Live updates: James Franklin weekly press conference
Penn State head coach James Franklin is meeting with reporters on Monday afternoon from Beaver Stadium as his Nittany Lions prep for their final test of the nonconference slate. Coming out of a 34-0 shutout of FIU last weekend, how will they look to improve?
Franklin will tackle that and more. Follow along for live updates from the press conference, here:
James Franklin press conference updates
(Press conference has ended at 12:45 p.m.)
Improving special teams
09/08/2025 11:43:34 AM
There has been a ton of work in the offseason on ST, and then whenever you can have all those starters back, there is a ton of confidence from it. Other thing is Lustig knowing personnel. What does Liam do really well, DaKaari, Rojas. Guys starting on O and D to start on ST. Guys with primary role on ST and significant contributors there. Putting the puzzle together. Then each week, how to put stress on their special teams and put Penn State guys in position to be successful. Then wrinkles that break self scout tendencies. In the past, big roll punt team. If opponent know that, then all blocks devised to attack where launch point will be. Likes what they did this offseason. Likes what they’ve done in game one and two, just have to eliminate some unforced errors. Had KR last week with one guy blocking wrong guy and if blocking right guy, hole 12 yards wide and a KR for a TD. No one gets to see that because one guy got his count wrong. Those are the things he doesn’t want to talk about at the end of the season. Must eliminate unforced errors and missed assignments to make ST the weapon they think they can be.
Deep ball coaching
09/08/2025 11:39:06 AMThat’s most people philosophy. Obviously one on one, everyone wants the perfect throw in stride. But if you’re not gonna do that, want to leave it short. Gives WR chance to find the ball and make a play. DB can’t find it a lot. Or you get a PI, which showed up Saturday. Yes, you want to hit on stride. But want to eliminate throwing five shots and having three overthrows. As long as the ball is left with the right location, you can’t leave it short and inside on deep ball. That’s what’s so critical. Ball location, not necessarily the depth of the throw. Still a similar philosophy. Two plays with Ross, one a PI and another a TD and neither were thrown perfectly in stride.
Rojas calling scheme hard, but winning. How to implement it fully vs. new install
09/08/2025 11:37:07 AMIt’s a little bit of both. You never go into a game with the whole package. What you need that week to be successful. Part of it is, in the past with Tom and Manny, essentially a 1-gap defense. Let everyone play fast. Ton of man coverage. But also created some challenges not having as many answers some weeks for some of the challenges they may have in personnel. Have more answers now and LB forced to play in more traditional LB role. Having to defeat blocks. Before, could hit a gap and that was responsibility. Still have some of that. Different way of playing. Growth going on there. But in terms of the system, not everything will be in for any given week, and that’s where Jim’s experience is valuable. Being aggressive with it, but his experience valuable to do whatever they have to do to beat Villanova, but will put some things on them that will be important for the season that they need to be more comfortable and confident with.
LB performance and depth development
09/08/2025 11:34:28 AMChanges with Jim are showing up with LB and safety, things that are different being asked of them. Real competition at safety and developing depth. At LB, need to get more guys in the game to develop depth because not enough of that right now. Those two positions challenged the most with the tweaks from Jim. Need to get those guys playing fast and confident. That needs to show up on Saturday. Gotta play some guys. That’s the position he fights with coaches the most to play guys. LB is the QB. And the safeties, if they make a mistake, don’t have a chance to make it right. Developing that depth is critical. Play a lot of guys that played in he game on Sunday if rep count not significant. Important moving forward.
Singleton
09/08/2025 11:32:08 AMHad a conversation with him yesterday. Thinking a little too much like Drew. Being coached in ways that are helpful for his development. For all these guys, coach them Sunday to Friday. But on Saturday, just go play. He’s trying to play perfect. Such a good kid and so coachable. Trying to do the things that are asked of you. But that’s not what Saturday is for. Had a good conversation and then had a good conversation with Charles and Stan. Will be in a good place there. See him getting better in a lot of areas. But like Drew, overthinking some things and trying to play perfect instead of just letting it rip.
Explosiveness
09/08/2025 11:30:37 AMMissed some throws. Had five drops. And when you catch it, chance to make someone miss. Half of those turn into explosives. And times like Kaytron where you break a tackle and can get one of these runs going. Those things will come organically by doing the things they should. Breaking tackles, making people miss, maximizing opportunities they get, hitting a few more throws, straining and protection a little longer. All those things that are important and helpful. And again, if third down percentage goes up, creates more opportunities. D getting off the field more as well. TOP wasn’t great. All these things factor in. Not just one thing like favorite “just chuck it deep” deals. To be fair, could throw it downfield a few more times. But then catching and making people miss. Making free hitter miss in running game. Protection a little longer. Making a few more throws. Do a little better in each of those areas and you’re at 20 percent.
Chaz Coleman
09/08/2025 11:28:09 AMWeek one he talked about being nervous and happy to have it over. Just going to continue to get better. Especially when you consider he’s only played DE two years. HS QB junior year. Has a chance to take leaps and bounds each game. The other thing, he’s getting comfortable with the routine. DDS doing good job of being a mentor to him. Dani can be tough love at times, but Deion and staff doing good job with him. He’s a humble and hard working kid. Anticipate him getting better and better. And he’s a guy as they narrow this thing down, his reps will probably go up. Rather than three-deep at DE, will be games they play a two-deep. Could mean 8-12 more reps for him. More plays, more experience he gets, more production will come. He’s an exciting young player, exciting young man. But not going to talk about him too much because want to keep him humble and hungry.
