Penn State Football
Head Coach James Franklin
Postgame Press Conference
vs. Kent State – September 15, 2018
Opening Statement
First of all, I want to thank you guys for all coming out and covering Penn State Football. I want to thank the fans. I thought we had a really good crowd for an out-of-conference noon game. If you think about when we got here, what our attendance numbers were early in the season, compared to where they are now there is a tremendous improvement, so I want to thank the fans and the Penn State community for rallying behind us. That was awesome.
There were a couple of things that I visited with the team about in the locker room that I would say are the good things from that game. Number one, we won. We found a way to get a win against a good opponent here at home. That team was beating Illinois at half time on the road. So, I am pleased with that. Number two, we stayed healthy. Number three, and these are things I don't want the players thinking about, but as a head coach I'm trying to manage all these things. So, number three, we got a lot of guys reps. A lot of guys, again, played for the first time today, which is really important. It creates a healthy locker room where there's a lot of guys that feel like they had a role in the game. That creates a really healthy locker room. We limited our starters' reps. All this stuff is critical because we have a short turnaround. We don't have a day off this week. We practice tomorrow. We normally have off on Monday, we don't have off on Monday. We'll practice Monday, and then, obviously, we have the game on Friday night in Champagne [Illinois]. All those things, I don't want the players thinking about it, but as the head coach they're things that I'm trying to manage from a bigger-picture perspective.
Areas for improvement: it's what everybody in the country is fighting for-consistency. There's times we look like a Super Bowl team, flashes of really good things. Then, there's other times where we're really hurting ourselves, and the opponent had nothing to do with it. We can't do that. So, we have to be more consistent in everything we do, especially defensively. We have to eliminate pre-snap penalties. Guys, think about this, we had one penalty that we jumped offsides on third down, which created a first down. Then, we came back, did it again. As a smart football team, they took a shot on that play, scored a touchdown. So, two penalties. One equaled a first down and another equaled a touchdown for them. On the offensive side of the ball, we had three penalties that took three touchdown passes. So, we took 21 points off of the board. Three touchdown passes came off the board from penalties.
I'm pleased. There's still a score of 62-10. But, the positive is, there is a lot of area for improvement and growth. For where we want to go, we have to keep heading there. There is a lot of other cool stuff that I can read to you guys on here [stat sheet], like Sean Clifford coming in and throwing the longest touchdown pass in Beaver Stadium history. Pretty cool. All the guy does, he comes in, he refuses to do anything but throw touchdown passes. Pretty cool for him. There's a lot of stuff I can read to you. But, overall, we found a way to get a win against a good opponent here at home, protected our home turf, and get ready for our next opponent. We'll enjoy this win tonight. We have to be smart about it, and then get into our business next week for our next opponent.
Q: Can you assess where you're at after three nonconference games going into the Big Ten schedule? What do you do about dropped passes and how do you go about correcting them?
A: First of all, DeAndre Thompkins, who we have all the confidence in the world in, he runs down the field, lays out completely vertical, makes a fingertip catch in the back of the end zone, huge play. So, I'm so happy for him. I'm just going to keep believing in these kids. I'm going to keep loving them. Like I said earlier, we have shown that we can be big-time players. We just need to be more consistent. That's everything. That's pre-snap penalties. That's dropped balls. That's holding penalties. It's all those things. There are some things that go with experience. We have pick plays, run plays where there's a way to get in a guy's way without creating a pick penalty. Those are some things we have to improve on across the board with consistency. Catching the ball is one of them. But, once again, I've got all the faith in the world in Brandon Polk, Juwan Johnson and DeAndre Thompkins. Those guys are big-time players. So the way we are going to deal with it is keep coaching hard, keep loving them hard, and that will take care of itself.
Q: Can you talk about the strategy that went into picking this particular game to play a lot of guys for the first time, and how you thought they did as a group?
A: It wasn't really necessarily this specific game. It was how it ended up playing out. We know we have a certain number of guys that we have the ability to get them some game experience. It turned out, the way the score went this week, that this was the week to do it. We talk about this every week, but the way the game played out, we were ready to get those guys in. Now, all those guys have gained some experience, so some of those guys have two games left. If you look we played [Nick] Tarburton for two games. We said we're going to shut him down, use [Jayson] Oweh. We were able to get him some experience, and now we're in a situation where we can use Tarburton late in the season to solve some problems with injuries and hopefully still be able to redshirt him. So that's kind of what we're trying to do is manage it. The way the season plays out, some things are going to be out of our control, but right now how things are going we want to be able to get some guys some experience for this year, but also for years moving forward. The way today played out allowed us to do that with a number of guys that fit that scenario.
Q: Are there advantages for you from a coaching perspective, you winning big in these games but you are making some mistakes so you still have coaching and teaching moments when you go back with all these kids? They feel good but you can still work on them and tell them, "hey here's what you still need to work on.
