Penn State Football
Head Coach James Franklin
Postgame Press Conference
vs. Iowa – October 27, 2018
Opening Statement
The first thing I would like to do is put things in perspective, so I would like to take a moment for the families and victims in Pittsburgh, we are thinking about them. Obviously, exciting football game but we have tragic events in our country right now that do not make a lot of sense. I would also like to make a comment about the game overall. You have to give Iowa all of the credit in the world because they are a great program and who has done it the right way for a long time. Head coach Kirk Ferentz has been there for 20 years. He is class act in the profession, within our conference, and for the five years that I have been here, he has been unbelievable. We were… to get a win against a really tough opponent within our conference. We did not always play smart, especially early on in the game, but we played gutsy. We were fortunate to be going into halftime the way that we were. I do not know if I have ever been a part of two snaps that have resulted in two safeties like that in one game, so that was pretty challenging, but our defense was just so resilient. Brent Pry, our defensive staff and our defensive players did not give up a traditional touchdown tonight, not one. It was a pretty impressive and gutsy performance by our defense tonight. Trace McSorley is the best football player in college football. I do not care what anyone says because he is as tough as it gets. He goes out on the field after we are able to get him back in the game and Ricky Rahne makes a great call against cover 0 and Trace is able to run for 51 yards, which was a huge play in the game. I also want to give some credit to Tommy Stevens. This day in age in college football where everyone is worried about just themselves, Tommy Stevens has put his teammates, the program and the university first. He has already graduated, so he could have left to play anywhere but instead he has been sitting behind Trace McSorley for three years, and all he does is go into the game and do his job for us. I think that is a great story for college football. I get that everyone has their own circumstances and their own reasons for making decisions, but a guy like Tommy Stevens who could have left and stayed here because of his love for his teammates and his program is pretty special. And then for a young man from Iowa, Jake Pinegar, to come up as big as he came up today was huge for us. I am just overall really proud of our guys, tonight was a gutsy win for us. I want to thank the fans because the fans were awesome. It was a beautiful day in Happy Valley. I told the players at breakfast that there were not better conditions to play college football than what we had today, so they should embrace it, have fun with it, and enjoy it.
Q: James, can you described the leadership from Trace McSorley and Nick Scott and how gratifying it was for Nick to come up with a play like that.
A: Nick Scott is an example, like we have had a number of over the past four or five years, of guys that have had different paths and journey to success. Some guys get it fast, some guys get it mid-point and some guys get it late. Nick is an example of someone who has had success on special teams, but not a whole lot on defense. We talk about championship habits in our program a lot, and Nick is one of those guys who is doing everything right. He is doing everything right in school, he is treating people right, he is a great leader, he is a great teammate he is tough, and he just keeps getting better. He has a great family with great support as well. To see a guy like Nick, who has done everything right, be rewarded is huge for us. It sends the right message to our locker room and it sends the right message to college football. I am a big Nick Scott fan.
Q: You mentioned the resilient defense; can you talk about the role that Yetur Gross-Matos played in that? He has also amassed a lot of stats the last two weeks, so is that a result of him stepping his game up or are we finally just seeing that effort translated onto the stat sheet?
A: He is just growing up. I think that this is his second year playing and he is just getting better. He always had all of the tools and we always thought that he would be such a special player for us. He is working with Sean Spencer every day, working with the older guys like Torrence Brown and Ryan Buchholz who have taken him under their wing. He has always had ability, but there are a lot of different things besides just rushing the passer. It is how to play the run, how to friction the tackle, when to box, when to spill, and all of the things that we ask our defense to do. He is getting more confident so that he can play fast and more aggressive. He has put up huge numbers in the past couple of weeks and I could not be more proud of him. I do not now what the exact stats are, you guys probably have them in front of you and I have about 25 things here, but Yetur is doing awesome for us. I think he has a very bright future but we just need him to keep developing and making an impact for us.
Q: How concerned were you when Trace McSorley went down that he was not going to be able to return to the game? And also Pat Freiermuth with four touchdowns in the last five games, what has he brought to your offense?
A: Obviously we want Trace McSorley on the field, but we have a lot of confidence in Tommy Stevens and Sean Clifford. We have done a really good job of recruiting and developing in that position. Obviously a guy like Trace McSorley has played a lot of football for us so we want him on the field. Tommy went into the game and did a great job and to be honest with you, we were not sure what we were going to do. Tommy had just come off the field and done a great job for us so do we just stick with Tommy? But we just felt like Trace has earned the right to tell us if he thinks he can go back out on the field. I asked Trace, and said that I need the whole package, I can't just have a pro-style quarterback sitting in the pocket now, I have to have more than that. We watched Trace run down the sideline and do a zigzag and he looked pretty good. We felt like he had earned that right. Once again, we told Tommy that he was going back in, because we told him that he was in, but we then decide to go with Trace and not one moment or one example of frustration or doubt from Tommy Stevens. He is the ultimate team guy. There are just so many examples that make you proud as a head football coach. Again, we did not play smart in the first half. Jumping offside, some special teams things that went wrong, we just overall did not play smart. We worked on their exact fake field goal play in practice all week long. We just did not play as smart as we needed to early on, but our defense played so well it kept us in the game and then we were able to go in at halftime, make some adjustments, and come out to play a lot better. I think being able to play at home was huge for us as well. Pat Freiermouth has been huge for us. Getting Nick Bowers back has been really big for us. Jonathan Holland has done a great job and Freiermouth, as a freshman, has really done well. I think that all three of those guys have really improved in the run game, which has helped us a lot. I think that he just continues to make big plays because he has a lot of confidence within his ability. Trace has a lot of confidence in him and the coaches have a lot of confidence in him. I will never forget when he attended the White Out Camp at the stadium; he was looking at me and looking around. That was prior to him earning a scholarship but to this day he just continues to make huge plays for us in that same stadium. It is exciting to see all different players with all different backgrounds form all different years stepping up and making plays for us. We have a freshman field goal kicker who made some big kicks for us tonight, we have a freshman tight end who made some huge plays for us tonight, we have a senior quarterback who goes down and goes into the little tent on the sidelines, I don't know who is making those tents but they are all over college football these days, and comes running out back on the field to make plays for us. Its storybook, and I am going to enjoy it.
