Everything James Franklin said in Peach Bowl news conference

By Greg Pickel

Penn State coach James Franklin spoke to reporters on Tuesday after his team practiced at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is the site of Saturday’s Peach Bowl. It was the 10th-year leader of the No. 10 Nittany Lions first time behind the microphone since the program arrived on Tuesday to continue getting ready for a postseason date opposite No. 11 Ole Miss. He started with an opening statement.

“We’ve had a great experience so far,” Franklin said. Also would like to take a minute and thank Georgia Tech. We were able to go over and use their facilities for practice on Sunday, I think it was, and it’s been great. We’ve had a really, really good experience. So appreciate everybody there.

“Obviously a great opportunity. First time ever playing Ole Miss. Which, is unusual in 2023 to say two storied programs like Penn State and Ole Miss have never played each other before. Pretty cool opportunity. Then for Penn State specifically, an opportunity to be the first program to win all six New Year’s Six bowl games. Never been done before. With the opportunity of doing it, if we do it, it will never be done again based on us going to the playoffs after this anyway. So really cool opportunity.

“Our guys have been great. I’m thankful to them. They’ve done a really good job of knowing when it’s time to work and when it’s time to enjoy themselves. To me, that’s what bowl games are all about. Again, the city of Atlanta, Chick-Fil-A, the Peach Bowl, Marriott Marquis, everybody’s been awesome to us, and we appreciate the opportunity.”

Here is everything else the Penn State coach said on Tuesday.

On Penn State cornerback Kalen King being in Atlanta for the game

James Franklin: I think you guys have heard me talk about this in the past. These are different times in college football. We’ve worked really hard to create a relationship with our players that there can be open and honest dialogue and discussions. We’ve tried to create an environment where really there’s no reason for any player to opt-out. What I mean by that is all the way back to Saquon Barkley, who was being projected as a top 15 pick, there’s a way to do this where the player, the family, the agents, whoever, everybody’s comfortable with the plan.

To be able to finish the season with your teammates, I think is important, but I also understand the challenge of it. So just try to have great conversations and discussion. Kalen was great. Kalen’s parents were great. I had really good discussions and came up with a plan that everybody was comfortable with. So great to have him here and be part of the program for one more game.

On Lions tight end Tyler Warren returning in 2024

JF: Yeah, obviously he and Theo [Johnson] both had some decisions to make. Theo made his decision, and we’re very, very supportive of that, and Tyler made his. Obviously we’re supportive and excited about that.

Now we have a responsibility for all these guys, just like we did with Olu, to make sure that we did everything in our power that it was the right decision. Again, healthy discussions with both Tyler, Tyler’s mom and dad, Coach Howle, myself, Chuck Losey, of what that would look like.

We’ve been fortunate, Andy Frank does a really good job. He and Chuck Losey are working with all of the NFL scouts and GMs and getting really good feedback about where guys are at, but the other thing is not just where you’re being anticipated or predicted of being drafted, what are your strengths, and then what are your weaknesses?

If a guy decides to come back, how do we attack those weaknesses over the next seven months so that they’re in a much better position next year and so are we as an organization.

We’ve done a really good job of recruiting and developing the tight end room. I think Tyler really helps us. Because, there’s some guys behind him we think are really talented. But, it sure is nice to have a veteran back while those guys are gaining some experience.

So a real positive for us in this game and a real positive for us moving into the season.

On Ole Miss starting quarterback Jaxson Dart

JF: Obviously you look at his numbers. He put up really good numbers in the passing game in terms of yards per attempt, in terms of completion percentage, touchdown to interception ratio. He’s also a guy that can beat you with his mind and decision-making, with his arm and accuracy, but then also with his feet.

They’re a challenging offense. You take his athleticism. You take their tempo. They’re one of the better offenses that we’ve seen this year. So it’s going to be a challenge. Lane’s always done a really good job, specifically on that side of the ball, so it will be a challenge.

Obviously, as we know in college football, or really in any level in football, your quarterback has a major impact and factor in your success. So a ton of respect for him for what we’ve seen on film so far.

On what playing in the Peach Bowl can do to help Penn State in the future

JF: First off, I want to thank Gary. Gary’s been awesome. I’ve known Gary for a long time, and he’s a pro. He’s a football guy, and he’s been doing this a long time, and he’s been a pleasure to work with. I’ve been very impressed with everything from the Peach Bowl, and Gary obviously is leading it from the top. So appreciate that.

Yeah, I think these bowl games in a lot of ways, they are obviously the ending point of your season, that’s obvious. But I do think you can also make the argument they’re the first game of next season for you.

