James Franklin admits Penn State has to “make a bunch of corrections after a win”

A win is a win and as such, Penn State got to 2-0 on the 2024 season with a 34-27 victory over Bowling Green at Beaver Stadium. While he’s happy with the ultimate result, that doesn’t mean that James Franklin liked what he saw from his team coming off a win over West Virginia in Week 1. 

“Obviously we got some work to do,” Franklin told reporters in his postgame press conference, “but it’s nice doing that work with a win, there’s a ton of teams across the country that will be trying to make corrections after a loss.” 

The Nittany Lions entered their home opener as 34.5 point favorites over Bowling Green, but the Falcons scored on their first three possession and took a 24-20 lead into the half. If it wasn’t for a couple of late turnovers forced by Tony Rojas and Zakee Wheatley, Penn State could have been upset and had its dreams of a College Football Playoff at-large bid all but dashed. 

Though, maybe Bowling Green and its sixth-year quarterback Connor Bazelak were underrated. 

“You’ve got to give Bowling Green a ton of credit,” Franklin said. “In the last three years they beat Minnesota, they beat Georgia Tech, Michigan last year was 14-6 at the half, 32 seniors, and you’ve got to give them credit,” went Franklin’s implicit plea to the AP voters and eventually the CFP committee who will eventually evaluate this result. 

After giving up 24 points in the first half, Penn State’s defense allowed just three the rest of the way. While Franklin was unwilling to answer about the specific differences between his team’s performance before watching the film of the game, he did offer a theory as to why Tom Allen’s unit struggled early. 

“I think what happens early on, and it’s happened for the last couple of years,” Franklin said, “early on we’re trying to make plays, rather than play the defense. Getting out of our gaps, trying to make plays, doing things that we haven’t done during the week and we’ve got to get those things cleaned up for sure.”

Franklin and his staff will have two weeks to clean those things up before taking the field again on September 21, at Beaver Stadium against Kent State, another MAC opponent.