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Penn State Football: James Franklin Illinois Week Press Conference Recap

By Barry Leonard Jr.

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Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media on Tuesday afternoon to share his thoughts on last week’s win over the Maryland Terrpains and to talk about the upcoming home game against the Illinois Fighting Illini.

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As per usual, Franklin stated that his team is 1-0 and then voiced his excitement over how the season has gone to date. “6-2 overall, I think we’re the only team in the country with the losses from undefeated teams. Three-and-one in the conference. Bowl eligible, which is cool.”

Penn State became eligible for a postseason game with last weeks thrilling 31-30 win over Maryland.

Franklin discussed several aspects of his team, including the fact that the Nittany Lions lead the nation in sacks, our second in sacks per game and second in tackles-for-loss. While the defense is playing well, the Nittany Lions struggled to stop the Terrapins for much of the game last week. Franklin noted that there are still areas to improve on defense such as denying the big play and tackling.

Finally, before opening the floor to questions, the head coach addressed how well his team has played at home this season and how important the home crowd in Happy Valley is.

"“Pretty cool we’re 5-0 at home. There’s four Nittany Lions on our team from Illinois. And then we have THON Day and All U Day, which will be really cool — great environment in the stadium. Our fans have been a huge part of our home success that we’ve had this year. We’re going to need it on Saturday. I also think it’s cool being the flagship institution, and be able to have an All U Day like this with all the branch campuses coming together, putting the blue and white on, and rocking the stadium. It should be great.”"

Read on to see some highlights of what Coach Franklin had to say to the media this week. A full transcript can be found at GoPSUSports.com.

On the Miami Rumors:

“This is where I want to be. We’ve got a lot of work to do on the field. We’ve got a lot of work to do off the field in every aspect. But this is where I want to be. Stuff like that I guess some people could look at it as a compliment. I don’t. My focus is a hundred percent on Penn State. Like I said, I’ve worked like crazy to get here.

So not going to address it anymore, not going to talk about it anymore. This is where I want to be. This is where my family wants to be. This is where our staff wants to be. We’ve got a lot of work to do. That’s really kind of the end of the discussion.”

On the Recent Play of the Defense: 

“You know, I think it’s a number of things. I think obviously the mobile quarterbacks have created some challenges for us, the tempo offenses have created some challenges for us, there’s no doubt about it. And we haven’t tackled as clean.”

On the Challenge of the Illinois Pro-Style Offense:

“Yeah, I think this quarterback and this coach, they know how to throw the ball. They want to be in 10-person personnel, four wide receivers and sling it all over the field. This offensive coordinator has been calling plays for a long time. This quarterback we know well, we recruited him to come to the 7-on-7 camp. He really, really knows how to throw. He’s not a runner, but he does a nice job extending plays and buying time; throwing the ball away and doing things like that. He’s got a real good feel for it. It will be a real challenge. They are big and physical on both fronts, d-line and o-line.”

On the Play of Geno Lewis Over Past Two Seasons:

“I think it’s the point you just made, it’s consistency. He does some things that are really, really special. We can all think back to a couple of catches he had against Central Florida. You think about some of the plays he had at the bowl game. You think about obviously the game on Saturday. But it’s consistency in practice and it’s consistency in games. He’s got a lot of ability, he really does.”

On the New Turf at Beaver Stadium:

“Our turf management people are the best in the country. They take a lot of pride in it, just as much pride as we all take in our jobs, and they felt like it needed to be replaced. Felt like it had been soft this year on the game field, as well as on our practice field, for a number of reasons. And they felt like it needed to be done, and obviously they felt like the turnaround amount of time was enough. So I got all the faith in the world that this field will be in great shape come Saturday.”

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