Everything Penn State coach James Franklin said after the Lions' 52-6 win over Villanova

STATE COLLEGE — Penn State head coach James Franklin spoke with reporters on Saturday night after his Nittany Lions beat Villanova 52-6 to wrap up non-conference play. Per the usual, he started with an opening statement.

“I want to give the 2005 championship team that was honored today their credit and their respect,” Franklin said. “Obviously, having Alan Zemaitis, who was a captain on that team, on our staff, is really cool. The crowd was great tonight, today, excuse me. We had a great crowd. We appreciate the support that we have gotten up to this point. You look at the game, the one turnover, that one drives me crazy, because although it wasn’t as clean as I’d like it to be, and I think we make it harder than it needs to be at times, I do think we’re playing winning football. On that one, we had a missed assignment, and you can’t let one bad thing turn into two bad things.

“Overall, I’ve been pleased with how we’re playing. We won the turnover battle. We won the explosive play battle. We won the third down battle. We won the sack battle. We won the field position battle. We won the penalty battle, and we won the middle eight. All those things are positives that we’ve got to build on. I thought our defense significantly took a step this week, just more confidence, more command, more control of the defense, especially from our safeties and linebackers that are kind of running the show. That was important going into this bye week. I think Ryan Barker has been really consistent and positive all year for us. That’s going to be important for us. You know, with Nick Singleton, with two rushing touchdowns, moves into third all-time at Penn State in rushing touchdowns. It was cool to see Joey Schlaffer get his first touchdown catch. I know you’re all over that. Really happy for him. We talked about everybody’s journey being different, and I was very, very happy for Joey and his family and that opportunity that he got, he maximized it. And then I thought the Jahmir Joseph interception was as big time as it gets. Not only making the play, but then obviously turning into an offensive player once the ball was in his hands. A lot of positives to build on.

“This bye week is obviously going to be really important. This is not an off week by any means. Tomorrow, we will practice tomorrow night, which is different for us to get into Beaver Stadium, because we have new lights. We have not been in the stadium with all of the new lighting up. So, we will do that tomorrow night, that we’ll practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, which is our typical bye week schedule. The guys will have the weekend including all Friday and Saturday. The coaches will be out recruiting, and then we’ll get into a traditional game week the following Sunday.

“Obviously, we’ll have the advantage of not having to break down the previous game and not make corrections in practice, so we’ll be a little bit ahead, but we need to get better. We need to get better on Tuesday; we need to get better on Wednesday. And then we need to be able to come in the next week in a really good place with a tremendous opportunity and a tremendous challenge in front of us.”

Read everything else he said below.

Where is Penn State going into the bye week?

James Franklin: Yeah, I think the first thing I would say is defensively, I think up till this week, we weren’t playing as fast and as confident as I think we need to play. It seemed like we took a step in the right direction in terms of running the defense and commanding defense like I mentioned before. Special teams, I think has been a real positive. I think we’ve been really good in special teams in all three games. Obviously, there’s still some things I think we can improve on, but I think that’s been a positive. And then offensively, we’ve just been inconsistent.

“We have to improve on third down. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. Then we got to be just more explosive overall. We’ve won the explosive play battle today, so that’s a positive. We actually met our mark of 15%, we were above that. But still, I think there’s a lot more room for growth in that area. We’re 3-0. I’d love to see us further ahead. I’d love to see us playing dominant in all three phases, but we know the things that we need to improve on, and we got plenty of film, and again, this bye week is going to be important for us with a real challenge coming up the following week.”

How has Drew Allar played over the first three weeks?

James Franklin: When you talk about touchdown to interception ratio, he’s one of the best all-time in Penn State history. But we got to help him get into a rhythm. And I think the third downs are a big part of that. We got to be better on third down as coaches, Drew’s has to be better, and all the guys have to be a little bit better. I think we’ll attack it this bye week, but we’re not getting into the rhythm that I think we are capable of getting in. 

Why does the Penn State offense thrive in two-minute drills in ways it doesn’t often in other moments?

James Franklin: “I think third down. It’s been an issue , like I think I’ve already addressed. But the two minute drills, I think, have been good to us. If you look at us, really, for the last number of years, we’ve been pretty good at the end of the half and two minute drills. We work that situation a lot. It’s a smaller menu of plays that we rep and we work in every single week against our defense, so we’ve been in more of a rhythm there. That’s one of the things that we got to look at. I brought up last week, and I’ll bring up again, is, what is our overall efficiency in normal downs when we huddle? What’s our efficiency when we go no huddle?

“We just got to look at that and make some decisions based on that. I did think we were able to get our outside zone going a little bit today, which was helpful for us. But I think having a smaller menu and going fast, and as much as we work in every single week against our defense, ton of value there.”

On Nittany Lions safety King Mack

James Franklin: He was fighting for the starting job and did not win it during training camp. The first couple of games, we weren’t playing as fast as we needed to. I give King a ton of credit. A lot of guys when that happens, they kind of go into the tank. And he was the total opposite. Was in the building, lived in the building, huge smile on his face. Great energy. Attacked special teams, was really playing well on special teams, and just worked his way back into it. And today, I think he played well.

On if Nick Singleton doubling up Kaytron Allen in carries was intentional

James Franklin: “I know sometimes when the numbers play out that way, it may seem like that or feel like that. It really just has to do with who’s in the game. It’s not like Andy [Kotelnicki], when he’s calling the game, he’s looking to see who the running back is. We got two running backs that we feel really good about, and we just call the game.

“And sometimes you kind of get into a situation where one running back is in and you’ve thrown the ball more, and you got another running back in where you run the ball more; unless we’re constantly tracking that, sometimes those numbers are going to get a little bit out of whack. But it’s nothing that was not a plan coming into the game. It’s just how those drives played out.”

On the play of Penn State kicker Ryan Barker and the Lions special teams

James Franklin: Obviously, to your point, you’d like to score more touchdowns, and I know that’s what Andy is in there talking to them about right now. But these field goals that everybody takes for granted, when the guy just runs out there and trots out there on the field, they’re going to win us a game. At some point this year, they’re going to win us a game. And that whole unit, a lot of times people focus on the kicker, but it’s the snapper, it’s the holder, it’s the protection, it’s the kicking, it’s all of it, so we take a lot of pride in it. They’re doing a really good job, the consistency of that whole unit. I’m proud of them.