Up On Game Presents Quite Franklin With LaVar Arrington An Emotional Loss To Ohio St

After an emotional loss to the Ohio State, Coach Franklin discusses with LaVar Arrington what the team did right and what the team did wrong. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Quite Franklin with LeVar Errington.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Each week, Penn State head coach James Franklin and Penn
State legend LeVar Arrington will discuss game strategy and other
insights on Penn State football.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Quite Franklin with LeVar Arrington.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
It's not What's Up everybody?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yep, another exciting edition of Quite Franklin with Coach Franklin
himself James Franklin at Penn State and Indie Lives. I'll
be taking you along the journey. I'm LeVar Harrington, coach.
I'm a fan. I'm a fan of you. I'm a
fan of the team. I was there, I was hurt.

(00:42):
I'm fighting the gout, coach, I'm fighting the gout. But
it's all right. I fought through it and I was
on the sideline with you guys. I was proud of
the effort. I know everyone will, especially from the outside
or even maybe an untrained eye, will look at a
lot of things and make whatever judgments they're going to make,

(01:05):
and and that's all part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
That's that's how sports works.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
But I know for me, I saw a team battle
for four quarters. You know, my biggest my biggest moment
was obviously when when the defense had their their moments,
but that takeaway that turned into a turnover for a touchdown.
Those are the moments in games as big as those

(01:30):
in magnitude that generally can jump start what's taking place
and what's going on.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
It didn't it wasn't to be. That day wasn't to be.
But how are you feeling? And how are the guys feeling?

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Because after a game like that, that's a that's an
emotional high, and then you have to you have to
recover from that emotional high and deal with some of
the emotional lows that come with not getting to win
and order to get ready to go one and oh
a game? How how what was the conversation like and

(02:06):
and obviously it doesn't have to be the personal aspect
of what you said or or what was exchange player
coach wise, but what was the overall.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Message in the locker room after that game?

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, first of all, when when we say that LeVar
was right there with us, LaVar was right there with
us a few times in the coaches box like had
to like give them a little elbow to get some
room in there. But my apologies, you're good.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
You did. I would ejact.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Anybody up who came near you know, I tell you
that you would say that was the safest place for
you on the satelline.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
But uh, but yeah, it's as you as you described,
it's an emotional deal. I mean, these guys, you know,
pour a ton of energy into this, totally invested the
staff and the players. Uh, to go on the road
and battle the number three team in the country like that,

(03:03):
with with everybody with the total mindset that we're going
to go and win, and then that doesn't happen. It's
it's it's emotional. It's emotional on the sideline right after
the game, It's it's emotional in the locker room and
on the trip back. And I think, as you know, LeVar,
everybody handles emotion grief, however you want to describe it differently,

(03:26):
and I think sometimes that can be misinterpreted as well.
You want everybody to deal with it the way you
deal with it, and that's that's not necessarily how a
locker room works of seventy four guys. But you know,
on top of that, I think the challenge of coaching
in twenty twenty three, and specifically at a place like

(03:49):
Penn State is how to manage the adversity and the
setbacks when fans and people can reach out to our
players like never before.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
So a great point. I didn't even think about that.
That's a great point.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
In the old days, as the coach used to be
able to insulate them by going to the press conference
and then it was kind of over. But that's not
the case anymore. And you know, when you're when you're
at a place like Penn State that has such high
expectations year in and year out, you know, it's it's
interesting because I think sometimes people on the outside don't understand,

(04:26):
you know, we're I think right now we're ranked number
ten in the country somewhere around there. We've had one
loss to the number three team in the country. And
it's tough around here right now. And there's probably there's
probably at least ninety programs across the country that would
die to be in the position that we're in right now.

(04:47):
But that's not the expectations and the standards at a
place like Penn State. So I think it's it's hard
for people that don't coach at a place like Penn State,
or it's hard for players that don't play at a
place like Penn State to understand the magnitude of that.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
You know, you created that though, right, You took us
from the dark ages and delivered us a big ten title.
So it's kind of like you raised that bar where
they look at you like you can do it. I
look at you like you can do it. I think
everyone knows they that you can do it. And I

(05:23):
think that that's why when when at least the ones
who really care and are are subjective and critical, it's
it's such a disappointment in those moments, which hell, I
think we want them to be that way because they
they they're paying attention in they care right like they.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Could not care at all, And we got a lot
to care.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yes, yes you do.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
You don't fill up one hundred and seven thousand State
seat stadium without a ton of people that are invested
in care indeed.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
So so give me, just give me a wrap up
of the O steak and let's move on. It's still
back to want to know just a quick synopsis quickly.
I mean my whole thing was I looked at it
from the offensive side of the ball. Is that was
the most needed. It was a blessing in disguise to me,
because it was the most needed test for the early