Balancing winning and evaluating the performance, regardless of result. Temperature of the team and how they feel they’ve performed.
09/08/2025 11:25:56 AMThey go in each week and grade the film with them and are critical of areas to get better as a staff and players. All of it. That’s always the feeling on Sundays and Mondays and even Saturday after the game. But it’s not more than that. There are areas they know they have to get better and in some rooms articulated more clearly than others. Terry has a reputation of being the ultimate truth teller to everyone in the building, including to him. That’s happening in all the meetings. Different coaches have different approaches to it, which is valuable and important.
Guys feel they have played well enough to win but not up to standards and expectations. But that will always be the case. Also going to make sure, which is challenging to do in today’s culture, to appreciate winning. Every Sunday put up in meeting all the teams that lost that were supposed to win. And it’s always long. And all need to take perspective. Too close to it sometimes. Looks at a ton of teams across the country that were in dogfights last week who weren’t supposed to be.
Point is a good one. It’s balance. Winning is most important. Did you do that? How can you get better and play in a way to build confidence to play at highest level? Then also have a global perspective on college football and what’s happening every week.
Appreciate this aspect, but also hyper critical of areas to get better. Balance of those two things. Good, fair question.
Playing a bunch of guys
09/08/2025 11:21:59 AMHave done this throughout tenure. Playing guys early to develop depth. Also an opportunity to evaluate these guys in games. Who deserves more reps. Who isn’t ready for primetime yet. It’s all of that. Staying as healthy and fresh as possible. All of that. Ball distribution, too. Last week was good example of what they want it to look like. Nick and Kaytron both 16 touches. TE 5 each. WR 5-7 touches each. That’s what they would like. Just have to eliminate some of the drops because by doing that, they’ll stay on the field longer. More opportunities and touches for more guys. Want to develop depth, want to evaluate the roster, and want to stay as healthy as they can for a long season.
OL performance
09/08/2025 11:19:57 AMWeek two, much more physical. In today’s college football, rarely practice live, and even then go THUD and don’t want guys on the ground. If you’re not careful, they haven’t done that much putting guys on the ground, and that showed up a little in week one. Much more physical in week two. Need to clean up things to create more space and separation. Running backs making free hitter miss more consistently will also help with that. Times in protection where not IDing the front in the ideal way and that happens sometimes. Doing good job disguising, and not in most advantageous situation. So combination of those things. There are such high expectations for that group coming into the season that it plays a part in it. Thinks they’ll look back at the OL this year and think they’ll be one of the better ones they’ve had.
Drew overthinking
09/08/2025 11:16:28 AMMissed some throws he normally doesn’t. It’s important trait and skill for guys to learn to move onto the next play. No matter what happens the previous play, you must move on. A couple times that happened where missed a really easy throw he makes 99 percent of the time and it frustrates you and if you let it, it lingers. Happened early in the game. Then when you have people who have invested as much as Drew and the rest of the team, it’s easier said than done to move on to the next play. Important trait to learn to flush it and move on. Each play its own entity. Have to maximize the opportunity and the only way to do that is to be present. Not the past or the future.
Tight ends and receiver blocking
09/08/2025 11:14:25 AMReal change for WR blocking for the run game. A little bit of having to be careful when you get into a ton of RPO, it’s hard to develop receivers as blockers because they rarely do it. That’s been a real positive. That has been obvious on film. If you go through the tape on film, those guys digging out safeties. Liam a pancake block on a safety. Pena. Need to clean up Dinkins drop, but once those are fixed they’ll be in good shape.
Jim Knowles
09/08/2025 11:13:50 AMIt’s about points, and first games have been impressive and number of guys they’ve played. But can be more suffocating. Have given up some yards Jim would prefer to be a little tighter and reacting. D thinking and not playing as fast as have in the past. That’s what’s going to be important this week and moving forward. Just getting these guys playing fast and confident in new system.
Zuriah and Zion:
09/08/2025 11:11:52 AMGreat having Zuriah back. Played more than James would have wanted on rep count. But quick off the ball, confident, mentally, physically, emotionally. That was big for them. Young at DE so that experience and leadership is important.
Having Zion back also significant. Has made big plays in big moments. When you have him, AJ, Zakee, and Elliot and AC, a lot of guys who have played a lot of football.
Important to have those two guys contribute from leadership and production.
Opening statement
09/08/2025 11:01:16 AMFranklin: Not sure he’d ever heard a reaction like Gabe’s 67-yard punt. Guys managed the complications of the game well. Disciplined football – three penalties. Can still improve two kicks out of bounds. That impacts field position dramatically.
Much more physical up front on both sides but can still improve there.
ST: Blocked kick was frustrating. Literally for years, the way they teach it is responsible for inside gap and arm bar outside gap to help the next offensive player. Everyone does that. Have had two years in a row where guys have done that 20 times in a row in games, let alone training camp, and all of a sudden a guy gets the idea they’ve never been coached, never asked a question about it, and guy puts two hands on inside gap, none on outside, get split and FG block. Extremely frustrating. Then more consistent on ST.
O: Need to be more explosive. 10.9 percent. Need to be more effective on third down. Weren’t in a rhythm. 25 percent.
D: Allowed them to stay on schedule and they went for it a bunch on fourth. They were 60 percent on fourth down because too many manageable fourth downs.
Too many drops in the game. JUGS should be burning up with guys recreating exact drop position to get that fixed.
Making sure defensively gap sound. Doing job. Not trying to make plays outside gap.
But overall, some good things.