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Penn State football: James Franklin talks discipline, defense after primetime win
Nov 15, 2024
James Franklin discusses the Nittany Lions' penalties, discipline, second-half defense, and more after a 21-7 win over Illinois.
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like always I want to thank you guys for
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coming out and cover of Penn State
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football we appreciate it um you know
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really want to start by thanking the
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fans that was a phenomenal environment
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that wasn't even a white out that wasn't
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even a white out and we had that um the
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fans were phenomenal you know we we we
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thought the fans had seven
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impactful um impacts on the game seven
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plays whether it was timeouts whether it
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was fall start and penalties with bad
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snaps we thought they had seven plays
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that were significant in the game we're
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so thankful and appreciative for the
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fans and the environment we get here
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it's like nothing in all sports let
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alone college football so we're
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appreciative of that it's awesome having
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the 94 team back here if you guys
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haven't done any homework I know the the
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Vets have but if you haven't done any
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homework on that 94 team the amount of
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guys that went on uh I think we had five
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guys drafted in the first round uh guys
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that went on had significant careers
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17-year careers in the NFL uh Super Bowl
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champions all that kind of stuff so it
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was great having our brothers back that
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was
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awesome um you know a couple other
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things um when Illinois had the ball on
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the two yd line at the end of the second
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quarter the fans were significant there
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our defense was significant there from
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that point on we we we held him out of
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the end zone there ended up missing a
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field goal from that point on they only
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had 59 yard excuse me 39 yards the rest
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of the game the rest of the game so that
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was huge um our defense is playing
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really well Nick Allen excuse me uh Nick
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Singleton KRON Allen um you talk about
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they're the second set of teammates with
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2,000 career rushing yards since Franco
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Harris and liel Mitchell pretty good
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group to be associated with pretty cool
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stat there so
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um overall I'm really really happy with
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our guys that is a good football team
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you got to give Illinois and Coach BB a
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ton um of respect that game really
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played out for a long time the way
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Illinois wants the game to go they want
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one possession games they want to keep
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it tight where I think it went different
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is I challenged our o line against their
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dline and I CH challenge our dline
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against their their front their o line
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and I think that was the difference
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really in the game we rushed for 239
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yards they rushed for 34 yards and it's
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not just 34 yards that is a team that is
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committed to running the football they
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are committed to running the football
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and when you're able to take somebody
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and force them out of the style of play
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that they want to play then usually good
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things happen so uh we got a ton of
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things that we got to clean up you guys
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you guys will bring them all up you'll
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bring up all the negative things um that
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we got to get corrected on Sunday I get
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it I get it I'll answer every single one
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of your questions um but but I'm proud
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of our guys and I'm proud of that locker
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room we found a way to get a win at home
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against a really good ranked opponent um
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and I open up the questions Rich we'll
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get a bike to you we'll go with Rick or
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Mark the rich James what about that game
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made you decide to run the ball as often
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as you did and can you expand a little
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bit on the job the o line everybody
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looks at the stats of the running backs
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but they may not realize what that group
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did yeah that that's exactly right I
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think I think the first thing with the o
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line and tight
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ends they're playing a physical brand of
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football and they're doing a great job
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of protecting our quarterback they're
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allowing us to get ahead of the sticks
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um and the combination of our o line
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being physical and I I don't know if
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there's a better combination of running
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backs in the country um
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you know there was some physical runs
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out there today so I just I couldn't be
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more proud of that group and how they're
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playing um that's going to be important
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for us the rest of the year um but when
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you're able to run the ball like that on
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offense and stop the run on defense you
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know good things are going to happen for
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you I don't think there's any doubt
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about it did I answer both question
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that's good enough other people have to
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ask question what was the other one it
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was about what made you decide to run it
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as often as you yeah I think when when
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you look down and K try Allen uh KRON
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Allen average 5.7 yards per carry Nick
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Singleton 5.9 yards per carry Bo Pula
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5.7 yards per carry you're stupid to get
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away from it right so Andy was doing a
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great job calling the game as you guys
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know you know I'll mix in there every
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once in a while hey you know just
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reminding him hey stick with the run
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we're gashing him right now or time to
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take a shot let's you know I I just try
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to you know I'm down there I'm on the
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sideline sometimes as the play call it's
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good to kind of have these things things
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as re as to reinforce what he's already
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doing um but that was the biggest reason
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we got to be better in the Red Zone we
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weren't as good in the Red Zone tonight
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again got to give Illinois credit too
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rich and then uh Jared James to
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right is this your new spot now well I
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guess I could change next week who knows
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no no no could Avery you're sitting in
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the spot guys cover P State football for
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30 years Avery
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sorry yeah but who's counting right no
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I'm I'm going to be one of the guys who
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brings up the negatives uh you said in
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your halftime interview with the radio
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network that you were very unhappy with
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the penalties including the quote
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unquote BS penalties what at this point
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of the Season should these penalties
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some of these penalties be cleaned up by
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now and how do you go about cleaning I
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got no problem with question I got no
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problem with question
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um yeah so so first of all it's hard to
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complain about a bad call when we're
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getting as many penalties as we are
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um I I I felt like at the end of the
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game there's a ton of times where we
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were getting
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held
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um and I'll watch you tap you know I'm
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not I'm not trying to be critical and I
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know you're the one of the things you're
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going right now I was trying to get me
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fined um I won't pay yeah trust me um
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but for me I I just want to feel like
