Blue White Illustrated

S E P T E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 12 N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M Beads of sweat poured down James Franklin's face before he even entered the visitors' media room in Kinnick Sta- dium. It was unseasonably warm for a night game on Sept. 23 in Iowa, and Franklin may have simply been feeling the effects of the heat. More likely, he was simply sweating out the joys of his Nittany Lions' gutty 21-19 win against the Hawkeyes. Penn State scored a touch- down as time expired to maintain an unbeaten record at this early stage in the season. A?er opening his postgame comments with an appreciation of the atmosphere and energy that Iowa brought to the game, Franklin got into some of the de- tails. Let's get into them, here: IOWA'S GAME PLANFranklin began by talking about how Iowa chose to defend Penn State's offense on Saturday night, a strong effort that allowed the Nittany Lions to amass 579 yards on 99 plays but score only 21 points. The numbers, including a school- record 358 all-purpose yards for run- ning back Saquon Barkley, were indicative of what the Hawkeyes planned before the game. "I thought they had a really good plan on defense," Franklin said. "They say we're an explosive offense, [so] they weren't going to give up the big play. They played really so? and said that we were going to have to take all of the un- derneath routes, and are we patient enough to do that all the way down the field?" In spite of Barkley's big night, the Nit- tany Lions found themselves falling short time and again, forced into four field goal attempts, of which only two connected. Franklin described it as a failure to finish off drives. Penn State had eight possessions of seven or more plays but failed to come away with points on four of them. "We weren't able to execute on offense and finish drives," Franklin said. "We had a lot of yards but we weren't able to finish drives. I think we've got to get better with our running game in be- tween the tackles so we can punch the ball in the end zone." O-LINE SHORTHANDEDOne develop- ment that likely impacted Penn State's performance on offense was the shi?ing of personnel on the line due to injuries. Right tackle Chasz Wright did not play in the game, and Andrew Nelson has been trying to work his way back from an injury that ended his junior season. With Wright unavailable, redshirt freshman Will Fries saw extensive ac- tion at Iowa. "We didn't have Chasz Wright, we didn't have Andrew Nelson for most of the game and we got Will Fries, who went in and battled in a tough environ- ment in his first start on the edge," Franklin said. Franklin offered no clues as to how long Nelson or Wright are expected to be out. BROWN OUTAlthough Franklin didn't say it, a report by ESPN's Chris Fowler noting that defensive end Torrence Brown's injury would force him out for the remainder of the season was con- firmed by Penn State's strategic com- munications team. Appearing to choke up when discussing it, Franklin said Brown's absence was a "tremendous loss." "Torrence is a guy who is universally respected in our program, from a lead- ership standpoint, from a production standpoint, just the whole package," Franklin said. "He's a great friend, he's great person, he's a great teammate. He has tremendous amount of respect in that locker room, so a bunch of guys wanted to honor him tonight." BARKLEY DAZZLESEchoing a senti- ment that has grown in its prevalence in recent weeks, Franklin said he thinks Barkley is the best player in college football this season. "I've been doing this for 23 years," Franklin said. "The guy is special. I don't know what the stats were or what he did, but every time he touched the ball, I don't care if it was a 20-yard run or an 8-yard run, it was special. It really was. Just tremendous." Franklin called Barkley's record-set- ting performance against Iowa "just tremendous." Photo by Steve Manuel G A M E N O T E B O O K Iowa's plan slows down high-scoring Nittany Lions

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