Everything James Franklin had to say following Penn State's 38-15 win over West Virginia
Penn State started its season with an important win Saturday night, taking down West Virginia, 38-15. Nittany Lion fans were anxiously waiting to see what quarterback Drew Allar could do as the starter and he didn’t disappoint, throwing for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns against the Mountaineers.
As expected, Allar was a popular topic in James Franklin’s postgame press conference. Fans can read the complete transcript below.
Opening Statement
I want to thank everybody for coming out for Penn State football, we appreciate it not only from a game day perspective, but obviously from a fan perspective. 110,747 people, the fourth highest all time since 2018. We are very appreciative of that; it was a special environment. The statistics that we track will tell the story. We won the field position battle, we won the penalty battle, which to be obviously a really good side of a disciplined football team, with only one penalty for five yards. That turnover battle is tied, fairly unusual that neither team turned the ball over to open a game. On that note, I think that West Virginia has a good quarterback and that he is going to cause problems for people this year. He is mobile, he can extend plays and is accurate. And then explosive plays, we won that, we were 15%. Those things tell the story in my mind. It was great that we were able to get seven first time starters on the field. Drew Allar is the first quarterback to throw for 300 yards in a season opener since 2014 and 325 yards is the second-most by a quarterback in their first start, so a lot of good things there. It was awesome to see so many lettermen that we had back. This game was just before the NFL season gets started, so a lot of guys were able to come back. It was great to see all of those guys. At the end of the game, we got our twos and threes in there on defense. Obviously, you hate to give up a score, but the fact that those guys were able to get that playing time, I think is really valuable. We discussed as a staff that we are going to do a better job of that, of getting those guys on the field and we were able to do that. Now we’re going to be able to coach those guys and correct from it. To get the second offense in there and the backup quarterback in there and for them to be able to move the ball down the field and get a score was big. So, a lot to build on, a lot to correct. I thought we were inconsistent in all three phases. We’ve got to get those things cleaned up. But we’ll enjoy tonight. Tomorrow we’ll get to work on this film, making the corrections and then get started on Delaware. I appreciate everybody coming out.
Q: Can you assess a little bit further the job that Drew Allar did, specifically when it came to facing some of the pressure that got to him and the decision making overall that he made in his first start?
A: If you look at these statistics, Drew was 21 of 29 for 325 yards and three touchdowns. Obviously, something really good to build on and no turnovers. Like I talked to you guys about last week, I thought the one ball should have been turned over. So just like I was talking to you about from practice we will that as an interception decision or interception throw. So, we’re fortunate. To me, you got to make that throw in the red zone. You want to put it up high where our guys are going to catch it, catch it in the back of the endzone or nobody does. But besides that, I thought he did a really good job of managing the game from a decision-making standpoint. He’s extremely poised. Like we’ve talked about in the past, he’s mobile for a big guy who does a great job of climbing a pocket and keeping his eyes up. I was very pleased. And then on top of that we were able to spread the ball around. I think if I’m correct here to nine different receivers. That’s a positive as well. He was able to get a ton of guys involved in the game.
Q: How do you think your defensive front played against their offensive line? And what did you do differently defensively? Why are you effective more in the second half?
A: I think the biggest thing in the second half was we were able to get off the field on either third or fourth down. I think they have a good offensive line coming into the season. And I think their quarterback does a phenomenal job. When you are rushing that type of quarterback you got to keep in your rush lanes, and you can’t get above the level of the quarterback. That caused problems tonight, but I think it’s going to be good for us in the long term, that type of mobility as a quarterback position. They were smart and it wasn’t too many times where they were dropping back and holding on to the ball. The ball was coming out quick, either quick game or RPO type throws, which was hard.
Q: How would you evaluate how KeAndre (Lambert-Smith) played and what’s your confidence level of the receivers behind them after seeing them?
A: We feel like KeAndre and Trey, you look at it, one has seven catches, and one has four catches. One for 72 yards and one for 122 yards and two touchdowns. So, we feel like we got those two guys that have kind of established themselves and then we got a group. You saw McClain do some good things and he’s already a quicker dude. I think we have other guys that can as well. I think we had two drops down there, in the red zone, that both went for touchdowns. We have to get those things cleaned up. But there’s a there’s a group of guys that we feel good about, but we just need to be more consistent.
