What They Said After Penn State's Win Over Minnesota

Penn State's fourth-quarter fake punt was a postgame topic. "That's a heck of a call by James [Franklin]," Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck said.

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin walks off of the field after the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Huntington Bank Stadium. / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Penn State's fake punt in the fourth quarter was a hot topic after the Nittany Lions' 26-25 win over Minnesota on Saturday. Penn State coach James Franklin explained how the play came about, while Golden Gophers coach P.J. Fleck conceded that it was a "heck of a call by James."

Here's what the coaches had to say post-game.

Penn State coach James Franklin

OPENING STATEMENT: First of all, I think you got to give Minnesota and PJ [Fleck] a ton of credit. They had them ready to play. They played really and made big plays and big moments. We came into this game having a ton of respect for their defense and I thought their defense played really well tonight. And, I think their quarterback played very well, and their were wide receivers, so got to give them credit. They played really well. They made critical plays at big moments in the game, but at
the end of the day, our team overcame adversity and found a way to win on the road. [Penn State is 5-0 on the road] for the first time since 1985. So, just proud of our guys. Overcame adversity, found ways to win. Went into this game saying that the turnover battle would be a huge statistic in the game. In I guess in true statistics, I’d say we won the turnover battle. But you could also make the argument it was about a wash, because the block punt and blocked PAT kind of even those things out. If we don’t do those two things, than it’s a very different game, and that’s very uncharacteristic for us.

... I thought third quarter continues to be a good story for our team. Defense has yet to allow a third quarter touchdown this season, gave up a field goal today, and have allowed 15 points total on the season. So that’s been big. And then, you know, other thing I’m proud of and very, very appreciative of, the staff and the players we’re one of three teams to win 10 or more games in the last three years, only three teams in the country. So I’m proud of that. I think consistency matters. It’s really important. And our guys did it today. So proud of the guys.

ON THE FAKE PUNT IN THE 4TH QUARTER: I think first of all, [offensive lineman] Dominic Rulli deserves a ton of credit. He’s a guy that doesn’t get talked about a whole lot, but is loved and respected in our locker room and in the Lasch Building by everybody. Just comes to work every single day. He’s the quarterback of that play. We’ve been working on it since training camp. We’ve called it in other games this year, but unless you have the right look, you can’t run it. And Dom has done a great job of checking in and out of it. Tonight, we had to call, typically, when you call that a lot of times, they’re going to be in [punt] safe. They had their defense on the field. I thought it was going to be safe again. And then when we ran our punt team on, they ran their punt return team out. So I thought we had a chance. And then the look allowed us to run it.

“Luke Reynolds, that was a huge play for him. Blocked extremely well. So that’s been cooking, I guess, with Thanksgiving coming up, or marinating for a while, all the way back to training camp. So we’ll put that one on the shelf and start start working the next one. I make the call and then Dom checks us out of it if it’s the wrong look. So we call the fake. And then if it’s not the right look, Dom checks out of it to a traditional punt. And we called that probably six times this year. Were just waiting for the right time.

ON GOING FOR FOURTH DOWN THREE TIMES ON THE FINAL SERIES: I just felt like we needed to try to end the game on our terms with the ball in our hand. Give them a ton of credit. They did a good job of producing yards and finding a way. Their field goal kicker was back to the guy from last year. Started out the season a little rocky but was kicking the ball very, very well tonight and the second half of season’s been kicking well. So I just felt like, be aggressive end the game on our terms, with the ball in our hands, and those things. As I told you guys before, I’ll click over and talk to the defense as well and get their thoughts. So just proud of our guys.

ON QUARTERBACK DREW ALLAR: I think early on in the first half, we gave up some pressures and
some sacks that we shouldn’t have, like guys running clean, that based on our rules, should have been running clean. I think that frustrated him little bit. But to your point, he made big plays again with his feet. Showed toughness and didn’t slide. We don’t necessarily teach the slide. I think you guys see, we teach what we call the grenade, where he goes down kind of head first and protects himself
but don’t lose any of the yardage by doing it. But tonight, he played to win at critical times. That play there at the end between him and Tyler. That’s a coach’s dream, right? Like you call it. The play is not
clean. He goes to the backside marker, the surrender call, which means, once you get the first down, get down whether you can score or not. Tyler Warren does exactly the way it’s coached. Shocker.

And, Drew finds a way to extend the play, and we’re hoping to hit the back in the flat there, and Drew extends the play and then finds time on the backside. I think there was some times where, when you’re the quarterback, and you’re expecting things to be picked up, and guys are coming clean, you got to keep your poison composure right there. And I thought, for the most part, he did that.

ON MINNESOTA'S BLOCKED PUNT AND BLOCKED EXTRA POINT: The punt block, they had three rushers, we had three blockers. So scheme-wise, we were fine. We were blocking the guy kind of on the edge, and he was able to get his hand on the ball. But you know, we had three blockers for three rushers, and the guy just got on the edge and made a play. On the field goal, I’d have to watch it. But, we always block down from our inside gap, and we high arm the outside gap to give the next offensive player some help, and for whatever reason, we blocked out, haven’t done it all. We’ve never done that before. I was not a math major at East Stroudsburg. I was psychology. But the shortest point between point A and point B is a straight line, and if you can block gaps and make them run around, it’s hard to get there. But I don’t think that guy’s a math major.

Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck

ON THE GAME: Tough loss to take, but you have to give Penn State a lot of credit, They’re a really good football team. They’re a top-four team in the country for a reason. They have players everywhere. I thought we had a really good game plan. I thought we executed it really well on the offense, defense and special teams sides.

... Penn State found a way to make one more play than we did. It was a great football game. Sometimes you got to step out of the head coach role to appreciate a game like that because that’s a really good college football game with two really good teams.

ON PENN STATE'S DEFENSIVE FRONT SEVEN: That’s one of the best front sevens in all of college football. There’s a lot of first-rounders, second-rounders and third-rounders up there, and it’s the same with the linebackers. ... They only sacked us one time. If you would have told me they would sack us one time, I would take it. ... They make you pay. When you make a mistake, they got you. You look at their corners, they’re really good, but when you have a front seven like that, it takes a lot of pressure off the back end.

ON THE FAKE PUNT: Our defense stops and we're going to get the ball back. It was exactly what we needed to do. And then they run a really, really good fake punt. That's a heck of a call by James. Heck of a call. It didn't matter if we were in punt safe or punt return. We're holding them up, so we have the defensive scheme and have the holes covered and the gaps covered. But that's what they were going to run no matter what. That's a heck of a call. They had a really good scheme and called it and got it.

ON PENN STATE: That’s one of the best teams in the country. This is one of the top five teams I’ve ever played against as a football coach.

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