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it's being called both ways that's
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ultimately all I care about the the one
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play I I had a really hard time with um
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they called Tony
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Roos who's running to make a tackle the
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ball's going down the sideline and he's
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going to make the tackle and somebody
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comes to block him and he lowers his
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shoulder and destroys the guy why
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because Tony Roos is bigger than the guy
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that was trying to block him he's
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chasing the ball what's he supposed to
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do he's going to make a tackle someone's
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coming to block him just because he
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absolutely destroyed him it's a penalty
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it's not our fault and what I was told
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is that he peeled back to knock somebody
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out why would if the runs going that way
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why would you peel back to make a block
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it just doesn't make sense from a common
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sense perspective and I watch the play
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so again you're trying to get me
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fine talking about the outside yeah but
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it's a fair question but it's it's a
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fair question again you guys have heard
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me say before the ones I struggle with
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is right now we got a reputation for
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jumping off sides and they know it
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they're going to keep doing it till we
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get it cleaned up so that's got to
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happen and the reality is as good as we
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play as good as we played we made it a
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lot harder than it needed to be with
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silly penalties and that's on me like
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this whole yelling at the kids that's on
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me and us as
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coaches we got to we got to provide more
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discipline all the time not just
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punitive penalties when they jump off
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sides being more disciplined about how
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they are in meetings how they sit up how
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they take notes all of that and I
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believe the more discipline that we have
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off the field will transfer on the field
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and that's my job hold Jared then Tyler
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hey good Frank to your left Jared how
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are you good how are you good I got a
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positive one for you um after
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Illinois after Illinois came out and uh
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scored uh on their opening drive what
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can you talk about the team effort to
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then shut them out for the rest of the
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game yeah I I think the first thing is
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we got to be better on opening drives
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right to me as a head
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coach I think opening drives on offense
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and defense are very telling about how
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prepared you are you're opening
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offensive drives you should have gone
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through it so many times vers all the
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looks you're expecting to get that you
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can really go down the field and be
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successful that's a week's worth of
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preparation to open the game same thing
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on defense we we got to break some
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tendencies that people aren't as
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comfortable going down the field um you
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know make them question their game plan
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make them question what they've studied
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um so we got to be better in that area
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but
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again when you hold a big 10 team to
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Seven Points you're going to have a
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chance to win a ton of games and I'm
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very proud of our defensive players I'm
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very proud of Tom Allen and the
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defensive staff uh they've done they've
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done a great job so we we got to get
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that cleaned up but again we're going to
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win a lot of games when you hold people
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to seven points and 34 rushing yards
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against a big 10 opponent you got you're
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going to give yourself a chance to win a
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lot of games two more we'll go Tyler and
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then we'll go Mason thanks hi James hey
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Tyler um Sanders haak obviously a couple
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misses today field goals Ryan Barker was
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out there for the last exra Point
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attempt so with the kicker position what
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is your intention as far as assessing um
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and evaluating that role before the UCLA
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match up yeah as you can imagine I'm not
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going to get into to that right now I
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love Sanders ack he's been awesome for
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us here uh and we just won a game and he
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should be celebrating this win like
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everybody else um but ultimately we'll
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have a competition and um you know all
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the things will factor into some
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decisions that we're going to have to
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make moving forward um but I I I want
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sander to celebrate just win like
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everybody else because he's put a ton
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into this he's a great kid he's a great
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representative of Penn State and
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everything that we're about uh and I
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love the fact that we played
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complimentary football and our offense
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and defense had Sanders back that's
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happen from time to time last question
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can youself please hey coach Mason Smith
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I'm hoping out Frank today but I'm from
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the land of the East strawber Warriors
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and I work for the poconon record y mod
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yeah y'all hear that say it again say it
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again one more time East sturg
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Warriors yeah Penn State East sturg and
11:20
Harvard Yale
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Princeton absolutely Co the question I
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have for you about the defense obviously
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ELO had a really strong first drive
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where they got that touchdown but they
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continue to improve in that second half
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especially seemed like another n another
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n culminated with a interception that
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was you know retired for Testa
11:37
ultimately called back what was the
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turning point you saw in your defense
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allow him to you know really shut down
11:42
that align night offense well I I think
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a couple things right I I think the
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first thing that we did a better job in
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this game is we were better on first
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down that's been an issue earlier in the
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year we weren't good enough on first
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down so what happens then is you're
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getting third and manageable situations
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and you're able to extend drives so we
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were much better again back to the 34
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yards rushing um I'm not sure exactly
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what they averaged per rush but it
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wasn't very good um and that really set
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everything else up from there uh we know
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that we're going to get Slants and RPO
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glances which are similar to Slants
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because we play a heavy man coverage out
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side leverage so we get a ton of that
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and we got to do a great job of getting
12:32
our hands up and batting some of those
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balls down and we got to make sure we
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tackle them but they're going to make
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their plays to their own scholarship as
12:40
well but ultimately we made that team
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onedimensional and when you're able to
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do that you got a chance to be
12:46
successful so um you know the exciting
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thing you know back to Rich's point and
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and and and really a lot of you guys
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Point there's a lot of things that I
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think are very easily corrected
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correctable and we got to get them fixed
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um and that's that's coming from a
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defense that held them to how many total
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yards 219 total yards and 34 rushing Ys
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the answer is 1.1 they average 1.1 yards
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per
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Rush thank you coach thank you
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appreciate you guys thank
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