You’re probably going to have some situations where you’re going to have some players that maybe were playing complementary roles for most of the season are going to have bigger roles in this game. So that’s an opportunity for them. It’s also an opportunity for the coaches to have them ready to play. That’s part of it. That’s part of this bowl season.

So, yeah, there’s a lot to be said that this is the finishing touches of last season. But, I think there’s also an opportunity for us to get some momentum from this going into next season. And, some of the guys that are going to play bigger roles on Saturday are obviously going to play bigger roles next year.

On his respect and appreciation for his Penn State coaching, support, and recruiting department staffs

JF: It’s interesting because, when you first started that question, I was thinking about Kevin Threlkel, and I was thinking about Destiny. I was thinking about Ben Kerr. I was thinking about Will Reimann. That’s what I thought you were asking first. These are all our ops people that plan this whole trip, from the hotel to the meetings to the meals and everything, and they do a phenomenal job. We actually talked about that in our staff meeting this morning and not taking all of the organizational stuff that goes into it for granted.

But, yeah, our staff has been phenomenal. We’re in a little bit different situation because we’ve had change at both the offensive and defensive coordinator positions. Obviously Manny Diaz has now become the head coach at Duke. We wish him nothing but success. Did a great job for us for the two years that he was with us.

We’ve been fortunate we’ve had a number of coaches leave our program to go be head coaches. So that’s also, I think, shined a light on my staff as well. Because at the end of the season on offense, we made a change as the offensive coordinator. And, Ja’Juan Seider and Ty Howle stepped up into that role, and really we played well in the last two games of the year on offense.

On defense, we’ve got Anthony Poindexter and Rob Smith stepping up into that role. We’ve played as good, if not the best defense in all of college football. Arguably, depending on which metric you’re looking at, the number one defense in all of college football. And we’re going to need that against the fighting Lane Kiffins over there at Ole Miss. They do a great job, and I’ve got a ton of respect for them. It should be a heck of a game.

What can the Lions gain by playing in the Peach Bowl and Atlanta for the first time?

JF: So I think a couple things. I think the amount of time that we’re down here and going to the Martin Luther King Museum, there’s an opportunity there, right, for our guys to experience some of that?

For them to be able to go into Mercedes Benz Stadium, cool experience. We practiced in there today. I thought that was great.

Some of those venues, I think, help you. Whether it’s for bowl games, whether it’s for conference championship games, whether it’s the playoffs. Playing in some of those venues, I think there’s value in it as well so you don’t have a number of those guys walking into stadiums and kind of looking around and kind of awestruck.

Us playing that last game of the year at Michigan State in the Detroit Lions stadium, I thought there was value in that as well.

But I think also, to your point, Penn State being one of the most storied programs in college football, but being able to come down into SEC country and allow maybe some people to see us that normally wouldn’t see us specifically live rather than on TV. No different than us going to Auburn two years ago and playing well.

I think maybe a portion of the country got a chance to see us live that normally doesn’t see us live and say, hey, Big Ten plays good football and Penn State plays really good football, and we got the chance to see that firsthand. I think there’s value in that as well.

Even some of the media, you got some of the local media that maybe hasn’t had a chance to see us up close and in person, there’s some value in that as well.

So there’s a ton of reasons for our players to get out in a different part of the country. For our staff to play an SEC opponent that we’ve got a ton of respect for and to play in this type of venue. There’s a lot of reasons why this makes sense and why I think the bowl experience is still valuable for college football and for our players.

On the two new Penn State coordinators and the Lions putting National Signing Day and two assistant coaching searches behind them

JF: I’m very appreciative of the staff and the job they did. I think we take it for granted at Penn State, having a drama-free signing day. That’s unusual in college football. Wee’ve been able to do that on a fairly consistent basis. And, I think people take that for granted.

On top of that, our recruiting staff did a great job. Our assistants did a great job because, again, we had change at both coordinator positions right before signing day. Most people, when that happens, you’re going to lose some recruits because of it. Again, we didn’t have any of that. So I think there’s value in that.

But having both Tom and Andy here, obviously you’d prefer not to have to have changes be made. But, if they are made, I think there’s a ton of value in doing what we’re doing. Tom’s ability to be around the staff. Andy’s ability to be around the staff. Staff meetings, game planning, watching film, watching the players, how we do things. So Tom’s not out there at practice, Andy’s not out there at practice during spring ball still trying to get a feel for how we practice and how we go about our business.

So I think there’s a ton of value. I think I said it in the past. Joe Moorhead did it this way. Manny Diaz did it this way. I think there’s a lot of value in doing it this way. And, I think, for more times than not, it has allowed us to springboard the day after the season ends and really hit the ground running.