What They Said After Penn State's Win over Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl
GLENDALE, Ariz. | Penn State coach James Franklin stood with his daughters on the field after the Fiesta Bowl as they cried. And Franklin smiled. He froze that moment with his family, in a dome in Arizona, and let it saturate him.
"I'm a big believer in being present," Franklin said after the Nittany Lions defeated Boise State 31-14 in the Fiesta Bowl. "... It's just an important trait and quality that I think you have to have. I think it could be a differentiator in today's society and specifically in college football. The fans all look at our schedule and they want to talk about certain games. We understand the importance of certain games, I get it. But it's also a big part of consistency in college football."
So Franklin didn't look ahead, to Penn State's date in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 8, as 2025 neared on the East coast. The Penn State football coach allowed this win to marinate, even briefly, before the Nittany Lions begin preparing to face either Notre Dame or Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinals. With that, here's what Franklin and others said after the Nittany Lions' win over Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.
Penn State coach James Franklin
On some milestones: Just a couple of things I'll say. Thirteen wins, first time in program history. Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton both surpassing 1,000 yards in the same season. First time we've ever had two 1,000 yard rushers in the same season since joining the Big Ten [and in school history]. Then 34 wins over the last three years. We're very, very proud of that. Consistency is hard to do, and
our guys have done a great job at it. The maturity they've shown has been impressive. 8-0 in Fiesta Bowls. Penn State loves the Fiesta Bowl. We'll come every year.
On Allen and Singleton: That's Kaytron. Kaytron breaks tackles. He runs people over. He's a physical, physical back. Nick, obviously, if you give him a crease, he has got a chance to go 80 at any minute. So, they're really good complementary backs. They've been playing together for a long time. When we're able to get the outside zone going like we were able to do today, it kind of opens everything else up and gets people running sideline to sideline, which creates creases. I'm happy. Nick was grinding it out, grinding it out. We weren’t having as much success. Then all of a sudden, he was able to break the big one, which was huge. You love to see that happen. Then like I said, Kaytron is just a workhorse.
It starts up front with the o-line. They don't get enough credit, but it's great to see those two backs
have success.
On being able to "corral" Boise State's Ashton Jeanty: I think we did corral him. Not "sort of." I think we did corral. They got some yards there at the end. And I think defensively, I think our team was sick of me talking about him. I think we got the point across about the respect that we have for that young man and the type of running back he is. Even today, I think our defense would say they have a ton of respect for him and how many tackles he was able to break and how strong he is and the contact balance. He's an impressive guy. But we're pretty good on defense. Thought our D-line did a really good job of being disruptive and getting in the backfield. I thought we did a really good job gang-tackling. There were a few times where we didn't wrap like we should have. But for the most part, our defense played lights out.
On Abdul Carter's injury: With Abdul, I don't know a whole lot. We'll get that checked out and see.
Obviously, number one, the safety and health and welfare of our guys is priority number one. But then, I know Abdul will want to play next week and he'll do everything in his power to play next week, if he's able to. We'll find out more. I don't have a whole lot more information than that.
On facing Notre Dame or Georgia in the Orange Bowl: Honestly, I want to enjoy this Boise win and this Fiesta Bowl win for a couple hours. We're going to enjoy the new year. We're going to enjoy this win for a couple hours, and then obviously we'll start to get a little bit of a head start on these teams. But obviously, two great programs. Won a bunch of games. History, tradition, talent, coaching. At this point in the season, you're going to play really good people, and we're excited about that opportunity.
But tonight, we want to enjoy this for a couple of hours. There will be plenty of time, and hours, to get
focused on those next opponents.
Penn State safety Zakee Wheatley
On preventing Ashton Jeanty from breaking Barry Sanders' single-season rushing record: In terms of the record and 130 yards, that was a big motivation. We knew what we were going against today. We knew we all were going to have some ball every single play. Any play you could break one, and we did that the whole game. Did what we had to do.
Boise State coach Spencer Danielson
On the game: We talked even throughout the week that we knew we were playing a really good football team in Penn State, and they deserve a ton of credit. They're very well-coached. We knew we were going to have to respond. That's football.It's not about just capitalizing when things are going well. It's about responding when things don't. We knew we were going to get punched in the mouth. We had to respond and keep swinging, and our team did that. This is a one-score game going into the fourth quarter, and we just didn't make the plays enough at the end as we needed to. But proud of our guys responding and coming back from a really tough first quarter.
On Penn State's defense: I think we knew going in, one of the strengths of their team was stopping the run. They're one of the top 10 rushing defenses in the country. We've played against a good rushing defense. We know we would get their best stuff and we did. We didn't win one-on-ones
consistently enough to be as explosive as we need in the run game. Football always comes down to execution, and we just didn't execute as much as we needed to establish the run game as much as we have to in a game like this. It's something that we've got to look back and learn and grow from. Obviously hats off to Penn State. They had a great plan going into it. We knew they would. We've seen really good defenses throughout the year, and they did a really good job.
Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty
On how Penn State's defense bottled him up: Just movement. That's one thing we struggled with, is movement. They have a great D-line, front seven. I mean, it wasn't really that they did anything extraordinary. They executed. They tackled. We didn't play our best. I didn't take care of the ball. So that's why we weren't able to get the job done.
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