Everything Penn State coach James Franklin said after the Nittany Lions 30-13 win over Illinois

Champaign, Ill. — Penn State coach James Franklin spoke with reporters following a 30-13 win over Illinois on Saturday. He began his news conference with an opening statement.

“That was a pretty Big Ten win on the road,” Franklin said. “You gotta appreciate winning. It’s hard to do. You watch college football, each week there’s games that there are upsets and things you gotta grind it out. That was a big time win for us on the road. It was beautiful to me, especially when you kind of take all the factors that we look at into it.

More: Penn State offense presented with areas for growth in win over Illinois

“It was great that Trey Potts was able to come in and contribute and make a huge play in the game when we needed something to get us going. That was a big one. And then just the consistency of our defense keeping people out in the endzone and the consistency of our offense being able to score enough points to give us a chance to be successful. So a lot of positives to build on. Obviously we’re gonna enjoy tonight and wake up tomorrow morning and get to work. We will be very critical on this film, because we got to make another step next week.

Here is everything else the Penn State coach had to say.

What did he learn about this Penn State team?

James Franklin: “You’re going to go on the road, 11 a.m., Big Ten environment, and find a way to grind it out. And that’s what the first half was. Never lost the lead. Never lost control of the game. We didn’t take control, but we never lost control of the game. And just kind of kept chipping away at it. So I was proud. That’s kind of how the season is gonna go. You’re gonna have some big wins, you’re gonna have some challenging wins. You’re gonna have to find ways to win on the road.

“You have to find ways to win at home. Continue to build momentum. And then make a ton of corrections between now and next week. To me there’s a ton to learn off of with this film, but it’s a good win on the road in the Big Ten.”

On the play of Lions quarterback Drew Allar

JF: “He kind of kept his cool. He’s pretty steady Eddie and poised. We did have some drops that made it harder than it needed to be. Obviously we didn’t have [Harrison] “Tre” Wallace today. So getting him back will be important for us. But then other guys gotta step up as well. And we just kind of had some moving parts and weren’t as clean as we needed to be. But he’ll learn from this. We’ll learn from this. It’ll be great tape to evaluate. And we’ll get better.”

On why Wallace didn’t play and evaluating the receivers overall

JF: “We had too many drops. We just weren’t as sharp as I think we have the capability of being. We felt a little sluggish early on. Even little things like kind of how we motion and how we kind of broke out of the formation. Trey, our medical people make those decisions. They were not comfortable. They didn’t feel like he was ready to go. So we held him. That’s how all those decisions are made.”

On Penn State losing the penalty battle

JF: “Whenever you get penalties that are either pre snap or post snap, they’re discipline penalties, and we got to eliminate those. We’ve been pretty good in that area. But obviously we got to get those things cleaned up. Not good. Not happy with it. not pleased with them. Don’t like them.”

On the return of cornerback Daequan Hardy to the lineup

JF: “Yeah, just it just made sense to play a little bit more nickel in this game. We liked the match up with him, especially on the guy, number one, that they’re going to try to get the ball. He’s been playing here for a long time and is a playmaker for them. So it allowed us to get into a little bit more of our personnel packages that I know Manny and we have a lot of confidence in. So kind of knock some of the rust off with him. That’ll be important for us moving forward.”

On if he’s worried about drops being an issue moving forward

JF: “I don’t think it’s really something that we need to discuss. We had a couple of drops today. We haven’t been that way all year long. So, I don’t think it’s really a topic, but obviously we got be better.”

On how the Penn State offensive line played

JF: “I think the fact that we’re able to play a bunch of guys has been good for us. We’re going to need that. We’re going to need that. But I think it’ll be interesting to watch this tape with not just our O-line, with our tight ends as well, and getting a better feel for it. But that’s a front though there was a lot of conversations about coming into the season. They also played some five and six man defensive line fronts today against us as well. I thought they had some pretty good kind of scheme ideas as well. But it’ll be really good film for us to evaluate and coach off of. We got to give them credit. They’re good on the defensive line. But it’ll be really good film for us to watch and evaluate.”