What Penn State Coach James Franklin Said About Kent State

The Nittany Lions coach discussed bye-week work and preparing to face the Golden Flashes.

Penn State coach James Franklin looks on from the sideline during the first quarter against the Bowling Green Falcons at Beaver Stadium. / Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Penn State coach James Franklin resumed his weekly press conference schedule Monday following the bye week, as the Nittany Lions prepare to host Kent State on Saturday at Beaver Stadium. It's quite a matchup between teams ranked ninth and 134th in the ESPN College Football Power Index. Here's the back story regarding why they're playing this week.

Franklin covered plenty of ground during his media session. Here's a glimpse at what he had to say.

Opening Statement

This time of year it's kind of unusual for this early in the season to not be playing. We were able to get out and get a ton of recruiting done. We're able to take care of our guys from a rest and recovery
standpoint, and we're able to get some depth guys some work, some guys that are a little bit further down the depth chart, which was good. Then obviously being on the road recruiting. Got Kent State this week and [head coach] Kenni Burns coming to town. Obviously Kenni is very familiar not only with Penn State from what he studied us this year during his time at Kent State, but obviously also
from his time at Minnesota with P.J. Fleck. Tremendous opportunity for both programs. We're excited about having them. Obviously they've had some challenges early in this year, but we've seen some good things on tape that we need to be prepared for, and we need to be ready for.

How Penn State Addressed Penalties During the Bye Week

We just literally talked about it again in the staff meeting this morning. That's a major priority for me because we're just making things more difficult than they need to be. We're either stopping drives after we convert first downs or making more challenging third down situations. It's hard to get into a
rhythm of offense. And then defensively letting guys off the hook in terms of penalties that extend drives or make more manageable third down situations for their offense against our defense.

So just some things that we've got to get cleaned up. We're giving yards away and making things more challenging. That is a major priority for us. I think we've talked about this in the past. If you look statistically at where penalties rank in terms of winning and losing, it's nowhere near what the turnover ratio is and what explosive plays are, but it makes for a sloppy game. It makes for a game that as a head coach you're not proud to watch, and it also just makes it difficult to get into a rhythm.

On Safety KJ Winston's Status and the Position's Depth

I don't really have any new information to share with you guys at this stage [about Winston]. I probably will, I would think probably post-practice when I see you guys later in the week. Then, obviously, Dejuan Lane is the next guy that we've been trying to get reps for. Obviously when you are talking about Jaylen Reed and Zakee [Wheatley], those two guys played a ton of football for us and will need to continue. Dejuan is another guy that we've been trying to get more reps and more experience.

That will be important, but we're going to have to develop a few more guys. Especially, hopefully, we'll see timing-wise how this whole thing will play out, but definitely for short-term we're going to have
to develop some more guys. So Dejuan is going to be really important this week and obviously moving forward as well. He's a guy that we've been trying to get more involved. We had planned on playing him more last week. Didn't play out that way, but he's probably the guy that I would say our focus is on the most right now.

On What the Film Showed of Penn State's First-Half Defensive Effort Vs. Bowling Green

Well, a couple of things. I think we did not tackle as well in game two as we did in game one, and obviously that's an area that we've got to get that cleaned up because we need to be getting better as the season goes on. I think there's a lot of reasons that probably factor into that, but we've got to be getting better from a tackling perspective. I thought we tackled really well week one, when that's a concern for most people across the country.

I think the other thing that's a big one for us that we got settled in the second half is the communication. We were trying to rely specifically on the headset communication, and at home that can be a little bit more challenging with the linebacker trying to verbally communicate to all 11 guys on the field. Very similar to what I had explained to you guys about no-huddle teams on offense trying to get the quarterback to communicate to everybody. That was still going to be challenging unless you're huddling.

... Then just the discipline of playing the defense, of not trying to do more than your job. The more we play great team defense and do their job and be gap accountable, then the plays come to you. So we just got them settled down and got back to playing the way we're capable of playing in the second half, and we need to build on that obviously going into Week 3.

On Not Seeing Much of Kaden Saunders at Receiver

We haven't either. He's had a lingering injury, and not that he's not able to play, but he's not able to play at 100 percent. So he's a guy that I think there was a ton of excitement about and there still is, but he's had a lingering injury that has slowed some of that progress or some of that development down.

On Freshman Tight End Luke Reynolds

Luke has been transitioned to a green light at this stage. These green, reds, and yellows can change as things go. I think we always look at things changing in terms of moving up from red to yellow to green, but they also can go in the other direction. Luke is doing really well. He's one of these guys. He
showed up on campus. He was very driven and motivated to play. That is both mentally and physically.

He was willing to do the things necessary to play: attack the weight room, attack the summer workouts, attack the playbook. He has the ability to make plays in the passing game where he is somewhat unusual in 2024 for a tight end is he will also stick his nose in there. For some of these guys that have never really done that at the high school level, that's a challenge. Especially when you are asking them to block Smith Vilbert, who is 280 pounds or whatever he may be. He has shown a willingness, an aggressiveness with that as well.

So I've been a real big fan of Luke's and his approach. You know, we've got a ton of guys that I think could play as true freshmen, but the guys that have played I think are showing that they're willing
to make the type of sacrifices and commitments to actually do it. Some guys are either not physically ready to play or emotionally ready to play or mentally ready to play. He's a guy that's shown
through hard work and development that he is ready to play kind of in all three.

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