(06:21):
maturation process of the franchise. Our franchise quarterback had a
rough day, obviously, But to me, my takeaway was, if
a sophomore quarterback, a true sophomore quarterback, doesn't get the
opportunity to get that game experience under their belt and
feel either the up, the high of it, or the

(06:42):
low of it, it's hard to grow up. It's hard
to get that that he's battle tested. We'll look at
him him and we'll say, from here on out, you
know what he's been. He's had, he's had a big game.
He's got a big game under his belt. I love
the way he handled it. I love the way it
upset him. I love the way that he took responsibility
for it. Coaching, quarterback are always going to get the

(07:04):
biggest blame. That's just what it is. It's football, it's
how it works. He seemed like genuinely upset and felt
like he let everyone down.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
While he did not let everyone down.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
I thought it was really really you learn a lot
about the character it's revealed.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
In those moments.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
You know, some may believe it's built, but I believe
it's revealed in those adverse moments, and I thought he
handled himself. Well, what was your final thoughts on the game,
then we could move on to Indiana.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, he's a he's a special young man. I think
Monday morning he was at the house with my wife
having pancakes and burnt bacon.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Nice, just the best. Burnt bacon is the best man.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
If you don't burn it, it's not going to be
good bacon, you know what I mean, It can't.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Be under cooked.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Him over the house. But yeah, I think offensively, it
really for me came down after watching the game in
detail to third down. We could not stay on the
field on third down, and when that happens, it's hard
to get into a rhythm. At first, I thought our
run pass ratio was off, but the reality was our

(08:10):
issue was third down. We just didn't have enough reps.
We just didn't have enough opportunities to get into a rhythm.
And you know, and obviously Drew's going to take a
lot of that on his shoulders, but the reality is,
you know, we got to make plays for the guy
as well. We got to make plays for the guy
in the passing game. We got to protect the guy
consistently as well. But I think that was the biggest

(08:31):
issue on offense was third down. Defensively, It's hard to
criticize anything with our defense because I thought they played
their tails off. I thought we had a really good plan.
I thought we were aggressive. The only thing that you
could say is is there was too many times where

(08:52):
eighteen was running open without a body on them. And
the whole plan was to say, we're not going to
allow eighteen to you know, Torec the game is he
gonna make plays. You're not gonna You're not gonna stop
a guy like that from from making some plays. But
we needed to make sure that he didn't have too
much of an impact on the game. And he did,

(09:14):
and he did. And then on special teams, you know,
I was I was pleased with our special teams. You know,
the two field goals were huge. The turnover on the
punt was huge. That was that was a big play
and we needed to capitalize there. You know, we got
a break. We needed to capitalize there, and we didn't.

(09:35):
You know, very similar to you you know bringing up
the turnover that our defense caused. Those are there's four
to six you know, defining type plays during those types
of games on either side of the ball, and you
got to win the majority of those four to six
plays and and those were a few of them.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
I can dig it.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
All right, How do you take what you guys learned
from this past game of Ohio State into this week's
game against Indiana?

Speaker 1 (10:07):
How what what's the thought process?

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, the first thing is is we got to put
it behind us. And like I mentioned, that's that's hard
to do at a place like Penn State because of
all the noise, you know, after after a you know,
a setback. And I was pleased with how the staff
and how the players handled that on Sunday, uh, and
then and then yesterday on Tuesday, I thought it was

(10:30):
it was handled well. The guys were flying around, having
fun competing. That's gonna be important because we got to
find a way to be one of those this week,
but not just be one of those. We got to
get better. Uh, we got to get better. We got
to know, put this thing behind us. We've got to
take out take all of our frustrations out on these guys, uh,
and play well and get better and then start stacking
these wins up again and and go into these next

(10:53):
you know, these next few games with some confidence and
feeling good about what we're doing and how we're doing.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
It, and going up again Indiana. It is, as you mentioned,
one of those games where you have to have a
moving on mentality. You don't get a lot of time
to lick your wounds, so to speak, and you got
to get the focus and in this matchup, what do
you see being the biggest, the biggest on field. What

(11:21):
is Indiana bringing to the table that you just feel
like that's something that you know? Is it they're running attack?

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (11:29):
You know?

