Penn State coach James Franklin talks Dante Cephas, a 'good' win at Maryland, more: Everything he said

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Penn State coach James Franklin was in a good mood when he met with reporters following his team’s 51-15 win over Maryland on Saturday at SECU Stadium. Per the usual, he started with an opening statement.

“I thought we had a great crowd,” Franklin said. “This area has always been really good to us from a travel perspective, from an alumni base perspective, so that was significant in the game. I thought offensively, probably the most important thing is we were able to stay on schedule on first and second down. We were efficient, creating manageable third down situations. I thought the o-line did a great job of protecting the quarterback. Drew [Allar] was comfortable moving through his progressions and using his eyes to open people. And, we grinded out the run game. They played an aggressive defense. They played a ton of covers zero. No safeties, overload the box for the run game, overload the protections in the pass game. And, we were able to get a lot of guys involved which was good.

“Defensively, except for the penalties, and the block punt that turned into a penalty, which should have been a huge play the game in our direction, we were able to keep them way off schedule. Exactly what we talked about doing and what we did today on offense, they had a hard time doing running the ball. For most of the game, I think they were negative in rushing yards. Where they get their run game is really in their screen game. We knew that. But, it just wasn’t overly effective. He threw a ton of completions obviously, but just not a whole lot of yards after the catch. Not a whole lot of yards once they did catch it.”

More: Penn State-Maryland takeaways cover Dante Cephas and more

“And then obviously the turnovers have been huge. That’s the thing that I’m proud of in terms of fundamentals. We talk about fundamental football, talking about the most important stat in football, it’s two of them, its turnover ratio and explosives and we’ve done a really good job with the turnovers, creating them and protecting the football on offense. That was huge. Then special teams, the big kickoff kick return was huge. That’s an explosive play. And then also the field goals. [Alex] Felkins has really done a nice job and has gotten very comfortable, and that’s been a real positive for us. So, good win. We won, and we got better this week.”

Here’s everything else the Penn State coach said after the victory.

On the importance of Dante Cephas’ big day

“It’s a win-win for everybody, right?” Franklin said. “That’s what you want. You want Dante to have the type of success that he wants to have in terms of helping our team be successful. Having another guy that people got to worry about on film, it changes everything. When there’s one guy that people are concerned about, a lot of defenses can figure out a way to make that challenging. Now there’s multiple guys, tight ends, multiple receivers, that are making plays. It’s a real positive. Hopefully it’s a big confidence booster for him and for us as well. And we can build on it.”

What changed with the Penn State offense this week?

“Yeah, I think what I already mentioned: Our efficiency on first and second down,” Franklin said “We stayed out of third and obvious passing situations.”

On the status of Chop Robinson

“We traveled him from a rehab standpoint,” Lions coach James Franklin said. ‘There’s certain things, when you have certain injuries, that you got to do to work back and be able to get back on the field. So, being able to get him out, be able to run, and be able to get some movement stuff without any contact, is part of his kind of protocol to come back. So that’s why we were able to do that. As you guys know, the old days, that may be a little bit of like, trying to kind of hide who’s healthy and who’s not. We have to turn that information in. So, we weren’t kind of doing that. But obviously, this is a big game for him. He had a huge game last year. Not having one of our most explosive players on defense and still being able to play the way we did tonight, those extra reps for Jameial Lyons were huge. And we wanted to play well, not only for Penn State, but also for Chop. We wanted him to understand that we were playing well for him.”

On playing the way a Penn State team wants to play and if it did so this week after not doing so last week

“I guess I disagree with that,” Franklin said. “I mean, I get we’re all just totally focused on us. But you look at the scoreboard, you look at games, there are people battling and losing games they’re not supposed to lose. Or battling with people every single week. We’re just totally focused on Penn State. I get that. But at the end of the day, it’s a long season. You got to find a way to get wins. You got to find a way to get wins. We got a win last week. We built on it. Got better. We got better this week. I think that’s something that’s really important. We’ve won a decent amount. Not as much as what everybody wants, I get that. But I also think we’ve taken winning for granted a little bit. We win games and you come in the press conference and it doesn’t necessarily feel like that.

“And I want to make sure the things I can control; I can’t control the press conference, I can’t control outside of the press conference. But I can control Lasch Building. And, I want people feeling good after wins. That doesn’t mean we don’t ahebv things to correct and learn from and get better. But I want to feel good for wins. Because, they’re hard to get. And there’s examples that you guys could use as well, every week of people that don’t win the way they’re supposed to win, or don’t win at all. So that’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to be happy for 15 minutes and then and then get on to the next opponent.”

On defensive line depth

“The depth has been huge,” Franklin said. “As you guys know, coming into the season, I felt like it’s the best depth we’ve had, really since we’ve been here. Not having Amin [Vanover] or Chop now for two weeks, that’s been big. So hopefully we’ll have both of those guys back and now you got a Jameial Lyons who’s played and gained confidence from that. So that’ll be really big.”

Were there any adjustments with Penn State quarterback Drew Allar this week?

“No, “Franklin said. “Again, it just comes back to the cover zero. When you get cover zero, there’s no safety back there. So if there’s two safeties, you can’t put any air on it. If there’s one safety, you can put, it’s almost like in golf terms, in terms of what club you’re going to use. You can put a little bit of air on. And, when there’s no safety, you can put a ton of air on because there’s nobody. It’s truly one on one, he’s got no help whatsoever. So being able to put air under it in cover zero, those DBs can act confidence all they want. When you have the entire 53 and a third to cover, and that balls in the air, and you can’t find it, and they know where it’s going, that’s an advantage for us, especially with some of the height that we have with some of our tight ends and a few of the receivers.”

On the play of Abdul Carter in the win

“Abdul, as we all know, he’s an explosive guy,” Franklin said. “Came on the scene last year, kind of out of nowhere, and kind of became the buzz and talk of of the season, specifically the defensive side of the ball. And for him to play well within the within the constraints of our defense allows us to be really successful. When Abdul’s playing well, and Kobe [King] and Curtis [Jacobs] and the other guys that rotated as well, I mean, Don DeLuca is the man. I mean, he’s the man. [Tony] Rojas. What about Rojas? I mean, it’s pretty cool seeing those guys come in and make plays. So yeah, when Abdul is playing well, and that unit’s playing well, then we’re difficult to deal with, especially back to the point about the depth that we have on the d-line.”

On the Beau Pribula package

“Like I’ve said you guys before, we’ve had it in for for a while now and sometimes just looking for the right opportunity time to use it,” Franklin said. “Wasn’t overly productive. But I still think it causes some issues, and it causes the next opponents that we’re going to play, i’s one more thing on film that they have to deal with now. Some things we got to get cleaned up. But, overall, I’m happy that we were able to get it out there and use it.”

On Drew Allar being happy after this win

“It’s all my guys,” Franklin said. “I want the coaches to feel good, I want the players to achieve their goals individually and collectively; I take a lot of pride in that, and I want Dante Cephas to achieve his dreams. That’s something that’s really important to me, that this is in Penn State’s best interest. And, it’s in as many guys in that locker room as best interest as possible. Sometimes it doesn’t happen in the timing that they want it to happen.

“But I want our guys to achieve all their dreams and I want them to get a damn good education along the way as well. And then sometimes they take that for granted until after the fact. But, I’m proud and I’m happy to see guys smiling and enjoying themselves and having fun. There’s nothing worse than getting a win and go in a locker room and somebody’s upset and somebody’s mad. I mean that’s not the time for that. But, you got 125 guys on the team. There’s going to be somebody that wasn’t happy with the amount of reps or opportunities.”