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Penn State football: James Franklin speaks to media following 27-11 win over UCLA
Nov 15, 2024
Penn State football coach James Franklin discusses the Nittany Lions win over UCLA. The Nittany Lions moved to 5-0 for the fourth consecutive season for the first time in program history. Franklin also explains the game-time decision not to play star running back Nicholas Singleton.
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want to thank you guys for coming and
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covering uh Penn State
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football
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um just looking for Neil is Neil here
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and even Neil yeah appreciate all you
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guys cover coming covering Penn State
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football and even Neil that was a joke
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Neil not funny huh everybody laughed
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yeah nobody nobody laughed uh want to
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thank the fans obviously
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110,000 uh awesome we just get such
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unbelievable support week in and week
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out we don't take that for granted um
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you know our defense couple things kind
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of jump out about them I think our third
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quarter defense all Year's been been
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ridiculous uh 87 yards all year on 46
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plays 1.9 yards per play um I think this
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this game we held UCLA to minus n yards
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in the third in the third quarter uh so
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that was significant really cool to see
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Liam Clifford uh with over a 100 yards
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today so now you you watch on tape Trey
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Trey has beat people um U Omari
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obviously is is an issue Liam showing up
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Julian showing up the tight end showing
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up the running back so uh makes it
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difficult when they're not sure who they
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can or will take away in the game but
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great to see Liam have his first 100 100
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yard game Penn State is 5-0 for the
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fourth straight Year we're the only
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School in the country to start 5 and0 in
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each of the last four years and it's the
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first time that that's happened in
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school history so something we take a
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lot of pride
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in and then our defense has held Big 10
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opponents under a 100 yards rushing in
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four straight games and 15 of the last
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16 games so that was that was cool uh
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having PW back was great um um you know
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getting a chance to be with him and his
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wife and his kids uh was was really cool
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obviously great linebacker here at Penn
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State and lbu and then jur vious as well
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hasn't been back in a long time and was
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with us this week obvious daughter is
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killing it uh is killing it with our
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volleyball team so great having these
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Letterman back and spending time with
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them we won the we won the U explosive
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play Battle not by much but we did uh we
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won the third down b battle we won the
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sack battle uh we won the starting field
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position battle and then the big one
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which I'm not sure who it was
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specifically a bunch of you guys to be
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honest with you um but most importantly
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uh the penalty battle we had two
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penalties in the game for 20 yards that
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was that was big we talked about the
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importance of getting that cleaned up uh
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now that we're in Big 10 plays that's a
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step in the right direction that we got
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to build on so overall a lot of good
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things to
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celebrate um again we appreciate the
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fans we appreciate your support and open
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up the questions mark James how do you
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think the offense adjusted to not having
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Nick and Neil was wondering if you give
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us a status of day Monday oh
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yeah um P me off the
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yeah we um I thought we'd have him
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Thursday I thought we'd have them Friday
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I thought we'd have them today I didn't
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find out until after warmup jaywan and
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Andy mutton came into my office uh came
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into the locker room and and told me so
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literally it was a last minute deal I
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mean obviously not having a guy like
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like Nick Singleton um is significant
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but it was a tremendous opportunity for
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KRON to get a few more touches and it
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was also a great opportunity to get
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Quinton in there so um you know really
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really good opportunity for those two
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guys and I think overall we handle it
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well hey coach Frankin jar how's it
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going good um Tyler Warren another week
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another touchdown for him uh what makes
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him so dependable for you guys
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especially in the Red Zone I think
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that's the word he's he's Dependable I
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mean the guy does his job and does it on
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a consistent basis whether it is
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blocking whether it's running with the
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ball as a ball carrier whether it's as a
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receiver and again I think you guys have
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heard me talk about this a lot but when
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they can't put Tyler Warren into a
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category that's what makes tight ends
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most valuable um you know if he's just a
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receiver they can they can treat him
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like a receiver and treat it as 10
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Personnel uh if he's just kind of a big
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run blocking slug then that's not a
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threat either but when he can do either
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or um makes it very very difficult to to
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defend and then to your point he's
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Dependable you know you throw the ball
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in his Direction he's going to catch it
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he's going to break tackles he's going
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to make positive yards so um you know
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again I think he's the best tight in
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college football and I think his his
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play warrants that Tyler and then Andrew
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hi James hey Tyler um today we you told
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us a few days ago that you looking High
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School film for for Justin Martin
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because he didn't have any much on on
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film at the college level he had some
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success early in the game what did you
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pick up from him defensively over the
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course of that first half and how do you
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think your defense was able to adjust
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with Tom Allen yeah I was impressed with
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him you know he's a I'm not sure how
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tall he is but looking at him in in
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pregame he's a big guy
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um he seemed very poised um the moment
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didn't seem too big for him first time
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starting
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quarterback um and talking to their head
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coach before the game uh you know on the
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Catapult he's run 21 miles an hour so
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you're talking about a big guy who can
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run uh who was poised so I was impressed
