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Penn State head coach James Franklin Monday press conference: UCLA

Headshot 5x7 reduced qualityby: Thomas Frank Carr5 hours agoThomasFrankCarr

The Penn State football team fell to Oregon on Saturday, giving the Nittany Lions their first loss of the season. The team is now ranked seventh nationally and heads out to the West Coast to face UCLA in the team’s first road game of the season. Penn State head coach James Franklin hosted the media at the Beaver Stadium press room for his weekly Monday press conference. 

You can hear Franklin’s full comments on the Blue White Illustrated YouTube Channel, or embedded in the article below. Will the team rebound from a sluggish offensive performance that resulted in a surprising comeback attempt and double overtime? We’ll be discussing that this week on the BWI Live Show. For that, plus all of Franklin’s press conferences this year, subscribe to our YouTube channel! 

Penn State head coach James Franklin recaps offensive performance against Oregon 

Of course, the majority of Franklin’s questions today centered around his team’s 30-24 loss to Oregon in the 2025 White Out Game. The Penn State offense produced just three points and 109 yards in the first three quarters before two drives in the fourth put the team back in the game, ending regulation tied at 17. What did Franklin attribute another slow start to? Franklin was asked about quarterback Drew Allar’s completion percentage dropping since the second half of last season. 

“The trend can’t sustain. We have to make sure we’re not in obvious passing downs where we don’t have clean pockets or obvious open receivers. 

We can find some easy completions for him to get him going. 

Obvious passing situations and shots downfield have a lower completion percentage. We can’t sustain that.”

More from Franklin this week 

The national spotlight is now off Penn State as they head out west to face the lowly and winless UCLA Bruins. They are 0-4 with losses to four unranked teams this year and have already fired head coach DeShaun Foster. Franklin will address the media again on Wednesday after practice to update fans on his team’s progress. You can hear that press conference shortly after its conclusion on the BWI YouTube Channel as well.