Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/584271
O c T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 5 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O m 13 COACHSPEAK | E X c E R P T S F R O m J A m E S F R A N K L I N ' S P O S T G A m E P R E S S E R What went into being more aggres- sive on offense? Did you see some- thing on film with Indiana? How much did the weather play into that? It's really the same things I have been talking about for four weeks. We are going to have to play a certain style the next couple of weeks. We've got to allow our offensive line time to mature. The weather factored into that. We played three games in pretty signifi- cant rain, so it was all those things. [Indiana] had everyone in the box, they were basically daring you to throw the ball. We knew were going to have to do that, so it was all those factors that it really all probably came down. We just wanted to play as ugly as we possibly could for four weeks because we were just saving all of that stuff up for this week. Christian was able to do some things with his legs today, scoring a couple touchdowns, running for some yardage. How important is that in terms of keeping a defense hon- est? Really important, really important. … We talked to a lot of people in the off- season and everybody talks about two first downs. If a quarterback can get two first downs a game for you with his legs, you're going to be in a really good posi- tion. Christian was able to do that today. I've been saying for a while that he has the ability to do that, and it showed up today. I think now we will have conversations about him being a dual-threat quarterback and installing the option. Along those lines on the other side of the ball, you said one of your biggest challenges was going to be preparing for both of their quarter- backs. How do you think your de- fense did? It's a pain. It's not easy. You've got one quarterback who's 6-foot-6, 240 pounds and is a traditional pocket passer. Then you got another guy who's 5-11, 170 pounds and went for a 78-yard scramble against Ohio State for a touchdown. We talk about two com- pletely different game plans. To me, the game of football week in and week out comes down to fundamentals and tech- niques, and your training and your skills. You look at penalties. We're doing a good job with that. Were still hurting ourselves in situations on of- fense. The turnover battle we said all week was going to be significant. We did a good job with that. Did you guys make a decision at halftime to try Tyler Davis as the replacement kicker. What was the decision behind that after Joey Julius missed two extra points, and where do you stand on that going forward? It's pretty much that. We missed two extra points. You put the next guy in.