Franklin on red-zone issues, improved ‘D’ and Lee’s development
PennState looks towin its second game in a row Saturday at Rutgers (2-4). The Nittany Lions (1-5) have dominated their series with the Scarlet Knights, winning 28 of 30 games. The game kicks off at noonandwill be televised by FoxSports 1. PennState has openedasa10-point favorite over a Rutgers team that won 37-30 at Purdue last week.
Here are some of the key takeaways from Penn State coach James Franklin’s Tuesday session with the media.
Franklin was pleased with the Penn State defense’s “grit” factor against Michigan in the Lions’ 27-17 win last Saturday.
The Lions held Michigan to four thirddown conversion sin 12 attempts and the Wolverines were just 1-for-3 on fourthdowntries, including a failed fourth-andone sneak by quarterback Joe Milton late in the game.
“We made critical plays at critical times, which is really something we’ve done a pretty good job of over our time [here], but had not done early in the season,” Franklin said.
“You know, it’s hard to stop people on [fourth] and inches like that, especially with a 6-5, 245-pound quarterback [Milton], whatever he was. Yeah, I think ... we just played with tremendous grit, which, again, I think is a word that has described us ... for six years here and and we did that on Saturday.”
Some former players have reached out to Franklin and the program to offer support.
Franklin specifically mentioned the names of two key players on Penn State’s 2016 Big Tenchampionship team— tight end MikeGesicki and quarterback Trace McSorley.
“I had a bunch of former players reach out to meand send videos to me as well,” Franklin said.
“Mike Gesicki talked about the challenges that he had early in his career, and
byfighting through that adversity, he feels like it made him a better player. ... Trace McSorley, youknow, said somethings about overcoming adversity, talking about those guys ... in those years that we won big and those years that we won the Big Ten championship. We found a way to make a few moreplays, youknow, than our opponents and that’s what we need to do on Saturday.”
Franklin knows his red-zone offense must improve, and must be more creative.
The Lions struggled to make plays in the red zone late in the loss at Nebraska and there appeared to be some clock management problems on a late first-half drive that reached the Michigan 5 inside the final minute. Penn State spiked the ball on first down whenit hadatimeout remaining. Franklin said the decision to have quarterback Sean Clifford spike the ball came from the sideline.
“We need to have a little bit more diversity, there’s no doubt about it,” Franklin said, asked about red zone offense.
“In the red zone, with play-action pass, with highlows, with horizontal stretches [that] we did try to run. You know, another concept there that we did not have success on. But there’s no doubt about it. We need to have more diversity in that .”
True freshman running back Keyvone Lee, coming off a 134-yard game, has the unique ability to gain an extra yard or two on most carries.
Lee started against Michigan with Devyn Ford unavailable and Journey Brown and Noah Cain out for the season with medical issues. Brown’s football career is over due to a heart issue.
“He’s a 230-pound guy with good feet,” Franklin said of Lee, who was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week.
“He’s got really good vision and I think the other thing, it’s a subtle thing but it matters is, he always is falling forward. ... I think a lot of times, [it] goes unnoticed is, when you can always fall forward, you’re talking about another yardand-a-half, 2 yards, on every run.”