What Penn State's James Franklin Said About Preparing for USC

The Nittany Lions visit USC for their first Big Ten road game of the season. Here's what James Franklin said.

Penn State coach James Franklin looks on from the sideline during the second quarter against the UCLA Bruins at Beaver Stadium. / Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

No. 4 Penn State makes its first Big Ten road trip this week, heading to California to face the USC Trojans on Saturday. The unbeaten Nittany Lions (5-0) are visiting USC for a regular-season game for the first time since 1991. They also are looking for their first win over the Trojans in California.

Franklin previewed the game Monday, when he also discussed the status of running back Nicholas Singleton, the team's leading rusher who did not play against UCLA. Here's what Franklin said about the upcoming Penn State-USC game.

On the USC Trojans: Obviously [USC coach] Lincoln [Riley] has a history of doing some really, really good things across his career both at USC and Oklahoma. Obviously USC speaks for itself. It's a program with tremendous tradition and history, and we're looking forward to this opportunity and the venue. So should be a great opportunity for us.

On USC's offense: Their offensive coordinator is Josh Henson, but the way I understand it, Lincoln Riley calls the plays. It's been that way for a long time with Lincoln. But Josh, I've known Josh for a long time as well. Got a ton of respect for what they do offensively. They've been able to score points
and put up yards for a long time in a lot of different places against a bunch of different teams. So it will be challenging, and it's always challenging when they've got a quarterback, and they do in Miller moss, who has done some really good things in his time at USC, back to the bowl game last year. His completion percentage, touchdown interception ratio, all those things, are really good.

On the progress of Penn State's offense: I think we are doing a good job of getting the ball in our
playmakers' hands, specifically the guys that have been proven commodities already here at Penn State. I still think there's some guys specifically at the wide receiver position that we have to continue to get the ball in their hands to develop that aspect of our offense. The thing that I do think is a positive is there's been a game where Omari [Evans] has made some really big plays. There's been games where Trey [Wallace] has made some really big plays and been very productive. Then
obviously Liam [Clifford] this past week, and Julian [Fleming] has flashed.

I think that's helpful. We would like it to be a little bit more consistent, but I think it's helpful that when you watch our tape or when you study us, all those guys have made plays at times, and that's concerning that it's not just one guy that if you stop this guy, you're going to stop their offense. Obviously our running backs and our tight ends have been doing it now for a while. Our wide receivers I really feel like they are developing and have really had a nice year so far. I think as you guys
know better than me, that was a big question mark going into the season, and a lot of discussion. I think if somebody would tell you before the season kind of where we were at the wide receiver position currently and you knew that before the season, people I think would be overall pleased but not satisfied. We still want to do develop that area, and I think we're going to need to develop that area as the season goes on.

On the offensive line: I think we're more physical as an offense right now. That starts up front. Always will. When I say up front, that's the O-line and tight ends. I think if you look at Tyler Warren's blocking, physical. Khalil Dinkins had a couple of really physical blocks on Saturday. The O-line, obviously Vega [Ioane] got everybody excited with some of the things that he was doing. It wasn't just the motion stuff. He did some other things as well. But it's also you watch our guys on the sideline, there's been some significant runs on our sideline punishing people that has gotten our sideline to erupt.There's also been intimidating runs on the opponent's sidelines finishing runs and not just running out of bounds.

I think we're more physical. I think it starts up front is your point, and I think we are more physical than we've been in the past. It's something we've worked really hard at promoting. I think the guys
are having fun with it right now, and it's growing. I think we're starting to build a reputation of being a physical team, which is something we take a lot of pride in.

On starting faster offensively: We do script opening drives. I think most people in the country do
that. You don't always stick to the script, but yeah, I think making sure that we get some early throws, high percentage throws, getting the ball into our playmakers' hands, all those types of things, being able to run the ball and get ahead of the sticks. All those things are really important, and we spend a ton of time talking about it as a staff. Also that's part of your walk-throughs and things like that at the hotel as well as during the week.

So, yeah, we are investing a lot of time in it, and we understand how important it is. There's nothing that we want more really on all three phases. We've done it some games on offense. We've done it some games on defense. We've done it some games on special teams. It sure would be beneficial for us to do it in all three phases, which I don't think we've done it in all three phases yet this year.

On safety Zakee Wheatley: I think he's playing really well. I thought last week he was flashing and playing fast and playing physical I think you guys also know I talk a lot about team defense. A lot of times this guy gets the sack because this other defensive lineman penetrated and made it very
difficult for them to pass it off.

It's the same way with safeties sometimes tackling. It's a corner setting the edge on a screen where the lineman is coming to block him, and rather than running around the block, a lot of times running
around the block is the same as getting blocked. You're still creating space, and the corner being able to set the edge and the defensive end pursuing and the linebacker pursuing allows the safety to play fast and confident because they're able to run an alley where the ball is going to hit, not having to make an open field tackle, which is very different in terms of how you approach it. So I think Zakee continues to play faster, continues to play more aggressive and more confident.

On leaving Thursday for the game: A big part of us leaving on Thursday is we cannot fly out of State
College. That was a big part of our discussions with the Big Ten when all this thing got started.

Not only are we one of the most Northeast schools, but based on runway length, size of plane, weight of plane, fuel on plane, we can't get out of here [State College Regional Airport] unless we would stop for fuel. So with that, we've got to fly out of Harrisburg. To me that's one of the things I think we have to discuss is increasing the size of the runway here and the size of the airport, for a lot of reasons: for the university, for the community, for businesses, for the athletic department, and for us now that we've decided to make this move as a Big Ten. To me that's something that we need to do for a lot of different reasons.

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