Q: How close was the kicking competition during summer camps, during practice, and before that, too? And then what made you decide to make a change, with just misses or were you going to split a half based on what played out and what is your plan moving forward?
A: It was very close. It really could have went either way. I think if you look at it early on, Felkins had the lead, then Sander kind of took the lead. Late in training camp, probably the last week, but it was still very close. So close enough that after you missed two field goals, that I do not think were long challenging field goals, that’s close enough during camp to go to the other guy. I can’t tell you my plan moving forward. Obviously, we made the change for the game and we’ll discuss it. There will be competition all year long at every position. But we have the depth that if it’s not a guy’s night, we have somebody else that we can put it at really every position, but we obviously have not made any decisions. We haven’t met as a staff. We have to watch film. We haven’t had a week of competition, so no decisions.
Q: With Drew tonight, did anything that he do, from the throws that he made, the way he handled himself, that pressure on the runs, did any of that surprise you, or is that the Drew that you saw in preseason camp?
A: That’s the Drew that we saw in preseason camp. I think that’s, to be honest, that’s the Drew we saw in unlimited reps last year in terms of winning the game, it’s really good things. Just feels very poised and competent. The other thing I would say because I think somebody else asked this question to your point. Now they were smart. They played a ton of covers zero, which, if you’re going to play a young quarterback and you play cover zero which allows you to get more guys in the box that we can block in the run game, board and protection and create a pressure situation for a quarterback, that’s a smart plan for a first time starter. But Drew was able to execute the cover zero plan and, except for one, we had this length of KeAndre that he got pressure to release the ground and kind of threw it low and slightly behind him. If that thing’s out in front, KeAndre walks into from seventy, sixty, or whatever that was, you know, besides that, I thought he managed it really well. Beau did the same thing. We’re trying to run the ball at the end of the game there, again, you’re gonna go cover zero, you’re forcing us to throw the ball and check for cover zero plan and picked up a first down there. I think it was on third or fourth down. I’m proud of the both of them.
Q: You mentioned earlier this week that there were some things we just couldn’t see in practice like Beau’s mobility and like the special team’s performance. After seeing some game time from obviously both from the special teams, how do you feel on those things now?
A: I thought we were inconsistent. Obviously, we missed the two field goals. Kick off, we were fortunate that we kind of slid one, it could have went out of bounds on us, we were fortunate on that one. I think the one punt we had, I don’t know if we had more than one punt, but the one punt we had wasn’t very great. Average. So, we were just kind of inconsistent, so we got to get that cleaned up. And then with Drew, I think you guys got a chance to see tonight, and really our coaching staff got to see tonight, what I anticipated we’d see from Beau. Beau has a lot of traits that aren’t going to show up in a traditional practice. When I went to watch him play in high school, it was one of the more impressive things to watch. Just his poise and ability to spread the ball around, so we got confidence in those two guys. It’s something to build on. There’s going to be a different style. He’s still able to throw the ball and be successful. We didn’t ask him to do that in this game based on what school it was and where the ball was. But, there are some things that are going to show up in Beau’s game that he’s going to help us this year.
Q: West Virginia threw a lot of different things at you, a lot of different looks, different plays, and all that jazz. How did you think you guys responded and what kind of felt like that “gotcha” moment that you guys really think you got?
A: Yeah, those things are important righ out of the gates you’re going to get some of that stuff. I think we got a little bit fortunate on the double reverse passes, I don’t think the receiver got the call. He was blocking, and he was the only receiver on that plane and the quarterback was looking, so I’d be interested to see how that would have played out. At least that’s how it looked to me. I haven’t watched the tape to tell. But yeah, I thought for the most part, our guys handled it and you just never truly know what you’re going to get in an opening game. Are they going to be similar to how they were last year now that Neil was calling the offense? Had they gone and done some type of study on our offensive and defense, had gone to some type of defensive front or coverage that we hadn’t really been able to see on film, so you never truly know what you’re going to get the opening game in college football. I was pleased with how we handled a lot of different looks and a lot of variety and variation that again, about the quarterback, I think he’s gonna have a good year. I think he’s going to cause problems for a lot of people from my vantage point.