Q: DeAndre Thompkins had three receptions in the first four Big Ten games; he had more than 40 snaps tonight, five catches. Talk about the decision to reinvest, make sure that you were onboard with him and how he responded with this kind of performance.
A: Yeah, we didn't reinvest. I got so much confidence in DeAndre, I got so much confidence in Juwan [Johnson] and [Brandon] Polk and those guys have been great and battling. We talked about that earlier, so we didn't really change the plan. We did move both of those guys to the X receiver position, because we weren't sure early in the week if they were going to be available. We were going to move the two of them over there thinking that one of them would and get the other guys a bunch of reps and it worked out that they were both available, but DeAndre just felt one hundred percent and Juwan did not feel one hundred percent. That will be something that we will have to look at a little bit. Another freshman Jahan Dotson comes in and did some good things for us as well, so we are going to have to look at that and figure out what is the best lineup and rotation and where is the best spots to put those guys.
Q: James, you mentioned the frustration with the fake [field goal] that you guys had tonight and a few weeks ago too, how do you kind of remedy that at this point when you guys are doing it and its not translating and also was it the play clock that led to the timeout on Pinegar's field goal?
A: Yeah if I didn't call a timeout, it would have been a delay of game. I called the timeout with one second left on the play clock. So that is why I called it. The other reason is that he needed a warmup kick. So he made the first one, it built his confidence way up, I called the timeout and said 'Hey great job just like practice you got warm and you made it.' It builds up the muscle memory of making that exact field goal, went back and knocked it through. [The fakes are] not frustrating. We just keep working and putting our guys in position to make plays. The guy made an unbelievable catch. Number 90 [Sam Brinks]; I don't see too many number 90's making an exactly over the shoulder [catch]. I mean he makes an unbelievable play, they are on scholarship, too. Awesome play by them, we won the game.
Q: James, you talked a lot about [Jake] Pinegar and how well he kicks in practice. How did he translate it to the game tonight, he kicks the three longest field goals of his college career.
A: Well I think not only that, Jake has made six of his last seven field goal attempts, which is great. It's kind of like the drops, it's kind of like everything else, I get it. You guys are going to ask tough questions, people are going to be critical of things like that, but around here, we are in the business of loving kids and we are in the business of developing guys and I believe with their investment and us loving them and us believing in them and us developing them, they are going to make plays for you. It's not always going to be the same path. Some guys are going to have early adversity and they are going to overcome it late like Mike Gesicki. Some guys are going to show up and be instant success like Saquon Barkley. Some guys are going to be like Nick Scott and not succeed until their senior years, but I believe that we have a track record of loving these kids and developing these kids and when you do that, good things happen so that is how we will approach it. I know there are some drops and we got to get it cleaned up, I know there are some offsides penalties that are frustrating, I know there are some special teams plays that we have to get better at, but I am going to focus on the positives. We got a great win against a great opponent. There's plenty of stuff to clean up, we're going to need to get it cleaned up, but we are going to enjoy this game for a few hours and then we will get back to work tomorrow.
Q: James, how much did you feel that you needed this game? Tough couple of losses here, this one goes down to the wire, you got Michigan coming up, how much does this mean to you guys?
A: It's not that dramatic. That's it. We're happy to be 1-0.
Q: Today being military appreciation day, you know Amani [Oruwariye] had his mother's American flag, how did that come to be and what were your overall thoughts on that?
A: So we had ROTC out to practice, which was awesome. That has grown into something really big for us each year during military appreciation week. Our guys were awesome with them. So thankful and so appreciative, I think we had about 200 ROTC members that came out to practice, so that was great. And then obviously wanted to find some guys that have had different stories over the years, some guys in the past we have had former service members on our team, Immanuel Iyke, we had him do it one year and then we wanted to know did we have any guys in our program that had parents that have served out country and Amani's situation was great. I think that it made it even more special that Amani was able to use his mom's flag that was given to him. Amani is one of those guys that jumped on with us very early on all the way back to our time at Vanderbilt. I am going to tell you during the recruiting process, mom was tough. I remember going to the home visit and I am smiling and mom just sat there grilling me on the couch trying to feel me out. She is not handing her baby over to anybody, so to think back, I always think back on our guys, especially seniors; sitting on that couch in Tampa, Florida, with his mom and his two brothers and Amani is smiling and mom is not. So to think about that journey and how far that kid has come. Now he is graduating this December with I think two degrees, he has made huge plays for us and mom is now smiling and hugging me, so that is great. I probably wore her down. That is a great story. It is a great story for college football, it is a great story for Penn State, and to have the opportunity to thank the people who served our country, allowing us to live the lifestyle that we do in the greatest country on earth, we want to take a moment to do that.