Post game press conference — Minnesota

[swoloson]

Coach James Franklin will address the media shortly following Penn State's 45-17 win over Minnesota. Updates to come...

 

[swoloson]

Franklin says the team played "complementary football" tonight. He says the biggest strength was on 3rd downs, where Penn State's defense got off the field and the offense was able to get conversions

 

[swoloson]

"He's a battler, he's resilient, he's tough, and he played really well. If you look around the country, you'd see a lot of programs that would be really excited about what Sean [Clifford] did tonight," Franklin said.

 

[swoloson]

On how the run defense improved from Michigan to this week: "We just consistently did our job and held our gaps," Franklin said. Franklin said the plan was to leave the secondary "on an island" and to "stack the box" to stop the run.

 

[swoloson]

"We wanted to have three true linebackers, three box linebackers on the field [to stop the run]," Franklin said. Freshman Abdul Carter made his first career start and played well, while Curtis Jacobs racked up 14 tackles.

 

[swoloson]

The team felt confident about Sean Clifford starting this week after he played the full Tuesday practice. To help manage the pain during one practice session this week, the backup quarterbacks took first-team reps, which Franklin said was "valuable" experience for those players.

 

[swoloson]

That's all from Franklin's press conference.

 

[PSU Soupy]

The putting the secondary on an island was the only strategy that could have worked against UofM.