Penn State head coach James Franklin talks about Ashton Jeanty, more before Boise State matchup
Penn State head coach James Franklin spoke to the media Monday afternoon just over a week before his team will take on Boise State in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff.
Here’s what Franklin said about the Broncos, and more ahead of the Fiesta Bowl matchup.
On Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty and QB Maddux Madsen
“It all starts and revolves around Jeanty. In any other year, I think the guy wins the Heisman, and you can make the argument that he should have won it this year. He is hard to tackle. He is compact, 5-10, has the ability to run away from you, has the ability to make you miss. They get him involved in the pass game. They get him involved in the run game. And then the quarterback is athletic as well. He reminds me a little bit of the quarterback that we faced from West Virginia (Garrett Greene). We had a ton of respect for on tape when we played them, but they’re a problem. But I think it starts and ends with the running back, and I think they do a really good job of not only getting him the ball in the run game, but also in the pass game, but then also using him in play action pass to create some opportunities to get some explosive plays down the field in the passing game. It’ll be a definite challenge for us, but they’re kind of a two headed monster, both athletic guys. Both of them aren’t the biggest guys in the world, but are really good, productive football players that have done it week in and week out against everybody.”
On how DE Abdul Carter played against SMU
“Very disruptive, like he’s been all year long. I also think if you went back and did a study, the amount of holding calls that have been called against him, I think, is probably up there as high as anywhere in the country. But also holding calls that could have been called. He is just a problem, and he’s an issue in the run game as well as the pass game, with tackles for loss, sacks, just like we’re spending time talking about their running back, they’re spending time talking about our defensive end and play maker, Abdul Carter. That’ll be an interesting matchup, and that’ll be an interesting chess game with both coaching staffs and how we use those guys so that they both can be as effective as possible in this game.”
On how Jeanty compares to other running backs
“Yeah, I’m not sure. When you look at his stature, you start thinking about certain backs, but I don’t know if I have somebody that jumps out in my mind that he reminds me of when I’m watching him on tape. Because really he does a lot of things really well. He can run away from you and score from a distance, breaks a ton of tackle. His yards after contact, I think I saw or read it somewhere, like 1300 yards of his rushing yards are after contact, which is like a ridiculous stat. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that before, but his ability to make people miss, break tackles, finish runs, is really impressive. But I don’t know if I got somebody that jumps out in my mind in terms of he reminds me of this guy. But the thing that jumps out the most to me is 1300 yards, or whatever that statistic is, after contact is a crazy stat in college football.”
On what this week looks like
“We practiced yesterday, kind of our normal Sunday practice, and then tried to help everybody get out of town. So we went early. I say normal, not normal because we went early in the morning so guys could get out of here. Coaches worked a full day, but tried to get the guys out of here so they could fly, drive wherever they were going, then they’ll have off until Christmas Day evening. I want to make sure I term that the right way. We’ll have a team meeting and practice that evening. So it’s a little bit of time off for everybody, the coaches we worked early this morning until this afternoon. Everybody’s heading out of the office now, get a couple hours of Christmas shopping, then be able to spend time with their family. And then after that, after Christmas Day around five o’clock, we’re getting in our normal game week. So for us, we always take whenever the game is, and count back seven days, and that’s our normal game week. And we try to stick to that routine as much as we possibly can. It’s been good to us, and our players and coaches believe in it. So after that, we’re kind of back to things as normal, except obviously we don’t have school and those things.”
On RBs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen
“They’re really good, complementary pieces. I know the expression is probably overused, but thunder and lightning, I think, is a good expression or a good description for those guys. Nick has the ability to go the distance with his speed and explosive ability. Kaytron, we call him Fatman, he is a violent, physical runner. I think they both have aspects of that as well, but Kaytron is extremely physical. They’re both smart, high football IQ guys. I think Nick is trying to kind of get on an edge and beat you with speed. Fatman, will try to run you over more times than not. But they’ve both been productive. We’ve been able to rotate both of them. There was some times during the season where both of them were banged up at certain points, but these last couple of weeks they’ve been as healthy as they’ve been all year long. And I think it’s showed up that way on on film and statistically the last two weeks. Both been great teammates and great students, and are thriving here.”
On OC Andy Kotelnicki saying the team plays to win and not to not lose
“We’ve talked about that a lot with the players. We’ve talked about that a lot with the staff, in terms of how we call the game, how we prepare for the game, how we game plan, players being aggressive, playing on their toes, not on their heels, making aggressive calls. Instead of going for the PBU, go for the interception. I think some of the calls that we have made going for it on fourth down, those types of things, we want to be as aggressive as we possibly can. That’s if we got a play action pass or a shot play or a trick play on offense, we want to use those. Whether it’s defensively, you saw us a bunch in Cover 0 and going after the offense. We want to be very aggressive. We don’t want to have any regrets. And playing to win, I think, is a mentality that everybody has to embrace and be on the same page with because there’s going to be times where the defense is going to have to have the offense’s back after making one of those decisions. There’s going to be times where the offense is going to have to have the defense’s back after making one of those decisions. And the same thing with special teams, and everybody’s got to buy into that philosophy and embrace that philosophy. So that’s kind of where we’re at. And I think the biggest thing is just no regrets.”
This story was originally published December 23, 2024 at 4:52 PM.