A: Yeah, I think I understand your question. Here's the deal, you don't have to lose a game to get a wake up call and figure things out. I think that's a common misconception out there, it's like why do you have to lose the game to get the wake up call and to figure things out and have the most growth. In some ways I'm going to be honest with you, I coach them harder after wins because I think in a lot of ways emotionally, they're more prepared for that, they're going to handle that. Where after the losses, you want to be careful you don't beat them up too much, so it's how you balance all those things. Now, there's also the fine line after we win. I want it to feel like we won, so we do things to make sure that it doesn't get to the point where winning is the expectation and losing kills you. I don't want it to be that either. I would say after the wins a lot of times I'm going to set a tone in the office with the coaches and the players where we need to be harder in some ways in those situations. I guess that would be my explanation to you. There is tremendous growth that needs to happen from this game and we shouldn't have to go through a situation where we have a setback or suffer a loss because the reality is the mistakes are there whether you win or lose and what's going to allow you to keep winning is getting those things corrected. There's a whole bunch of stuff that's on that tape that's ugly and smells bad, and winning sometimes is like the deodorant that covers it up, the funk, perfume, cologne, whatever you want to spray over it, but that's the win. It doesn't mean that you still can't correct the issues and the problems because they're there.
Q: What is a day like today say about Trace when you had those penalties, called back touchdowns and when there were some dropped balls that were out of his control?
A: Well you watch that guy and his body language and demeanor doesn't change. A lot of times you see guys like that and their body language and their demeanor are all over their teammates and they're sulking, and that doesn't help anyone. If you're a young quarterback out there, watch Trace McSorely. The guy has been winning since he was in diapers. That's all he does is win and it's because of all those things that he doesn't get enough credit for. It's how he is as a teammate, it's how he supports the guys, it's how he is when they makes mistakes, it's how he is when they make big plays. And when he comes in here, he's always giving credit to the O-line, receivers and the running backs. The guy is a model in terms of how you conduct yourself in the most critical position in all of sports, quarterback. I love the guy, I've got a man crush on him, I always have and I will for a long time.
Q: At halftime, are you telling your starters, "Trace, Amani hey, it's up to a big lead I can get you guys rest or something like that?"
A: No, I never talk to the players about getting them out of the game. You talk to coaches like that pregame, that sends a message which you guys know I'm completely against. This game today was the Super Bowl, we are going to treat it as such, we're not going to talk to them differently, we are not going to approach things differently. Now me, I have things that I am managing, there is no doubt about it, but I won't talk to the media that way because the players read what I say to the media, they pick up on all those things. They sense our body language, they can read between lines so our approach and our message never changes week-to-week.
Q: In the return game specifically with DeAndre and KJ, what about them makes them so special in that area?
A: Well they're guys obviously when they get their hands on the ball, everybody in the stadium is excited to see what they're going to do - the coaches are and the special team's coordinator gets gray hairs on the opposite sideline, that's the reality of it. I also feel like when you have an explosive guy as a kickoff returner and punt returner, it has an effect that all the other ten guys play better because they know if they can hold their block a second longer, this guy can take it to the house. That energy, that positive energy that happens back there with that returner, it feeds into everybody. That's why recruiting is so important, that's why development it is so important. We have guys right now when they touch the ball, it's scary and it's going to be important that we continue to develop those guys and continue to find those guys all over the country wherever they may exist.
Q: James the last few seconds of that second quarter, an interception is almost returned for a touchdown but Trace McSorely tracks it down, makes the tackle, it could have been 21-14 they settled for a field goal. How does that accountability resonate with the entire team when your quarterback is making that kind of play?
A: I'd make two points there. I agree with you, typically when you throw an interception you should be the angriest person on the planet and you should go make the tackle no matter what. That situation is a little bit different because it went through a receiver's hands. You still have to get it done, at the end of the day you still have to get it done. What I would also tell you, one of the areas of emphasis for us in the offseason, was studying sudden-change defense. Every Friday when we have our walkthrough, we talk about sudden-change defense. We talk about that mentality when you go out on the field, it's not how 'aww here we are going to have to run out on the field, offense turned the ball over woe is me'. What a great opportunity for our defense to go out and swing the momentum back in our hands. Brent Pry and our defense have done a great job of embracing that and when you're able to take that, you get a turnover backed up into your own area and you're able to stop a guy, stop a team and then hold them to a field goal, then that's a win. That's a huge play. Trace gets a lot of credit but also our defense, if you look, there's been a shift in us and how we play sudden-change defense and it's because we've emphasized it with our defensive players and coaches and they've embraced it.
Q: Kent State is known for having a fast pace offensive line, how did you practice this week in preparation?
A: We have a reputation of running a no-huddle, spread attack, but we're not fast. That's the reality, everybody knows that, we don't go fast so we don't threaten people that way. We did some things in practice with our scout team where we showed our scout team two cards in the huddle so they could go up and run the first one and run the second one and do it quickly. But the scout team, if you don't run that style of offense, you're never going to be able to simulate it the way you need to get your team ready. Our offense lost out on ten minutes of their own preparation this week on Tuesday and Wednesday because we simulated their offense to get our defense ready. I thought it went really well, we had a lot of discussion. Do we do it one day or do we do it two days and I just felt like after the first day it was good for us, but we didn't get enough out of it yet to really grow and learn what to expect. I thought that put our defense is a pretty good position to be ready and prepared. I think [Kent State] does a good job offensively, I think their head coach is one of the young, up-and-coming guys in the business and their quarterback is a problem. I think they did a good job with the check with me stuff, spreading out horizontally across they field to create some running lanes to force you into making some decision and thawing some of the perimeter stuff as well so I think they have a nice scheme. It's the same thing that Baylor used to run and Syracuse is running at a high level so I think actually facing that style of offense is really important for us moving forward. I'm pleased overall with how we handled it but there's a bunch of stuff on tape that we need to learn from as well.
