Penn State’s secondary not discouraged by rough quarter

STATE COLLEGE » As Appalachian State lined up to try and match his team’s touchdown in overtime Saturday, Penn State coach James Franklin bounded up and down the sideline, gesturing wildly for more than 105,000 fans to make noise.

Franklin knew it would take everything for the No. 10 Nittany Lions to hold off the Mountaineers. From his perspective, that’s not necessarily a bad thing this early on.

“You look at any really good season, there’s always a win like that where you had to overcome adversity, you had a gritty win, you had to fight it out, you had to stick together,” Franklin said. “We’re going to look back at the end of the year and this is going to be a critical win for us.”

Franklin speaks from experience.

The Nittany Lions’ current run of 21 wins in 24 games began with a comeback victory in overtime against Minnesota in October 2016. Like in that game, however, there are plenty of areas Penn State coaches and players will need to examine to prevent worse outcomes with a tough schedule looming.

Coughing up a 31-17 lead in a fourth quarter that saw Penn State allow 175 passing yards to a first-time starting quarterback is the glaring issue from Saturday.

“We’ve got to be better in coverage,” Franklin said.

Appalachian State quarterback Zac Thomas took advantage of a blown assignment to spark his team’s comeback. He hit an uncovered Malik Williams in stride