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with that guy I really was um and I
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thought you know again when you're
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preparing all week you don't have any
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film of a guy that that can make it a
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little bit interesting but overall our
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starting defense held a big 10 opponent
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to three points you know they scored a
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point there late with a lot of backups
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in um they scored a touchdown there late
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with a lot of backups in uh in today's
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day and age you know keeping people to a
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field goal was difficult to do and I
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thought our defense you know did a nice
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job there's some things obviously we got
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to get cleaned up the big explosive play
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uh you know we did not run with tail
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back in man coverage the guy that had
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him in man coverage
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um and that obviously is going to hurt
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you every single time if they find him
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so that was a huge play in the game but
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besides that I thought overall we played
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well Andre coach you mentioned 8 couple
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yards in third quarters this year what
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what's been the difference in the third
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quarter and why have you been so
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successful in adjusting I I think really
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in my time we've been pretty good in the
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second half in general I think to me I'm
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I'm more I'm more interested in in
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making sure that we're starting faster
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um you know I think that first quarter
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you look at the time of possession not
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what you want you look at third down on
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offense and on defense not what you want
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again back to the point I have had with
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you guys earlier about getting enough
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touches and getting enough plays on
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offense and getting off the field on
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defense so we got we got to start faster
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but defensively I think you know you get
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a good feel for who they are you get
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them settled down you make some
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adjustments um and I think that's for
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the biggest reason why we've been able
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to play really good third quarter
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football te and technology has helped
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with that as well uh but but overall
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getting our guys lined up getting their
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cleats in the ground getting them ready
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to play I think we've done a nice job of
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that uh with both both you know offens
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and defensive staff here the left James
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it seemed that the receivers were being
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targeted more frequently today how much
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of that has had to do with Nick uh not
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being available more frequently said
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yeah um I don't know I I I I didn't feel
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that way or or noticed that um I felt
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like we called it the way you know we
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have been calling it but you may be
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right I'd have to go back and check that
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um I I don't I don't know it wasn't it
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wasn't like we made a change literally
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again we didn't find out until until
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after warm up that we didn't have Nick
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so it's not not enough time to kind of
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change your game plan and with KRON and
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Quinton we don't really feel like we
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have to go two more we'll go pickle
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coach uh with Ryan Barker what be what
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wouldn't your decis decision rather to
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make him your starting Place kicker
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today with Zion Tracy what did he do to
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earn that spot at pun return with Kate
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now yeah so uh with Barker like I
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mentioned to you guys I think last week
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it it came down to a percentage Point um
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all during training camp between those
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two guys so we felt like this week um
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you know we would look at all those guys
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as well but it wouldn't just be this
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week it' be this week plus uh the
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totality of everything that's happened
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the entire year so um based on it being
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a tight competition already and then how
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the games have gone uh from a production
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execution standpoint in that phase felt
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like you know it made sense to to give
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Barker his opportunity because again it
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was within a percentage Point what was
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the other
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part yeah so Tracy been part of that
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competition kind of all year
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long um we did not have Kaden available
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and and he was next man up um you know
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Jake Spencer still factors in so we used
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him in the safe situations where you're
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probably not going to get a return
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anyway just a guy who's caught some
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balls already in college games but Zion
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we think we think he'll learn from this
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today and have an opportunity to not
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only catch the ball go for but have a
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chance to be a playmaker so uh excited
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about
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that hey Jame you're now tuning in a
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helicopter it was great um I was going
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to call you in the
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backyard um the uh two-minute drill how
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much do you think you that gave you guys
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a boost with Drew connecting to get
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TouchDown uh right in front of the half
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yeah I think we've done a pretty good
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job of that all year long points right
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before the half you talk about the
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middle eight and things like that that
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that's been I think really good for us
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all all year long I think the other
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thing that that I'm very proud of in
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terms of the players and off defensive
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coaches we want to have all of our
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timeouts available at the end of the
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first half and at the end of the game uh
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and there's value in that there's power
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in that so um I think the combination of
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2 minutes and 40 seconds or whatever it
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is in the game with all three timeouts
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that's a ton of time it allowed us to
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start out not in a traditional twom
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minute but have some urgency to us and
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then after the TW minute warning we were
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planning on going two minute right there
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with it being a third down we just use
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that as a timeout with a two-minute
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warning uh get what we wanted called and
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and then go from there and then if we
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didn't pick it up it also allowed us to
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burn some time off the clock uh and get
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the two-minute warning out of the uh
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equation for them if they were getting B
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back yes thank thanks guys have a good
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week
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