Notebook: James Franklin weekly press conference takeaways
Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media Tuesday afternoon via Zoom to discuss the Nittany Lions' third loss in as many weeks, this time to Maryland Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium, 35-19.
Having to turn around and head to Nebraska (0-2) to take on the Cornhuskers Saturday (noon, FS1), the Nittany Lions' task won't get any easier.
Let’s get right into some of the ins and outs of what was asked of Franklin Tuesday afternoon, how he responded, and what it will mean for the Nittany Lions this week as they gear up to face the Cornhuskers at Memorial Stadium:
Not a Subscriber? Join us With Our FREE 30-Day Premium Trial
1) To call Franklin's press conference anything but "heavy" would be an understatement.
Matching the program's worst start dating back to 2001 with the loss to Maryland last weekend, the 0-3 Nittany Lions have many, many areas to clean up on the field. We'll get to all of those soon.
That's because the major takeaway of the day was Franklin's openness speaking about the challenges he has had to face in being separated from his family since returning to Penn State this summer. Attempting to protect his youngest daughter, Addy, who has sickle cell anemia, his wife Fumi and other daughter Shola have spent the past few months living away from Franklin while he remains in State College.
Tuesday, Franklin acknowledged the toll that has taken on his personal psyche.
"I'll be honest with you, one of the things that I have not done a great job of handling personally, that I have to be honest with myself, I have to be honest with the team, and honest with you guys, is I have not done a great job of managing my family being gone. I have not," Franklin said. "They are my fuel. I go home. They're able to pour into me. And I have not done a great job of that. At the end of the day, I have to manage those things. I got to come to work. I got to do a great job."
Saying that he has tried to insulate his wife from helping to shoulder the burdens he has felt, Franklin noted that a recent conversation has helped, and in turn he shared that with his staff and team. But still, short of a vaccine, Franklin said that he anticipated to remain in this separated living arrangement for the foreseeable future due to the nature of his job and being around so many people on a daily basis.
"We're still working through it every day and I think the hard part, no different than before when COVID had shut football down and we didn't really know what the future held, that's a tough spot to be in. At least you say okay, on this date, this is going to happen and you just kind of plan and you come up with a plan to work towards that date, that's helpful. But with not knowing that, it's hard to say," Franklin said. "Fortunately for us, we got some great people that my wife can rely on medically, specifically the sickle cell, and the good thing is these are the things that they recommended. And again, we're fortune enough to be able to do it, so I also understand there's tremendous blessings and I have so much to be thankful for."
Later, when exchanging pleasantries with a reporter, Franklin was asked how he's doing and initially responded "good." But, given a beat, he interjected to say this:
"Let me say this. I shouldn't have said that. I wouldn't necessarily say I'm good," Franklin said. "All things considered, again blessed and good, but that's probably not an honest answer, but I appreciate you asking."
2) The reasons for that became instantly and frequently apparent through the course of Franklin's press conference Tuesday.
And truly, that's plural.
From the top, Franklin listed the latest examples of Penn State's failures against the Terrapins as being turnovers, few explosive plays offensively and too many allowed defensively. He mentioned the necessity of making more plays on both sides of the ball, breaking more tackles on the ground or through the air to create more explosive plays, and generating more turnovers on defense.
He said the fundamentals of tackling needed to be better. He said the start of games needs to be faster on both sides of the ball. He said the offensive and defensive lines need to be more physical, protecting the quarterback and pressuring the opponent's. And even special teams, Franklin said, had missed opportunities for points on kickoff return and breakdowns in consistency for punt and kickoff locations.
A laundry list of shortcomings that have yet to rectify themselves through the first three weeks of the 2020 season, Franklin laid out their collective impacts on the team's lack of wins.
"One of the things that I think is really important is how I answer these questions. I'm a lead with love guy. I always have been. And obviously when you're having success, like we've been able to have, that's easy to do. But right now, we're being tested," Franklin said. "It's all of it. A lot of the things that I just talked about, those things show up after wins and they need to get corrected. A lot of the things that the players are talking about, they show up during the week before wins, but they're still issues that need to get corrected. And obviously, the losses magnify those things, especially when the margin of error is really small and you've lost some games that you should have won, quite frankly. So I think it's all of it. It's not one thing. It's all of it.
"And I think that the fine line for me as the head coach is, I never want to be a guy that comes up here and feels like I'm making excuses. I never want to do that with the media. I never want to do that with the fans. I never want to do that with the administration, the boosters, the Lettermen, anybody. Ultimately, we're responsible for what we put out there on the field and everything that comes with that, and I'm responsible. It's not one thing. It's all of those things. If it was one thing, and I could put my finger on it, then it would be an easy solution and you wouldn't see this pop up in college football across the country. You wouldn't see this pop up in the NFL if there were easy solutions. It's complicated and it's layered."
