to Drew once he came out. I asked him to be very honest, and he just didn’t feel like he was [able to] and even like at the end of the half there you saw even throwing was challenging.”

On the play of Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula

“I had a ton of confidence. He’s a character kid with a character family, very talented. Some of his talents are different than what Drew’s are. So I think that’s one of the things. I think it’s really important as a staff and as an offensive coordinator you got to be committed to calling the game differently. That’s easier said than done, right? And within our offensive scheme, play the strengths. And the stuff that I try to do is as a reminder, you know, Andy, obviously, is an experienced coordinator, but remind him, we’ve got to call the game now based on Beau’s strength And I thought we did that. Bo is a character, character, kid, character family. Comes from a great high school program. He’s universally respected in our locker room, from his teammates and coaches. Not surprised one bit that he was able to manufacture yards and points for us when we needed them most.”

On Pribula being ready for the moment

“He’s played some significant time in the past. I think that is obviously always really valuable, but in this type of environment, on the road those things are significant, they’re significant for his development. I think they’re significant for our team’s development. You talk about the amount of games we’re playing now, depth across the board at every position is really important. So, not only did we expand the college football schedule, but then we’re also doing it in the transfer portal era. So those two things really conflict with each other. They go against each other. So that development of your roster and having character guys like that is more important than it’s ever been, and I think it’s more challenging than it’s ever been.”

On Drew Allar being present on the sideline in the second half

“I think that’s the important thing again, that goes back to that unselfishness, right? Like, Drew, you’re, a leader for us, and although you’re not having the role that you imagined having, we need you, and how you carry yourself, how you conduct yourself, how you interact with your teammates, how you help Beau, all that is going to be critical. We’re not going to be able to do this without you. So really, really cool to see.”

On how Pribula’s presence opened up the Penn State running game

“We’ve talked about that in the past, right? Like end of games last year, where Beau would go in, and a lot of people would be talking about how the running game, even inside zone, would open up a little bit more. Just his threat, although Drew’s doing a really nice job of it, his threat is different on the backside, and it forces the defense in the running game to defend the entire field, and it opens up seams. Lot of times it’s even just playing without the ball, you come off that fake and burst out of it, and that holds the end, and that holds the outside linebacker, that holds the backside safety, and it creates opportunities for bigger runs.”

On what Jaylen Reed’s pick six meant to the defense

“It’s momentum. I don’t know if it was necessarily the lead, I would say probably more momentum. Momentum is a real thing. That was a big play in the game to swing the momentum. And I think from that point on, we were really able to take control of the game.”

On the threat Nick Singleton poses as a receiver

“It’s probably the area he’s improved the most. It’s probably the area he’s improving most during his time at Penn State is as a receiver. That was a one-hand catch, and he’s a matchup problem. If people are going to play man coverage, and you got him matched up on a linebacker, that’s going to be challenging. I think we can use him in that role even more and continue to expand on it. That’s big for us. And that’s big for his development as well.”

Closing statement

Franklin ended his news conference with a statement on his Wednesday news conference, which twice saw him step away from the microphone in response to questions about the arrests of former Nittany Lions Jameial Lyons and Kaveion Keys after the program had already released a statement on the matter.

“I’d like to end this thing by covering Wednesday. The first thing I want to do is apologize. I did not do a good job of handling Wednesday. Difficult situation, and I go to own that I did not do a good job of that. I understand you guys got a job to do. You got to ask those questions. I respect that. The university hadput out a statement. And the reality is, I think there’s not a whole lot more I can say other than that statement. It’s an ongoing legal situation, and it’s challenging, challenging on everybody.

“At the end of the day, I did not do a good job of handling that situation and representing this program the right way. So, I want to take a minute and apologize for that and understand that you guys have a job to do. So I didn’t do a good job there. I’m trying to get better like everybody else in a difficult situation. And I think that is a big reason for all of this. It’s a difficult situation and challenging situation. So, I apologize.”