Live Updates: James Franklin weekly press conference

Penn State head coach James Franklin is meeting with the media ahead of his Nittany Lions’ trip to Illinois. The latest in a decade-long string of opening the Big Ten slate on the road, they’ll kick off at noon on Saturday from Champaign.

Here, we’re giving the play-by-play of Franklin’s press conference on Tuesday afternoon, live from Beaver Stadium.

James Franklin press conference updates

(Press conference begins at 12:30 p.m. Press conference ended at 1:16 p.m.)

Questions in the room

On facing dual threat QB/West Virginia: Will be more prepared this week based on going against West Virginia. Have played well the first two weeks. Obviously moments to clean up, but did good things that are building blocks for the season. WVU QB will give a lot of people trouble this year. And having faced him helps. Facing Beau helps, which is true, but you don’t feel the impact of a dual threat QB until it’s live because in practice you blow the whistle anytime someone is near the QB. Until you get it game like and live, it’s hard to get that look in practice.

On communication importance: Communication has always been a strength of his and something he’s always thought was really important. But it’s evolved. With the transfer portal, having conversations they never would have had before. If you don’t, though, the conversations are happening without you. And that leads to poor decisions without your input.

Not changing the conversation, but more willing to have it. 

Some of these guys go into transfer portal and have success somewhere else. Even guys here. They say they just needed a fresh start. And maybe that’s true. But often you’re just a year older and wiser and better.

Wife says he’s an over clarifier. He says it three times. And she doesn’t like it.

But does think it’s important for the staff to not have grey area. Wants everyone to understand the expectation. There have been some changes. A lot of coaches in the past talked to parents about academics, social issues, or things getting cleaned up. They weren’t talking about playing time. But will now have conversations, and so will staff, that they might not have had before.

On dealing as head coach with pressure and scrutiny (MSU, NW, Iowa, Michigan, etc): Doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about other peoples’ situation. Tries to take same advice he gives. Tries to be the best version of himself for the players, parents, staff, and family as he possibly can be. That’s not always easy. It’s constant and this is a challenging job. 

Struggles balancing time with family and team and responsibilities for both. Having a strong wife is important and helpful. Living in a college town is really helpful. Wife and kids stopping over at practice so easily is huge. At end of practice, there are a ton of wives and kids and lettermen around. Being in a college town really helps. This profession has always been challenging on head coaches and families. Not sure if this is a recent trend. But tries to take same advice he gives players by being his best self.

Also helps to have such good support from Matt Schuyler, Neeli Bendapudi, and Pat Kraft. That goes a long ways. Talk about importance for alignment, but also that Neeli knows he has her back, and vice versa. Same with Pat, and the rest of the board. Those things are really important.

On Anthony Donkoh, Jven Williams, and Nick Dawkins: Dawkins is a guy the staff and players have a ton of respect for. He’s done things the right way since he’s been on campus. One of the more natural, charismatic players. Smart, articulate, and a team first guy. Has kept working and waited for opportunity to present itself, and it has. Great example for a lot of players that if you keep a good attitude, an opportunity will present itself. For him to get those reps, and get Hunter out of the game, at that position, and then also play him at guard to create more depth, is really good.

Donkoh is a guy they’ve been impressed with. He committed early. He came to every camp as a high school player and showed up here really far along developmentally. Has really done a nice job. Will see his role continue to grow.

Jven is super talented and comes from great program. But lacks experience in pass protection. Is making improvements there.

On Mack and Lyons: For Mack, identified early based on testing numbers and everything that he would be involved on defense and special teams. Moved forward and that will continue to grow. He’s fast, aggressive, violent, the ball likes him. Made plays on the ball all training camp. Will continue to see him gain confidence and have a really good year. His role will continue to grow.

For Lyons, right now, still have him in yellow category like a lot of guys that played Saturday. That could change. But part of that is how healthy they can stay. All the yellows can change real quickly. In a perfect world, hope to stay as healthy as they can all season. Making those decisions based on guys moving up depth chart with play. But he’s shown in practice and games that he belongs. Now it’s him continuing to learn and get better.

On national ranking: They don’t talk about it with coaches and players. Want to find a way to win each week. As long as they continue to get better and do things capable of doing, it takes care of itself.

The thing that helps is being part of those discussions helps at the end of the season. Good example last year, TCU and Penn State, there are ways to still get there no matter where you are preseason or early in the season. Have to handle business.

On decisions for Olu Fashanu rep count: Those numbers were based on practice and the games are situational. If they can get him out, they want to get him out. Wanted to get him out as early as they could last week and were able to do that. But it’s what the game dictates. Put really good tape out there and show everyone he’s phenomenal and the best offensive lineman in college football.

For James, it’s more about managing last spring. It’s about managing practice.

Questions over Zoom

On curiosity seeing this team in closer games: Just wants to get better. Every single week. Why they challenge them in practice and training camp, all through season, it’s not just Saturday competition. It’s all the time. But the point is a good one. Will learn more about this team every week. Different ways to find to win. Good teams will find different ways each week. Based on scheme, matchups, challenges, weather, whatever. Have checked a lot of those boxes in training camp. Practiced in the rain, there’s value in that. Making sure in season to not only get scheme specific work from D squad, but also getting good on good work. Back to that depth, the D squads are better than they’ve been in the past. Going on the road and playing first in the Big Ten, value in that. Will continue to learn things about team and program as the year goes on.

