Penn State Football
Head Coach James Franklin Postgame Press Conference
vs. Pittsburgh – September 14, 2019
Opening Statement
A: I appreciate everyone coming out and covering Penn State football. Appreciate you guys weathering the early weather. Obviously overall, happy to get the win against a good football team. Give those guys a bunch of credit, a good football team. They obviously had a plan and they did a really good job of executing that plan. A couple of things I think were huge in the game: the starting field position battle. They were able to win that with the 21-yard line which I thought was significant. The turnover battle, both teams did a really good job protecting the ball. One turnover could have been the difference in that game. Penalty battle, I'll probably avoid that subject. The explosive play battle, we were tied. Very competitive game. Some things that jump out, Journey Brown with the 85-yard run, the second-longest, non-scoring run in Penn State history. Jordan Stout, with a 57-yard field goal that breaks the record from 1975 by Chris Barr, who went to my high school. Jordan Stout, first Penn State kicker since 2008 to have two or more field goals over 50-yards since Kevin Kelly, who also went to my high school. Journey Brown had his first career 100-yard game which is awesome. I thought Blake Gillikin was huge. Six of his seven punts were within the 20-yard line which put them in long field positions and put our defense in really good positions. We have to get off the field and keep that field position a little bit more consistent. Overall in the series, 1-0 this week, but in the series 140 points to 72 points. Obviously, whenever you can keep a team to 24 yards rushing you have a chance to be successful. 24 yards we held them to which is significant. Obviously, I thought the early story of the game was they were able to pressure and get to out quarterback, maybe not sacks, but they were able to hit him and get pressure on him. We weren't able to get pressure on their quarterback early and I thought that was the early story of the game. After halftime, we were able to get him hit, scrambled, moved out of the pocket and other plays like that which I think helped us. But we stopped the run all night long which helped us. That was really important because that's the style of play that they want to play.
Q: Noah Cain came in and gave you guys a pretty good spark. Was there a rotation you guys were using for the rest of the game or why didn't he come in after that series?
A: Yes, the same rotation we have that I think he ran really well on that drive. I've told you guys before, he is not going to do a whole lot that blows you away. He's just so productive. He's going to get a four-yard run and fall for six, he's going to get a three-yard run and fall for five. That was one of the things that on the headset right after, on that last drive we probably should have subbed him in because that would have been a good situation for his style of running. But I thought he played really well. We have confidence in all four backs and they all did some really good things, things that jump out in my mind. Obviously Journey with over 100-yards. I think about Ricky Slade on the big pass play with the angle route. Obviously Noah Cain as well. A bunch of guys doing some really good things for us.
Q: The goal line stop for your defense, with three stops, how do you describe what you saw from your defense there and were you surprised at all that Pitt sent out the field goal unit with under five minutes to go and a seven-point deficient?
A: Well, obviously at the one-yard line it's impressive, it's hard to do. That is hard to do. I think they started with a pass and we were able to flush them in the pocket. I think the 4th-and-1 call they made was really a good call. We lost our eyes on the tight end on the short yard situation. Very similar to what we had against Wisconsin a couple of years ago. When you're able to stop someone at the one-yard line, get them moving backward and then obviously miss the field goal, that is significant in the game. The decision they made was making sure they get points. They started at the one-yard line and were going backward. If they get points at that time then the next time they get the ball, a touchdown wins the game for them rather than tie. it's hard for me to sit here and say exactly what he was thinking but the touchdown would have given them in the win. They had confidence in their defense that they would stop us and get back on the field.
Q: The explosive plays continue to be something that you are banking on. How were you able to do those today and the flip side is what do you have to do to get them going a little more consistently?
A: We missed a couple of them that we had. We had guys behind them but a couple of them we overthrew. A couple of them we left inside, especially the vertical balls. We want to keep those outside even if they're short. We want our receivers to leave room on the sideline for the quarterback and be able to adjust to the ball and we didn't do that. I think that was probably the biggest factor. But I thought they had a good plan. They were playing press man on outside which is what they play or they play press bail and try to take away the shots from us. Again, I have a lot of respect for Coach Narduzzi as a defensive guy. They always play really tough and I do think he gets really involved with us and how to attack out defense from a defensive perspective. Good game, but obviously very excited to get the win.
Q: Kenny Picket attempted 52 passes; you guys had three sacks. Were you satisfied with the pass rush?
A: No. We have to get to the quarterback more consistently. The last two weeks, when we came into the season really feeling like that would be a strength of ours and it hasn't necessarily showed up that way. We'll study that and make sure we're doing the things because I think we have the guys to do it, but we haven't got the pressure that we think we should get. Once again, they rushed for 24 yards. It's hard to win games with 24 yards rushing
Q: 100 years between these two teams. What's it mean to you to be the last scheduled game with the win and can you describe the intensity today?
A: 1-0. Awesome. Awesome being 1-0. I thought the four-game series was great. Very competitive. The first game, this last game was very competitive as well. We're happy to be 3-1 in the series. We're happy to be 1-0.
Q: After the missed field goal you guys got one first down and gained the ball back with 1:59 to go. What was your opinion of the form of your offense today?
A: I thought it was good. The third down call, we weren't successful because one guy ran the wrong play. It's hard to be successful when you've got one guy that thought it was a different call. We thought that we were going to get a big play in that situation and got stopped but we have to be clean, there's no doubt about it. We were able to get a first down; we were able to swing the field position. Obviously, we'd love to end the ball on your terms, either with a touchdown or kneeling down at the end of the game, or whatever it may be, but most importantly we made them burn their timeouts, we were able to get a first down. Obviously when you run the ball in that situation you don't pick it up on third down, I get it, but we felt very good about the call but we didn't execute the call.
Q: Your offense is 12-for-12 in the red zone with nine touchdowns. For a young offense that's huge. What's allowed them to be so successful in the red area
A: I think we've got a really good scheme and game plan each week where some of the RPO stuff that we do creates conflict. We felt good about our plan there. Recently the story for us is we have to continue to get better on third down and be a little more consistent. We missed a couple throws and a couple plays that we needed to make, but overall, I think we have a really good plan in the red zone. I think that has been a similar theme the last two years. We've been pretty good in the red zone; we need to continue to do that. The other theme is we have to be better on third down. I think leading into this game, we'll look at it, but we're leading the nation, I think, in explosive plays, and I think we're second in the nation in creating first downs on first and second downs. Our defense I think is sixth in the nation in getting to third down, stopping people on first and second down. The next step for us is on both offense and defense, we'll continue to get better on third down. We're going to enjoy this win, go into the bye week and take advantage of it. We've have to have a really good plan for the bye week, which between the sports scientists and the coaches and everybody, I think we've done a great job there, but we have to take the next step and it is going to be important that we handle this week the right way because we have a really good opponent
Q: Obviously Sean Clifford had a lot of pressure on him throughout the game. Did you make any changes to try to alleviate some of that pressure?
A: We went into this knowing that they had a defensive tackle that we felt could be a problem. The other thing is they were very aggressive in their blitz game and how they attacked our running backs. We had some conversations at halftime that we thought could help move into pocket, help with that sort of thing that we like to do in terms of free release in the back, which we made a big play to Ricky Slade, or even the screen game which continues to be a problem for our defense and needs to be a bigger part of our offense. So those are the things that we discussed at halftime that we have to do a better job.