James Franklin isn’t typically comfortable pushing pressure on his program. But there’s no question about his mentality as Penn State moves on from a close 34-27 win against Bowling Green and into an idle week ahead of a matchup with Kent State on Sept. 21. “We got to win,” Franklin said after practice Tuesday.
And Franklin doesn’t just want to win, but do so dominantly. After the near collapse this past weekend, there’s a need for the Nittany Lions to even their rep count to keep starters fresh and others involved. That’s something the team was likely expecting to do on Saturday, but ultimately wasn’t able to. Nonetheless, Penn State is 2-0.
“There’s some people that would have loved to have an ugly win all over the country, and we’ll take as many of them as we can get,” Franklin said. “I prefer that we can play in a way that we can build the confidence that we need going into Big Ten play and get a ton of guys reps and and still be able to clean up some of the mistakes.”
Here are other takeaways from Franklin’s post-practice availability on Tuesday.
Why aren’t WRs getting the ball?
There were a handful of trademarks that went hand-in-hand with offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s system. A significant one had to do with balance. Stripped down, that appears to mean finding success at both running and throwing. But, Franklin explained, it also has to do with diversifying who touches the ball. That’s something the Nittany Lions have not done well.
On Saturday, just two wide receivers — Omari Evans and Julian Fleming — registered a catch for a total of three receptions for the entire position. And there’s a reason for that.
“We don’t have enough opportunities to get enough guys touches because we’re not sustaining drives. Defensively, we’ve got to get off the field. Our rep count is way up right now on defense, and our rep count needs to be higher on offense,” Franklin said. “…We want to be able to spread the wealth.”
Franklin said, for instance, if they convert more on third down, don’t drop the ball or have quicker defensive sets, that equals more plays. “That may equal another six plays,” Franklin said. “We do that two more times, you’re talking 10 to 15 plays in the first half.”
Where are the sacks?
Franklin has watched the tape from Bowling Green, and concluded there were two glaring issues from his team’s defense, among others. The first, and maybe most significant, surrounded missed tackles. The other concerned sacks, a typical strong suit of Franklin’s defense which has become an early disappointment in 2024.
Abdul Carter and Dani Dennis-Sutton entered the year with high expectations. There could’ve been an argument made that the pair was even an upgrade to last season’s duo of defensive ends, now both in the NFL. But through two games, neither have done much on the stat sheet and the Nittany Lions have tallied just two sacks total, one coming from a tackle. Why?
“The sacks, we’ve been more disruptive in the past. But just like I thought, after watching that tape, their whole game plan was not to allow us to get sacks. It was quick game, it was run game, it was move the pocket. They weren’t holding on to the ball,” Franklin said of pass-rushing struggles against the Falcons.
Franklin also said Penn State’s ugly first-half performance played a role. Saturday marked the first game since 2019 that the Nittany Lions entered the half trailing against a non-power conference opponent.
“If you play well in the first half, and the score gets out of whack, then they have to break their game plan and how they want to play, and then that’s usually when the sacks come,” Franklin said.
Building depth amid injury influx
The injuries haven’t helped the Nittany Lions in their search for even rep counts or diversified involvement. Just to name a few: Kevin Winston Jr., the team’s star safety, left early in the second quarter against Bowling Green and did not return. Dominic DeLuca, a starting linebacker and special teams captain, was also briefly sidelined with an injury on Saturday.
“We had a couple bumps and bruises. So we had some moving parts that caused us some issues on defense and on special teams,” Franklin said. “But obviously the bye week came at a really good time to kind of spend some time working through some of these things, get some things cleaned up.”
Injuries go hand in hand with evening the rep count. If Penn State were to have dominated this weekend, the starters would’ve exited early and been replaced by more inexperienced players, who need to tally reps and become comfortable with playing more significantly if their name is eventually called when it matters.
“We, the coaches, have got to play guys. We need to continue to build depth. We’ve had more bumps and bruises this year than we’ve had in the last couple years. Three years ago, we had a decent spike and some bumps and bruises, and we got that right now,” Franklin said. “So we got to develop depth that’s going to be really, really important for us moving forward.”
Tom Allen still transitioning back to DC
It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows so far for new defensive coordinator Tom Allen. Penn State’s defense performed at a high level against the Mountaineers, but on Saturday, the unit allowed 24 points in the first half and ultimately gave up its highest point total in a regular season game in two seasons.
“You have the West Virginia game, which I thought defensively, we played very, very well, especially when you compare it to the year before, and then last game, you know, we faced some adversity that we probably didn’t anticipate — the adjustments we made, how we handled it,” Franklin said.
But Franklin has urged patience with Allen, who is transitioning to coordinating from head coaching at Indiana since 2017. There have been flashes of what Allen’s defensive system could ultimately become, but this past weekend was anything but the standard he’d like to uphold as the successor to the beloved Manny Diaz.
“You’re also talking about transitioning back from being a defensive coordinator to being a head coach for seven years, and then going back into that role,” Franklin said. “And then, on top of that, college football has changed this year with the technology and how you use all those things.”
