Penn State Football
Head Coach James Franklin Postgame Press Conference
vs. Ball State – September 11, 2021
James Franklin | Penn State Head Coach
Opening Statement
So first like always, I want to thank you guys for coming out. I hope this works for everybody, it's different, but we appreciate everybody coming out to support Penn State football. Obviously, couple of big points I'd like to give you guys is this was the 300th win in Beaver Stadium. Noah Cain continues to do some really good things. He had his first rushing touchdown at home since Purdue. Sean Clifford became the 10th quarterback in Penn State history with 5,000 career passing yards. Marquis Wilson is the first Penn State player to play both ways in a game since Justin King, who was also at the game today. This was the highest attendance in a home opener since 2008 at 105,323. I'm super proud of Jesse Lukueta, he didn't really know what his role was going to be coming into the season, but he just trusted the coaches and trusted the program. Right now, he's impacting at defensive end, he's impacting at linebacker, and a first career interception return for a touchdown, that was big time. And I love the fact that we were able to spread the ball around offensively this game. We had 10 different receivers with catches in the first half, so that was awesome. I thought we were very efficient on offense, especially early in the game. I thought late we were able to get the running game going. I thought we protected the quarterback early on well, late probably gave up a few too many hits. We continue to get turnovers on defense, Hardy's interception was big time as well. We protected the football on offense. We had no turnovers on offense, and they made a bunch on defense, so a lot of good things. You know, when we talk about statistics, we won field position, we won turnover battle, and we won the explosive play battle. When you do that, you got chance to be successful. We did not win the penalty battle. I'd like to get that cleaned up but penalties to be honest with you, as I've stated before, don't have a huge impact on winning. The stats that matter most we've been winning so. I appreciate you guys all being here.
Q: You were able to play a lot of young guys, can you just give a general assessment of the value of that and what did you think of Roberson when he got in there?
A: Yeah, really valuable. I mean, I don't think we gave up a touchdown with our group that normally plays into too deep. We gave up a touchdown there late with, I guess you call them the threes, with the guys who don't normally factor into the rotation. There's tremendous value in them getting some reps and there's tremendous value to saving some reps off our guys. Especially on the defensive side of the ball, that got too many reps probably the week before. You know, I wish we would have got the stop a little bit earlier because I think we had decided to put him in with a little over nine minutes to go in the game and they went on a long drive, so it ate up some of that. But it was important to get him in the game and obviously to be able to throw a touchdown pass was big time so, there's a lot of value in it. It creates a healthy locker room as well.
Q: James, you said earlier in the week that in a trap game there were certain signs. What did you see in the team the last few days that led you to believe that they weren't going to fall into that?
A: Yeah, I don't think I said it was a trap game. Somebody asked me if I believed in trap games. To your question specifically, I just I thought we practiced well. I think our standard of how we operate, no matter the competition –
in conference, out of conference – has been pretty good. That's a good football team, you know, that's the MAC returning champs. I looked up on the scoreboard after the game, I saw some close games around the country, and specifically with some MAC teams. That's probably the best team in the MAC with, I think, 21 returning starters and 16 super seniors so give them a ton of respect. But we try to make sure we approach every opponent week-in and week-out, like it's the most important opponent that we have on our schedule all year long.
Q: Do you believe in load management? Now that the game's over, did you get what you wanted out of this game because you got Auburn next week, and you had Wisconsin last week. Did you get a little bit of rest for the guys who needed it, and did you get work for the other guys?
A: Is load management a basketball term or football or baseball? I never heard it until a couple years ago but, to your point, yeah, you know I'm going to be interested to see what the rep count was, specifically on the defensive side of the ball. Our rep count was way too high last week at Wisconsin. So to be able to play well today, getting some of those guys, off the field and out of the game early so that we can be as fresh as possible come Sunday and practice well. But that wasn't going to come at the expense of winning today and playing well today. But yeah, if I had to say before the game that it would play out that way, I would have been happy with the way it played out Jake.
Q: What was the effect of going under center? How did that help, were you pleased with it?
A: It was awesome. I don't know if you guys saw when we did it, the clouds parted, with the sunshine and the whole stadium was so happy. We've won a lot of football games from the shotgun; we will win a lot of football games under center from the shotgun in the future. I thought that when we ran the quarterback sneak from under center, I thought the stadium would erupt but everybody's moved on. Everybody's moved on except for you.
Q: What led to offensive efficiency early on?
A: I just thought this week on first and second down offensively we were more effective, so it created more advantageous third down situations. I don't have the data yet, but I think we actually picked up more first downs on first and second downs, not even getting to third down, and that's helpful too. I just thought we more balanced, we were more efficient, part of it is how they play and they played soft. They were not going to allow us to throw it over their head. I think that was obvious in their game plan on the defensive side of the ball, but by doing that you create some free access throws and I think we threw for a pretty high percentage there in the first quarter and first half, so it's kind of give and take. You got to pick your poison a little bit.
Q: How important was it to your defense to get that stop at the end with Ball State taking those?
A: I thought it was really important obviously and to be honest with you, fans start booing, that's what you should do. You got an opportunity to get reps with your guys and try to score, I have no problem with how they managed the game at the end. It was great to see some of those young guys get in and play. I thought Jamari Buddin made a really nice play on the perimeter fighting through a block and making a tackle on a perimeter bubble screen and there were other flashes like that as well. There's a bunch of things that we have to get cleaned up, that's what I talked to those guys about in the locker room. We have to be smart tonight, go out and enjoy this win and then we have to get in there tomorrow. The good thing is I still think there is a lot of improvement that can be made and should be made, and we are going to have to do that.