Still, in a theme that he reiterated throughout the press conference, Franklin insisted that the leadership style that has served him well through his career and, by extension, the Penn State football program in his six prior seasons at the helm, will remain the same.
"I'm going to lead with love. You have to be very careful in times like this because you guys ask fair, tough questions, but how I respond to those questions, I want to make sure aren't divisive for our team and for our coaching staff," he said. "I'm just going to continue to lead how I've always lead and that's with love."
3) Franklin didn't back down from his Saturday evening stance to not pull Sean Clifford from his rough performance against Maryland, but did say that Will Levis is likely to see more game action in the coming weeks of the season.
Reiterating that as a coach he believes strongly in breeding confidence by letting starting quarterbacks work through tough outings, Franklin did say that, for a variety of reasons, they will look for opportunities to work Levis into the mix.
"Mixing Will in, we've done that earlier in the season. We've done that last season and have used him in some packages and maybe taken some hits off of Sean," Franklin said. "And I think there's an aspect where you put him in the game and they're not expecting it, but Will can chuck it. So I think a lot of times when you put that other quarterback in the game, everybody just assumes it's going to be a quarterback run, but putting that guy in the game and then being willing to take a shot down the field, Will has the ability to do that. So mixing him in to protect Sean, to keep Sean healthy, and also to get Will some reps and some experience I think it's the right thing to do. And we could have mixed that in last week as well. We probably need to be doing that every every game and moving forward."
4) More than anything, Franklin described Penn State's issues with its secondary as being about the fundamentals.
In a game that saw Maryland reach the end zone four times on explosive plays, with 42, 62, and 34 yard passes, plus a 38-yard run, Franklin said that the leverage issues (discussed by Thomas Frank Carr Monday) needed to be corrected. But he also said that even with those leverage issues, the complete breakdowns that lead to touchdowns shouldn't have taken place.
"I think at the end of the day, if you make the tackle and get them down, those things happen against everybody. Guys are gonna make the right call in the right situation, and the guy's gonna make a play, but what you got to do is you got to get people on the ground," Franklin said. "We've done a pretty good job of limiting explosive plays, but we weren't able to do that on Saturday, especially early in the game. And now the game changes because you're down.
"I think at the end of the day, people are going to create separation through picks and rubs and things like that versus man coverage. That is going to happen from time to time. And when it does, you got to get them on the ground and live to play another down."
5) The variety of offensive line combinations used in the second half could again be seen in the coming weeks as Penn State searches out a unit that is more effective than what it has produced so far.
But, Franklin indicated that the whole operation is dependent upon different attributes working in conjunction with one another. From physicality at the point of attack on the offensive line to breaking more tackles among the running backs, the interplay is something that builds, or detracts, based on prior successes or failures.
"The funny thing is, those two things are complementary. If you get more push, you're going to create more big runs, and you create more space in the running game, you're going to create more big runs," Franklin said. "But the other thing is, a running back that breaks three or four tackles and creates an explosive play or a touchdown, that also motivates the offensive line. It's a complementary deal there. So I think that will factor in."
Bottom line, for a program currently searching for an identity in the face of a start it admittedly could not have imagined a month ago, everything is on the table when seeking out improvements.
"We're looking at everything, and if we can make a couple subtle changes or subtle tweaks that can get us better, we're gonna make them. And that's going to be some tough conversations. When you're going through times like this, that's gonna create some tough conversations and tough decisions, and some people aren't going to like some of those decisions," Franklin said. "But again, over seven years here and over 10 years, I think people have seen we're gonna try to do things the right way. We're gonna have direct, honest conversations with people.
"We're always trying to put Penn State first. We're always trying to put the players first. We're always trying to put the program first. But that doesn't mean that I don't have tough conversation with the coaches. It doesn't mean I don't have tough conversations with the players.
"At the end of the day, we got to get it done. And it's our job to make sure that we get back on that plane on Saturday, for a long flight, and that our players are excited about getting on that plane and flying back to Happy Valley. And it's my responsibility to try to make all the people that are watching the game excited about it as well, which we've done a pretty good job of for the most part over the last seven years."
*******
• Talk about this article inside The Lions Den
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue-White Illustrated
• Follow us on Twitter: @BWIonRivals, @NateBauerBWI, @RivalsSnyder, @DavidEckert98
• Like us on Facebook