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Penn State Football: James Franklin Northwestern Week Press Conference Recap

By Barry Leonard Jr.

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Penn State head coach James Franklin met the media on Tuesday in the Beaver Stadium media room for his weekly press conference. Franklin touched on a variety of topics. He did several recaps of Penn State’s dominating victory of 48-7 and also looked ahead to the Big Ten matchup with the Northwestern Wildcats.

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The Nittany Lions are 4-0 this season and sit at the top of the Big Ten East division. Northwestern, out of the Big Ten West division, is 1-2 this season and has yet to play a conference game. Although Penn State is favored by double-digits, Franklin was sure during his press conference to not overlook the Northwestern offense.

"“One of the things that we’re going to have to be aware of and have to do a good job with and this is where our fans are going to be huge with a sold out stadium is they are a no-huddle tempo team that does a lot of communication at the line of scrimmage.”"

Franklin also announced the coaching staff’s players of the week: Angelo Mangiro on offense, Nyeem Wartman on defense and Sam Ficken on special teams.

Below are some more highlights from the question-answer portion of Franklin’s talk with the media.  A full transcript of the press conference can be found here.

What have you seen from Austin Johnson since you arrived at Penn State and how has he impacted the defense so far?

JF: Well, it’s funny, because a lot of times he may not get the stats that maybe our linebackers or our other defensive linemen are getting, but a lot of it is, he’s the cause of it. They’re having to double team him, he’s six-foot-three, six-foot-four, 315 pounds. Probably the most athletic 315-pound guy I’ve been around.

The thing I like the most about him is every time I see him when he walks in the building or he’s out at practice he’s got a huge smile on his face. He’s unbelievably appreciative about being at Penn State and having a great experience. I think he’s got a chance to continue to be a special player for us and we’re going to need him to be.

When you can dominate the line of scrimmage on the defensive line or the offensive line, you have a chance to be successful. Him and (Anthony) Zettel make a really nice one-two punch for us inside.

One more defensive question with your linebackers, early in the season that was a place of concern for you, at least depth wise. With the starters, the performance you’ve gotten on Nyeem, Brandon, Mike, where are you at with those guys right now?

JF: The linebackers, I think, have played probably above our expectations. I think Brent Pry, our linebackers coach and co defensive coordinator, does a great job of teaching fundamentals and understanding the concept of the scheme and how they fit. We always felt good about Mike (Hull), although he was making a move. I think (Nyeem) Wartman and (Brandon) Bell had both shown flashes on previous film, as well as during the spring that they had the ability to do it.

But to be successful, what we talk to our players all the time about is about being consistent. Anybody can make a play. Time and time, can you do it over and over and over again, can you do your job consistently. I think they have done that.

I do think the fact that we’re able to kind of rotate some other guys in there, whether that’s the Star or whether that’s the number twos, I think that’s been helpful as well. I think the fact that our defensive line has been so disruptive, or guys like Austin, that have had to be double teamed, it makes it difficult to come off on those linebackers.

So, a lot of different reasons why they have been successful. But I’m really proud of them and we got to continue to grow there. Which to me is another thing which I stated in the beginning is exciting, those guys haven’t played a whole lot of football and they’re playing pretty well right now. And they still have a lot of room for growth as well.

I wanted to ask you about your running backs. You’ve been using three main tailbacks. How difficult is it for you guys to try to figure out when to use each one, how to use each one, how to mix them up, because they all have very good qualities, they have all been contributors. Can you talk a little bit about that?

JF: Yes, sir. We don’t really kind of over think it. Basically, each one of them is going to get a series to start the game. And then we also have plays in the game plan that are tagged for specific players. So this may be Bill Belton’s series, but this play is tagged for Akeel (Lynch), based on his strengths. So things like that.

So that’s where you’ll see guys kind of running in and out and mix some things up. But basically we’re going to allow each one of those guys to get a series and whoever the guy that looks like is being the most effective, then we’ll go with them a little bit longer or maybe even go with them the rest of the game, it just kind of depends.

We haven’t really got to that point yet, all three have shown that they could be effective when we’re getting movement up front and creating space. So that’s kind of where we’re at, at this point, but we’re not really over thinking it. I don’t think one guy’s really separated himself over the other. We think we’ve got three quality backs that we feel good about.

To what extent, if any, do you have to sacrifice the tight ends as a weapon in the passing game in order to use them as blockers in the running game?

JF: Not a whole lot. I mean, there haven’t been a whole lot of times where we have gone max protect and kept the tight ends in. We haven’t done that a whole lot. That’s a possibility. We have mixed it in. But, not a whole lot.

I actually think our focus is really just trying to get them more involved in the running game and being a bigger factor for us there.

To follow up on the question about Christian being able to pick up yardage for you guys with his feet. He’s lowered his shoulder a few times this year to finish some of those runs at the end of plays. Do you like that competitiveness of that play for him to end a play like that or are you trying to coach that out of him that he takes those slides and not takes those unnecessary hits?

JF: I love it and I hate it. I love it from a competitive standpoint. That’s kind of who I want us to be. But that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for us right now. And that’s not smart.

So, he’s got to be calculated. Now, if it’s third-and-three and he needs it to keep the drive alive or to win the game, or fourth down, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. But those other situations, get as much as you can, get down, get as much as you can, get out of bounds.

For you and your staff, you guys played Northwestern before when you were at Vandy, is that any type of an advantage compared to what maybe Nebraska where you haven’t seen them before?

JF: Yeah, I don’t think there’s any doubt that having history with people, with teams, with coaching staffs, with players and things like that, there comes a little bit of a comfort level there or an understanding. I don’t know if one game really does that, but it’s better than none. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. I think that playing at home when you’re at a place like Penn State really gives us an advantage. You have a true home field advantage. We’re expecting to have a big one on Saturday. 

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