On how this team is handling being so deep/managing the vibes: They were just talking about this as a staff. Have some young players they’re excited about, and they are going to play, but every time you give the three deep reps, that takes away from the two. It’s a balancing act. Important for everyone to understand that.

That’s one of the challenges of college football coaching. You have 85 on scholarship. 125 in the program. And you want everyone in that locker room to feel appreciated and it’s almost impossible. Want parents to understand it, and it’s almost impossible. For veterans and guys who have played, they’re great with it. But guys competing and starting for the first time, it’s harder.

A game like last week, you get the threes in the game and it works out really good. And in your mind the twos will play a ton this year, but they may not. Depends on how games go, rotations, how practice goes. It’s just trying to balance it and have as many discussions as you can. Roster and game management is critical. With new staff, have to make sure everyone is on the same page. Go through depth chart, any changes. Thursday, rotations and what they’re thinking. Want that Thursday instead of Saturday morning so if there are differences that they aren’t being worked out right before the game. Important to talk about it and get people on the same page as much as possible.

Have a parent meeting every year before the season starts to talk through these issues. For the most part, have been pretty good there. Never as perfect as you’d like.

On preparing as the starter and how you can identify guys doing a good job of it: It’s a really hard challenge for these guys to be backups. They’ve always been best player and never not been the guy. Physically the love of playing the game, the emotional aspect of it, and parents struggle with it sometimes. That’s challenging. 

Beau is wired right. His preparation is excellent. He’s a very thoughtful young man. Driven young man. And extremely competitive. It’s funny, because if you ask players, they say they’re sick of hearing that from him. Met with freshmen yesterday and that was a topic. Are you preparing as if you were the starter right now? If you don’t, then next year at this time, you’ll be upset with role because you won’t be ready.

It’s really an important lesson for all guys to learn not just for football but in life. You might be assistant manager, your number gets called to be the manager, and you’re not ready. With Beau, comfortable and confident that he prepares as a starter, similar to Drew last year. Beau did last year as well. What they’re doing a better job of as a coaching staff, and it’s not easy when you’re doing everything you can to get the starter ready and backup has a different style, make sure you play to his strength as well.

A lot of people say they’ll do that, play to strength of personnel, and they don’t. Yurcich is doing a really good job of that. As a first time starter, what does Drew do well? Hopefully that grows every week. And same thing for Beau and what he’s comfortable with, how do you play to those strengths? They’re separate packages. 

That’s challenging for Penn State to get ready, but also is challenging to opposing defensive coordinators.

On coaching defense – disruption/gap responsibility: You don’t have to play them off of each other. Be super aggressive through your gap. Be aggressive in your zone. Be aggressive in your job and responsibility. Your footwork, be aggressive on game day based on your preparation. Same with RB/WR/Coaches. You don’t want to talk about them like they’re separate entities. Those two things in great football go hand in hand and complement one another.

On Drew being center of attention/not natural to him: That’s one of the reasons he’s playing so well is he’s not focused on those things. He’s focused on preparing to be the best QB. And they’re not asking that of him in year one. Want him to do the best job he can and play best he can. But he’s spending all time and energy on being best QB for Penn State. It’s similar to a couple of years ago when Yurcich came and offense changed and didn’t take Clifford to Big Ten Media Days. Wanted him to just focus on the job. That’s what Allar is doing now.

On 2021 Illinois game and reflecting on it: It’s hard to do analytics on something you don’t have enough data on. There might never be again a nine OT situation like that. So it’s hard to study that because there aren’t many examples of that. What it taught everyone is to have enough low red zone or 2-point plays if you’re in that situation.

The whole idea of the changes is to avoid that. So studied normal 2-point play situations and OT situations, but not necessarily back to Illinois and that game specifically.

On Drew’s first road start: He’s taking all the necessary steps and doing all the right things. Expecting a challenging road environment, but haven’t waited until this week to prep for it. They’ve been doing it all camp. Will emphasize it more this week. He’s prepared, film, nutrition, hydration, sleep, leadership role, confidence.

All these things are firsts, and it’s hard to say what they’ll be like in these situations until they’ve been through them. Want to do everything they can to prepare as a team for what it will be like on the road. His game at Purdue last year was helpful. But most important, going to bed on Friday, want to have done everything they could to prepare to play well.

Opening statement

Delaware recap: Phenomenal crowd. Was a noon game with bad weather forecasted. But averaging 109k fans after two games.

Opening again on the road in the Big Ten. Called Pat and wants him to ask Big Ten for them to be able to start on the road, reverse psychology. It’ll be a great environment this weekend. 

Summary of the last game: Offensive POG Allar, D DeLuca, ST Felkins. 

D squad players: Lambert/Powers O, Tuddy and Keys D, and Tuddy ST

Notes: Played 80 players in the game. Veteran starters only played a handful of snaps, which is great. Forced 10 three-and-outs. Two turnovers. Combined with offense being efficient, in today’s game, to have 91 plays is unusual. More consistent kicking the ball. Starting fast is important and doing that. And then the middle eight, scored a nice two minute drive at the end of the half and start second half with a TD.

Areas for growth: Situational football. It’s fourth-and-1, go punt safe, they go hard count and Penn State jumps offsides. Whole reason for that is to expect a hard count and not jump offsides. Then too many free yards. Excellent in week one for penalties but not this past week.