Speaker 1 (11:29):
I thought it was West Virginia's offensive front.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
They were pretty dog go good and and gave you
guys a good little little you know, pre game, pre preseason,
pre out of conference game.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
What is it that you feel? Is it Indiana's defense?
You know? What? What? What is you know? One of
the bigger concerns that Indiana brings to the table for
you guys.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
They have a return man as well as a running back,
same guy number twelve for them, returns, punts, returns, kicks.
They use him as a wide receiver, they use him
as a running back. Extremely explosive, He's He's caused a
lot of people issues you know over the last two years,
young man from Louisiana. That's that's a challenge. They made

(12:12):
a change at the quarterback position. This kick This guy
is a true dual threat uh quarterback and has shown
the ability to make plays. So those are two guys
that we're gonna have to limit their impact. And then
they've always done a good job on defense. You know,
since since coach Allen is there has been there. You know,
they got some tweaks and some differences right now, but
they've always done a nice job from a scheme standpoint

(12:35):
to cause some issues. Me and Manny were talking about
this this morning, you know, him watching them on film
earlier in the year.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
All right, here's my last question. This is a big question.
Coach the burnt, the Burnt Bacon and the Pancakes. How
does James Franklin handle a disappointing loss, Because you know,
there's a lot of people that to throw you your
name around and they'll say what they're going to say

(13:03):
or whatever. How do you internalize, Like you mentioned, you
want guys to handle it the way that you feel like,
and you're right, it's like you know, you'll feel the
pain or you'll feel the burn. But the stronger guys
in the locker room want everybody else to kind of,
you know, take it the way they take it. The
other guys they want to you know, cry it out
and hug hug it out and purge themselves. How do

(13:26):
you how do you, you know, address you after a
tough loss, like, because that's to me, that's the biggest
the biggest thing is how do you how do you
move on from it?

Speaker 2 (13:37):
Like?

Speaker 1 (13:37):
What's your process to it? Well?

Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think, I think, and you know this, LeVar, these
positions are are lonely, you know, these these leadership type positions,
they're lonely. So I take it hard. I feel responsibility
to my wife and kids. These losses in this community
make it make it tough on them as well. I
feel responsibility to the staff and and their families as well.

(14:06):
I feel responsibility to to our fans and President Ben
Depouti and and Pat Craft. But ultimately I feel responsibility
to the players. So uh, I take them I take
them real hard. You know, I always said as a
young coach, I would never be one of these guys
that the losses you know, were not as enjoyable as

(14:29):
the excuse me, the wins were not as enjoyable as
the losses were painful. But that's not the case that
the losses they just they just they're hard, they're hard.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
To Did you did you cry? Did you cry?

Speaker 2 (14:42):
I'm an emotional guy, as you know, As you know,
I'm an emotional guy. So you know, with the team,
I think they know how much I care and it hurts,
It tears your heart out.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah I cried.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
Don't tell nobody though, but it was like, you know,
like glory, Like it was just like one tear. It
looked like it was the same color as me too,
with coming out of my eye.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Frank, So I did. I cried for us too.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
But you know everybody knows the glory reference. But I
got it.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
You got it, and just like glory, we we got
to take our whooping the way that we took our
whooping and bounce back and be the better for it.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Coach, I'm gonna let you get back to work.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
I appreciate everything that you do and I just want
to make sure that on behalf of all of us.
I know, I talked to a lot of the lettermen,
you know, I've seen a lot of the guys and
even a lot of our fans.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
We we believe, we believe, and we're not going anywhere.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
So for the ones who make it hard, I'm sorry
for your daughters, I'm sorry for your wife. I'm sorry
for the coaches daughters and sons and the wives. But
you know, the ones that truly understand this process and
understand what it takes were writing with you, man, we
writing with you.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
We got a lot of season.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
We got one more game left right now, but we
got a lot of season after that one, a lot
of one more game left after one one season, uh games,
and you know.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Keep doing what y'all doing. Because it was close.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
It was close, like like there were like those moments
where it was like, oh, that's that's where it's gonna happen,
and it just didn't happen. But you know what, the
story is written justly and fairly, even when it's hard,
that story is written the right way, and it's still
being written for you guys. This is a special group.
I stand on that special coaching special group. I stand

(16:35):
on that, and I want people to hear that and
understand that.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
So I love it.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
I'm you know, obviously, I know you guys will do
what you need to do this upcoming week. So I
wish you guys luck and and help. Everybody's healthy pretty much.
I know Chop is down. I know he's recovering. There
weren't any more significant injuries of note. Whether that I
noticed that. We came through pretty pretty unscathed.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, for the most part. Obviously Chop is significant, but
hopefully we'll be getting him back here soon.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:05):
Coach, appreciate you. Man, appreciate you. All right, that's coach
James Franklin. There's another exciting week. Well, I mean, maybe
not as exciting as we want, but it's exciting because
we're going into a new week and we're gonna make
some things happen.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
That's Coach Franklin. This is quite Franklin.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
You want to make sure you check it out, go
to Happy Valley United online or you can check out
the audio version on my podcast channel on up on
Game Present. Sorry, so make sure y'all stay locked in,
tuned in. We got another big one coming up this week.
Let's go want to know we are Benn State, Holler
at you