Notebook: James Franklin stresses prep, defensive improvement, more at weekly press conference
Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media on Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press conference. Coming off a 63-7 win over Delaware, with a date at Illinois up next, the regular weekly press conference offered an opportunity to reflect on progress made while looking ahead to the start of the Big Ten schedule.
Over 45 minutes, Franklin did that much and more.
Here, we’re looking at the news, notes, and observations to emerge from Franklin’s afternoon at the Beaver Stadium microphone:
James Franklin press conference notebook
1) Game of firsts
At the heart of a few questions for Franklin on Tuesday afternoon was a familiar refrain. This game, Penn State’s first on the road and in the Big Ten this season, marks a new box to tick for quarterback Drew Allar.
So, how is he going to respond?
As Franklin laid out, similar to his previous answers about other firsts this season including Allar’s handling of being named the starter and Allar’s first game as the starter, the Nittany Lions can’t know until they know. But, importantly, they’ve done everything to set up Allar, and the rest of the crew of first-time performers, for success.
“It’ll come fast and we need to be prepared for that,” Franklin said. “We got a young roster with a bunch of young players that will be traveling for the first time, and make sure that they understand what that is going to be like, the difference in travel and all the responsibilities that come with that so that we can reduce distractions as much as possible.
“We expect it to be a challenging road environment, but we didn’t wait until this week to prepare for that. Whether it’s crowd noise or whatever it may be, we’ve done that all training camp. We’ll major in it this week as well.”
Allar, the internally awarded offensive player of the game for his performance against Delaware, lives it. As explained by Franklin, that’s film watching, nutrition, hydration, sleep, and leadership.
And while that is expected to carry over into his performance at Memorial Stadium, Franklin acknowledged that only the event itself can confirm those expectations.
“All these things are firsts, and it’s hard for me to sit here and tell you what he will be like and what we will be like in these situations until we’ve been through them,” Franklin said. “For us, it’s do everything we possible can to prepare as a team, and specifically for Drew as well, to get him as prepared as we possibly can for what it will be like to be on the road.”
2) Mental mistakes
Franklin wanted to see improvement from week one to week two in some key areas. And, in the Nittany Lions’ performance against Delaware, he got many of them.
Missed tackles and missed assignments, he said, both were reduced from the West Virginia performance this past weekend.
But, identifying the areas for growth that he routinely harps on, Franklin made one thing clear on Tuesday afternoon. Though making improvements in key areas, for in-game awareness, work remains.
“Situational football, situational football, situational football,” Franklin said, recounting a special teams mishap on Saturday afternoon. “It’s fourth and one. We go punt safe. They go hard count. We jump offsides.
“The whole reason for going punt safe and fourth and one is to anticipate and expect a hard count and not jump offsides and give them a first down. In some ways, that equates to a turnover. We were getting the ball back and gave it back to them.
“And then too many free yards. We were excellent the week before in penalties and not as good this past week when it came to penalties. So we got to get that cleaned up.”
After committing only one penalty against West Virginia, the Nittany Lions were flagged seven times last weekend.
3) Practice makes perfect
A theme that weaved its way through the press conference was the ensuing challenge of facing Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer. The former Mississippi signal-caller transferred to the Illini this offseason and has made an immediate mark with his new program.
He’s completed 37 of 54 pass attempts for 413 yards and three passing touchdowns while adding another two scores on the ground. That included a 72-yard jaunt last weekend in the 34-24 loss at Kansas.
Having already faced West Virginia’s Garrett Greene, who ran for 71 yards on 15 carries to go along with his 162 passing yards, Penn State has some early experience to build on.
“I think we’ll be more prepared this week based on going against West Virginia,” Franklin said. “I thought we played well in the first two weeks. There were times and moments we would want to get cleaned up on offense, defense, and special teams, but I thought we did some really good things that are building blocks moving forward.
“The West Virginia quarterback is a going to give a lot of people trouble. I do think having faced him helps.”
In the same vein, Franklin also acknowledged that daily practice against Beau Pribula can only help. He put limits on how instructive it can be, however, acknowledging that the difference between practice and live-action for running quarterbacks is significant.
James Franklin bonus points
Preparation is key
– We’ve heard it before, heard it again on Tuesday, and will continue to hear it this season.
Franklin wants this team’s depth to prepare as if it is starting. In some circumstances, it does. In others, it doesn’t, and Franklin is working constantly to squeeze as much juice from that point as he can.
“If you asked our players they would say they’re sick of hearing that from me. I talk to the guys all the time. I met with the freshmen yesterday,” Franklin said. “That was one of the topics. Are you preparing as if you were the starter right now?
“Because if you don’t, then this time next year you’re going to be upset with your role because you’re not going to be ready.”
Big Ten scheduling
– James Franklin has turned Penn State’s annual tradition of starting Big Ten play on the road into a joke. Falling on deaf ears both from the attempts of Sandy Barbour and, more recently, Pat Kraft to rectify what has been eight years of opening conference play on the road, Franklin said he’s reversed course.
“We love it,” Franklin said. “I actually called Pat a little bit ago. I think they were talking about coming out with a new schedule, so we’re going to try and reverse psychology and ask to be on the road this year and see what happens.”
Freshmen feedback
– Multiple true freshmen were the subject of questions on Tuesday. Among them, James Franklin offered his thoughts on King Mack and Jameial Lyons on defense, and offensive linemen Anthony Donkoh and J’ven Williams.
Heaping praise on Mack for making an immediate impact on defense and special teams, Franklin hinted that while Lyons has played well and been impressive, Penn State’s availability on the depth chart at defensive end has impacted his playing time.
“He’s shown in practice and in games that he belongs,” Franklin said. “Now it’s him continuing to learn the package, understand the defense inside and out, so that maybe he’s one of those guys by game five we say, ‘hey, we’re going to green-light him.’
“Or he’s a guy we’re just going to maximize the four games plus post-season. We will see how it plays out. The guys on the team love him and they’re excited to watch him in practice and games. He’s earned the staff’s respect as well.”
Meanwhile, Donkoh “has done a nice job” and come “really far along developmentally,” predicting that his role will “continue to grow.” Williams is “super talented” but has limited experience in pass protection, which Penn State continues to work to develop with him.
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