Q: What was it like having 105,000 people supporting you today?
A: Yeah, it was awesome. In some ways it was emotional to be honest with you. Thursday night you start seeing the RVs coming into town, which is cool. Friday you felt the electricity in town. Saturday driving the blue busses from the hotel over to the stadium and the welcome that we got was unbelievable, it was unbelievable. I thought the environment was great in here. I think this is the best opening home game attendance we've had since 2008 and I am very appreciative of that. I know the communities appreciative of it as well, and I thought it had an impact on the game today. We are going to need that moving forward. We obviously have a huge game next week and we are going to need this place like rockin'. I know sometimes it's hard to tell in terms of attendance but all the season ticket holders, if you are not using your tickets and we have 70,000 of them, make sure someone is sitting in your seats because we need this place rockin'. That's going to be very very important. It was awesome to walk through these gates. I didn't think my wife and family were going to be here because their plan was to come an hour after kickoff and leave an hour after to avoid the crowd, so it kind of caught me off guard to walk in here and see them in here and that was cool too.
Q: How do you think Sean Clifford played today?
A: I thought the way we played offensively early on, and as we all know a lot of it comes down to how well your quarterback plays and I thought he was very confident, I thought he was very efficient, I thought he was very poised early on. I thought Mike called a really good game that put Sean in advantageous situations as well, and then when Sean had an opportunity to make some plays and extend some plays, he did that as well. I don't think he gets enough credit for the type of athlete he is. That one long run, I don't know how long it was, but he was running away from people. So that I know sitting in with our defensive staff, breaking film down, when a quarterback shows that on film it gives you concern. It really takes away from some of the defensive calls and coverages that you could make.
Q: Coach you had 10 players catch a pass today. What does that say for the diversity of your offense?
A: Whenever you can spread the ball around to that many people it creates a healthy locker room. It makes it difficult to defend so they can't bracket a specific receiver. I thought we also were able to get Jahan involved early on not only in the passing game, but also in the fly sweep that we ran. I think we have to be a little bit better at punt return and giving him a chance to make some more plays in terms of holding guys up, but overall damn good.
Q: What led to offensive efficiency early on?
A: I just thought this week on first and second down offensively we were more effective, so it created more advantageous third down situations. I don't have the data yet, but I think we actually picked up more first downs on first and second downs, not even getting to third down, and that's helpful too. I just thought we more balanced, we were more efficient, part of it is how they play and they played soft. They were not going to allow us to throw it over their head. I think that was obvious in their game plan on the defensive side of the ball, but by doing that you create some free access throws and I think we threw for a pretty high percentage there in the first quarter and first half, so it's kind of give and take. You got to pick your poison a little bit.
Q: How important was it to your defense to get that stop at the end with Ball State taking those?
A: I thought it was really important obviously and to be honest with you, fans start booing, that's what you should do. You got an opportunity to get reps with your guys and try to score, I have no problem with how they managed the game at the end. It was great to see some of those young guys get in and play. I thought Jamari Buddin made a really nice play on the perimeter fighting through a block and making a tackle on a perimeter bubble screen and there were other flashes like that as well. There's a bunch of things that we have to get cleaned up, that's what I talked to those guys about in the locker room. We have to be smart tonight, go out and enjoy this win and then we have to get in there tomorrow. The good thing is I still think there is a lot of improvement that can be made and should be made, and we are going to have to do that.
Q: What was it like having 105,000 people supporting you today?
A: Yeah, it was awesome. In some ways it was emotional to be honest with you. Thursday night you start seeing the RVs coming into town, which is cool. Friday you felt the electricity in town. Saturday driving the blue busses from the hotel over to the stadium and the welcome that we got was unbelievable, it was unbelievable. I thought the environment was great in here. I think this is the best opening home game attendance we've had since 2008 and I am very appreciative of that. I know the communities appreciative of it as well, and I thought it had an impact on the game today. We are going to need that moving forward. We obviously have a huge game next week and we are going to need this place like rockin'. I know sometimes it's hard to tell in terms of attendance but all the season ticket holders, if you are not using your tickets and we have 70,000 of them, make sure someone is sitting in your seats because we need this place rockin'. That's going to be very very important. It was awesome to walk through these gates. I didn't think my wife and family were going to be here because their plan was to come an hour after kickoff and leave an hour after to avoid the crowd, so it kind of caught me off guard to walk in here and see them in here and that was cool too.
Q: How do you think Sean Clifford played today?
A: I thought the way we played offensively early on, and as we all know a lot of it comes down to how well your quarterback plays and I thought he was very confident, I thought he was very efficient, I thought he was very poised early on. I thought Mike called a really good game that put Sean in advantageous situations as well, and then when Sean had an opportunity to make some plays and extend some plays, he did that as well. I don't think he gets enough credit for the type of athlete he is. That one long run, I don't know how long it was, but he was running away from people. So that I know sitting in with our defensive staff, breaking film down, when a quarterback shows that on film it gives you concern. It really takes away from some of the defensive calls and coverages that you could make.
Q: Coach you had 10 players catch a pass today. What does that say for the diversity of your offense?
A: Whenever you can spread the ball around to that many people it creates a healthy locker room. It makes it difficult to defend so they can't bracket a specific receiver. I thought we also were able to get Jahan involved early on not only in the passing game, but also in the fly sweep that we ran. I think we have to be a little bit better at punt return and giving him a chance to make some more plays in terms of holding guys up, but overall damn good.
