Blue White Illustrated

S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 7 C O A C H S P E A K • 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 On the rivalry with Pitt: The last time we played them, it was a loss 16 years ago. We had an opportunity to come out tonight and swing that back in our direction and we didn't get that done. From a fan's perspective, if you're not a Penn State fan that was a heck of a game to watch if you were watching on television. Honestly, this type of game, so competitive, it's going to make for a great four-game series and we'll see where it goes from there. On turnovers: I think there's going to be a lot of things that when you watch that tape that were done well. There are going to be opportunities that we had to make plays that could have been signifi- cant in the game that we didn't make. The thing we have to do is we have to eliminate the turnovers. Can't fumble the ball. Can't throw interceptions. Can't put the ball on the ground. It's that simple. There's a lot of good things to learn from on tape, and we'll do that, but we have to protect the ball. That's two hands on the ball in the pocket. That's high and tight when you're run- ning it and that's decision-making. On clap cadence: When you do not use a cadence on the road, that's the same issue we have when people come to our place. When you cannot use a cadence, and you're using a clap ca- dence and people can tee off on that. ... That's an advantage. That is what a home field advantage is. We get the same thing. To have a combination of a big physical defensive line and we have an offensive line that's maturing and growing and taking some steps in the right direction and then you have a clap cadence and they're teeing of on that. As I said, there were some issues early on as well. On Penn State's ongoing chal- lenges: You guys don't want me to talk about our depth. I get it. You don't want me to talk about being a young football team. You don't want to hear that. Ob- viously losing [Jason] Cabinda is signif- icant as your starting middle linebacker. Losing Saeed [Blacknall], who is one of our better, more mature wideouts, is significant. But again, nobody wants to hear that. Guys have to step up. Guys have to make plays. I'm proud of the guys in the locker room and how they competed. I'm proud of how the coaches kept their composure and made some adjustments at halAime. But as an entire team, we have to adjust faster and we have to swing momentum back on the road back in our favor. I think that early first drive on third down, third- and-five, when we snapped the ball be- fore we had given our cadence, that was a big play in the game that could have helped us with momentum and silenced the crowd. On special teams: I thought we punted the ball well. It thought early on we kicked off well. We made some plays in the return game. In kickoff return, we're still not where we need to be. John Reid has brought a spark to us in the re- turn game. We can't give up the big re- turn. It's not a secret. We're going to kick the ball into the corner and we're going to overload with numbers and when the ball is kicked to the middle of the field, that's going to put stress on everybody. We have to cover that. On Saquon Barkley: I thought he bat- tled. People are going to talk about the five touchdowns. That defense, they've historically done a great job of stopping the run. But again, we put the ball on the ground. I though he battled from the be- ginning of the game until the end. He ran hard, but I still think we can get more out of our running game in general. On the game-deciding interception: We ran a wrong route. We had some guys on the field who aren't typically on the field. We ran a wrong route and then obviously we can't throw the ball up where we threw it. We have to put it in position where our guys can make a play or get another down. We still had a lot of football leA to play, so to turn it over in that situation was difficult. The other thing is, when you see the ball is in the air and you is see that it's going to be in- tercepted you have to go break it up. You have to go fight like heck, even if it was a pass interference on offense, you have to do whatever you can to break it up. So on that play we ran the wrong route and then we didn't go fight to go break the interception up. PSUtixman@gmail.com www.PSUtixman.com Get your PSU Football Tickets at go t ti cke t s? k c i t t t e k man@g .PSUtixm www.PSUtixman.com at ootba Get yo k c i t t o gm .PSUtixman.com all ur s t s e k

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