What must Penn State do to become a four quarter team? James Franklin explains
Penn State is off to a perfect 6-0 start and is the No. 3 team in the country despite not yet playing its best for a full 60 minutes. The Nittany Lions have been as dominant as anyone in the second half and especially the third quarter for the first half of the season. But, the first half of games has generally been a different story. Take last weekend’s win at USC, for example: After securing a first-drive field goal following forcing the Trojans to punt, the Lions went punt, interception, punt on offense while allowing two touchdowns and a field goal on the home team’s three ensuing drives. They eventually righted the ship, of course, but head coach James Franklin stated the obvious after the game.
“I think the word ‘resilient’ was probably the best word to define our team today,” Franklin said. “It’s good to be able to go in and say, ‘Guys, we’re a second half team,’ but I prefer not to say that anymore. I prefer to be a four quarter team, a start fast team, a fourth quarter team, all of it. And we’re going to have to be that to continue to win the games that we want to win moving forward.”
How will the Lions go about becoming that team? It’s a question that was asked to and answered by the 11th-year leader of the program on Tuesday night following the team’s first bye week practice.
More: What did we learn about Penn State at its first bye week practice?
“We haven’t really done it in all three, obviously,” Franklin said. “On offense, we started, went down, scored a touchdown, got a PI call, had to kick the field goal. I’m not saying I disagree with the call. I’m just saying we’ve done it [start fast] at times. We got to put it all together so offense, defense and special teams are all starting strong. And, it’s details.
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“It’s getting the guys settled., it’s getting them really comfortable. It’s figuring out what they’re going to be doing differently than what we had planned for. Because that’s going to happen, and [we have to get] our guys to adjust and feel comfortable. Play fast. But we just got to do it really, in at least two out of the three phases in each game.”
That will be the mission moving forward. As Franklin noted, Penn State does not have to be perfect in all three phases for a full 60 minutes every week. But, if it can be close to it on two out of the offense, defense, and special teams most weeks, it will like where it ends up by the end of the season.
