James Franklin On Michigan 'That's One Of The Best Defenses In College Football'
Michigan, turmoil and all, went into Happy Valley and got a crucial win. The Wolverines walked out unbeaten with a 24-15 victory to move to 10-0.
Jim Harbaugh, who is currently suspended for the regular season, was out against Penn State, and offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore was the acting head coach against PSU. The Wolverines used their defense and rushing attack to get the job done against Penn State. Blake Corum ran for 145 yards and two scores on the ground and Donovan Edwards helped out by cruising for a score himself.
Penn State head coach James Franklin took yet another loss to Michigan and he had plenty to say after the game.
Here's everything Franklin said about Michigan during his post-game conference.
Opening statement:
First of all, you've got to give Michigan credit, obviously a very, very good football team. We did not play well enough in all three phases to get to win in a great environment. Had a great crowd, great environment, which I think played a factor in the first half and helped us out. But after that, we've been really good in the third quarter all year long. Obviously, the turnover in the third quarter was a significant play in the game. Up to that point, you know, we were in a heck of a game and a heck of a dog fight between two of the best defenses in college football and two of the best teams in college football. So, give them credit.
How to keep his team motivated after losing games to great programs:
Be honest. Be transparent with ourselves as staff and with the players. Address it head-on and then move on to the next opponent and get ready to get a win next week. We've lost to the number one and the number three teams in the country. That's not good enough. We've got to find ways to win those games. But address it, be honest, be transparent. Go after it head-on and then move on to the next opponent so we can find a way to get a win next week and finish this thing in a positive direction.
On the thought process to go for two two-point conversions twice:
We were down by four, so being able to go for two and get us in a position where a field goal gets us back into position to take the lead, or to tie the game. I felt like points were going to be at a premium. These are all the things that we talked about before the game and we used the analytics as well as conversations as a staff. At some point you're going to have to score enough points to get back in the game or just try to get the game back into a one-possession game. We didn't know how many opportunities we were going to get so we tried to maximize it.
On Drew Allar struggling against Michigan:
We've got to do a better job of calling a game to allow our quarterback to get into rhythm. That is critical. We've got to find easy completions for a quarterback to get into rhythm. That's what everybody does. We've got to do a good job of that. And then on top of that, although there weren't sacks, there were too many pressures and there were too many times where we were not creating separation.
On the offensive gameplan and how Michigan made them deviate from it:
...But the second half again, when we turn the ball over, and they are grinding and they had a hard time getting things going offensively as well, they went to their heavy package. Turning the ball over in that type of game, it's going to be difficult. They're going to do a great job at eating the clock and they did a good job of that in the second half. I think you could see they called the game where they put JJ (McCarthy) in position to make some plays with his feet because they were struggling to move the ball. We wanted to stay on schedule on offense. I thought we did that, but then we weren't able to execute on third down
On how the Michigan defense didn't allow Drew Allar to get into rhythm:
The same thing they've done against everybody all year long. That's one of the best defenses in college football. We've got one of the best defenses in college football. They make it challenging up front, their front seven is able to get pressure and to get sacks but not a whole lot against us today. But about their coverage, we made a couple of throws that if the ball's not delivered right, one ended up being a pass interference on them and one we were fortunate that it wasn't an interception. Your ball location is critical in these types of games. We had a couple of shots called but we were waiting for a specific look at a specific defense and weren't able to do that, so we weren't able to loosen them up from a coverage standpoint to help with the more consistent higher percentage throws.
