Throughout his 12 years as the head coach at Penn State, James Franklin developed an impressively frustrating way of communicating to the media, in which he managed to say a lot while revealing very little.
After a loss, questions about his team’s struggles during post-game media were almost always met with some iteration of “I’m not sure, I’d need to watch the film.” On Monday after he’d had time to watch the film, those same questions were then disregarded as he repeatedly said he wanted to move on from the previous game and focus on the upcoming opponent.
Half the time he was asked about a player’s injury status, Franklin would respond with some variation of “you guys know I never discuss player health,” while the other half of the time, he’d respond by discussing player health. Most often, injuries fell in one of two categories: bumps and bruises (minor), or out “long-term” (major).
Questions that could be answered in one word often were. Questions he didn’t like often went unanswered. In short, there was an art form to asking Franklin questions and getting meaningful answers.
But after Saturday’s 25-24 loss to Iowa, interim head coach Terry Smith provided a refreshing level of honesty as he discussed his team’s performance, evaluating a multitude of areas with a combination of harsh criticisms and deserved praise.
Here’s what he had to say.
On the team:
“Obviously a very disappointing loss. Very disappointing the way we lost at the very end, all three areas need improvement.”
“I think our guys played hard. I think our guys left it out there. I think they gave everything they had; there was nobody that turned anything down. There was no one that didn’t give great effort. We just have to execute better. That’s where our problem is. That’s my job to get it fixed. I’m super proud of those guys and the way they played. We just got to clean it up so that we can finish games.”
On the offense:
“Offense, we continue to not be able to throw the ball down the field or even throw the ball in the intermediate zone. We got to get that fixed.”
On the defense:
“Defense, we can’t get stops when we need stops. It’s glaring.”
On the special teams:
“In our special teams, we continue to have problems handling punts and kicks just making good decisions with the football there.”
On quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer:
“I thought his game was solid. I thought he managed the line of scrimmage and the calls at the line of scrimmage. He handled the crowd. Crowd was electric. We didn’t have any miscues with communication at the line of scrimmage. So he did a terrific job with that. I’m super excited. You know, he used his legs on some critical third downs and second down runs to move the sticks. It’s really, really positive in that direction.”
On the offensive line:
“I thought our offensive line did a nice job. You know, Kaytron had a great game. He was running the ball effectively. He had zero carries for negative yards. Everything was positive. 28 touches. I’m super proud of those guys for that. I think we might have had one sack, so we protected when we went to throw. We just have to be able to push the ball. It’s tough.”
On starting left guard Vega Ioane, who was out for the game:
“He’ll be available moving forward.”
On the passing game:
“It’s tough when the secondary is sitting in the intermediate zones. There’s no separation. Every throw has got to be in a tight window. So we just have to be able to push the ball down field to make that better.”
On Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski’s late runs:
“We had a game up front, and we didn’t get the wrapper to get back to the middle of the field. That was the first one. And then the second one, player just missed the tackle. From there, they got into a foot race.”
On wide receivers Koby Howard and Tyseer Denmark:
“We played a couple of younger receivers. Koby had a catch there. We’ll continue to push those guys to get more as we develop this pass game … we’re just trying to find the playmakers and get the best guys on the field that can make the plays. That’s what my job is, to get those guys out there. And, you know, I thought those young guys did a decent job.”
