Watch: Penn State Peach Bowl Press Conference
The Penn State Nittany Lions face Ole Miss during the 2023 Peach Bowl on Dec. 30. Representatives from the game traveled to Happy Valley on Monday to officially extend the invitation and talk about the game with the media. Athletic Director Pat Kraft and head coach James Franklin joined Peach Bowl president and CEO, Gary Stokken to discuss the game.
Watch the full video here, or on the Blue White Illustrated YouTube Channel.
Penn State playing for a first in the last year
With the college football playoff expanding to 12 teams next year, this is the last season with the New Year’s Six Bowls. It’s also an opportunity for a college football first.
This is the first-ever meeting between Penn State and Ole Miss. This is the first time ever Penn State is in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. And this could be the first program in college football history to win all New Year’s Six bowl games. With a victory by Penn State which will go down as a record because this is the last year of the New Year’s Six,” Stokken said.
But of course there’s plenty of turnover for the Penn State program ahead of the game. The team has already changed offensive coordinators, hiring Andy Kotelnicki at the beginning of the month.
Next, the team saw star defensive end Chop Robinson opt out of the game. Then, late last week, Penn State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz accepted the head coaching position at Duke. With the game just a few weeks away, how will the team manage the game?
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“So what we will handle internally very similar to how we’ve handled it on offense for the for the last few games of the season. And obviously trying to also balance that while also interviewing and trying to decide what we’re going to do moving forward with our defensive coordinator position, whether it’s an internal candidate or an external candidate, and we’re working through that right now, but we’ll handle it like we have on offense to last the last few games of the season,” Franklin said.
Kraft discusses his involvement in coaching searches
Franklin has spoken of alignment during his time at Penn State. When asked what that “alignment” looks like, from Kraft, the AD first joked that he’s got a lot of opinions that he freely shares with Franklin. Then he gave his answer.
“They gotta do their job, and that’s what their job is. I’m here to support him. I’m here to do whatever I can. I can be a sounding board for them, but I’m here to just support in any way I can. And I know everyone thinks that’s financially related. It’s not, but I also want to make sure I challenge them to think big and think in a different way maybe than what was thought of in the past.”
