Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/899908
N O V E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 1 7 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 You suggested this week that there was some type of hangover a!er the Ohio State game going into the Michigan State game. Do you think there was some hangover today, at least early? There were some mis- takes, some lack of execution and do you think there was some hangover today? I think obviously the opening kick is not how you want to start a game, but a?er that I thought we made plays and played pretty good. That team had won three out of their last four games, has done some good things, and I think we also know the Rutgers game is always [important] from a regional standpoint. There are a lot of guys who know each other, and we usually play very hard in that game. Besides the opening kick, I thought we played pretty good. There are some things that we have to get cleaned up. I think the odd front gave our guys a little bit of hesitation. We didn't play as fast and aggressive up front as we need to, but I think we made progress and we were able to get a fairly convincing win against a program on the rise. You mentioned a!er the game last week that you guys had to become more physical. From your vantage point on the sidelines, did you see more physical play from your guys? I think a little bit, but I still think that's an area that we can get better in, and our tackling – we had some missed tackles, had that up front on both sides of the ball. I think when you win the way we just won, I would say that we were the more physical football team, but I still think we need some improve- ment there. You're usually pretty aggressive be- fore the half with your timeouts. Today you didn't use any. Were you just trying to get in and make the ad- justments? What was your thinking? It really comes down to a lot of things. It comes down to field position, it comes down to, on first down, did we get them for a negative-yard play or a short-yardage play? Or did they get four or five yards? And now you call a timeout, you give them the opportunity to get a first down, so really, it depends on where the ball is, how much time is le? in the game, and then on first down did we get them off-schedule? If so, I'll burn a timeout. Second down, did they get a short [gain]? Then I'll burn an- other timeout. But if it looks like they're going to get a first down, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for me to burn timeouts in that situation.