What Penn State's James Franklin Said at His Week 3 Press Conference

I'll start with Zuriah. It was great having him back. Probably played a little bit more than what I wanted him to play in terms of kind of just rep count, but he looked quick off the ball, looked confident. Mentally looked confident; physically looked confident. Emotionally, big smile on his face and flying around having fun. We're young at defensive end, so that experience and that leadership is important for us.

Having Zion back I thought was also significant. Guy who has played a ton of football around here, a guy that's made some big time plays in big moments for us. So that was big. We're going to need that to continue. When you have him and AJ [Harris] and Zakee [Wheatley] and really Elliot [Washington] and AC [Audavion Collins], there are a lot of guys that have played a lot of the football in the back half. So that will be important for us, those two guys continuing to get in there, get reps, and contribute from a leadership standpoint and also from a production standpoint.

And then just in terms of with Jim [Knowles], ultimately, it's about points. Obviously our first two games it's been pretty impressive in terms of points and the number of guys we been able to play. But I do think we can be more of a suffocating style defense. We've given up some yards that I think Jim would prefer obviously us being a little bit tighter and reacting. I still think our defense is thinking and not playing as fast as maybe we have in the past, and that's what's going to be important this week and then obviously moving forward as well, just getting these guys playing fast and confident in some of the tweaks of the new system. So that will be important for us moving forward.

On quarterback Drew Allar saying he was "overthinking" vs. FIU

It's kind of hard to see what somebody is thinking, but he missed some throws that he normally doesn't. And I think what happens for all these guys, we talk about it in all my end-of-the-year meetings, it's a really important trait and skill for guys to learn is, next play. You know, next play. No matter what happens the previous play, positive or negative, you most move on. You must move on to the next one. I think a couple times that happened where you miss a really easy throw that he makes 99.9 percent of the time and that frustrates you, and if you're not careful that will linger.

So I thought that happened early in the game. I think he got frustrated and it lingered. What happens is when you got people that have invested the amount that a guy like Drew and most of our team have invested, that's easier said than done, to move on to the next play and not get frustrated and upset with yourself. But that's why it's such an important trait to learn. No matter what happens the previous play, you got to flush it and move on to the next play, and each play is kind of its own entity. You got to make sure you're maximizing it. Only way to do that is to be present. You can't live in the past. Can't live in the future. You must be present. So that I did see.

On continuing to play more young players vs. Villanova

Yeah, we'll continue to play a bunch of guys this week. I won't get into next week because we're focused on this week and staying present and this opportunity that we have this Saturday. But we have done that. I think in my 12 years we've played a ton of guys early in the season to try to develop depth. We'll try to do that again this week. It's developing depth and also an opportunity to evaluate these guys in games and who deserves more reps and who is not necessarily ready for primetime yet. Now, they may be by week five, week six, middle of the season, but it's all of that. It's, knock on wood, staying as healthy and fresh as we possibly can. It's all that.

So yeah, we want to develop depth. We want to evaluate our roster and see who is ready, and then we want to try to stay as healthy as we can for what we anticipate to be a long season.

On freshman defensive end Chaz Coleman

He's just going to continue to get better. I mean, especially when you think about he's only played defensive end for two years. He was a high school quarterback I think his junior year in high school. So I think he's got a chance to just take leaps and bounds each game. I think the other thing, as you know, he's kind of getting comfortable with the routine. Obviously Dani [Dennis-Sutton] is doing a really good job of being a mentor to him. Dani can be tough love from time to time, but I think that's been good. Deion and the staff have done a really good job with him.

He's also just a really, really humble, hard working kid. I would anticipate him continuing to get better and better and better. Obviously he's also a guy that as we start to narrow this thing down, his reps will probably go up, because rather than playing a three-deep at defensive end there will be games we play a two-deep. That may mean eight to ten, eight to twelve more reps for him. I think the more reps and more plays and opportunities and more experience he gets, the more production will come. He's an exciting young player and he's an awesome young man. Family has done a really good job raising him. I'm not going to talk about him too much because I want to keep him humble and hungry.

On making more explosive plays

We missed a couple of throws, we had some drops. I think we had five drops. When you catch the ball there is a chance that you're going to make somebody miss and those are going to, say half of those, turn into explosive plays. Then I think there are times where just like Kaytron [Allen] did on Saturday, you break a tackle. Now you got a chance for one of those runs to go. That's going to happen, as we've seen for the last four years with Nick as well.

So those things will come. They'll come organically just by doing the things we should be doing, breaking tackles, making people miss as ball carriers. That's as receivers, and running backs, maximizing the opportunities that we get, hitting a few more of the throws, straining in protection a little bit longer, all those things. All those things I think are important and helpful.