DisruptU PSU Presents Quite Franklin With LaVar Arrington And Coach James Franklin Illinois Recap And Defensive Strengths: A Game Changer

DisruptU PSU Presents Quite Franklin With LaVar Arrington And Penn State Football Coach James Franklin. In this conversation, Coach James Franklin discusses the recent performance of his football team, focusing on their victory against Illinois and the upcoming game against UCLA. He highlights the importance of adaptability in winning games, the need for a stronger start, and the effective use of players' strengths on both offense and defense. Franklin also emphasizes the contributions of key players and the overall strategy moving forward.

Takeaways:
•The team played well against Illinois, both offensively and defensively.

•The defense needs to start games stronger to limit early scoring.

•Utilizing players' strengths is crucial for offensive success.

•The running backs are experienced and versatile, making them difficult to defend.

•Pre-snap penalties need to be cleaned up.

•The upcoming UCLA game presents a unique challenge with their new head coach.

•The team has shown growth and adaptability throughout the season.

•Building a strong game plan involves understanding opponents' identities.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up? Everybody's LeVar Arrington here with another exciting addition
of Quite Franklin with myself, LaVar Arrington and coach James Franklin.
Big Week. This past weekend, the Fighting eliin I came
into State College to play Penn State. Penn State played
very well. Offense, played well, defense, played well. Special teams well,

(00:23):
they need to improve a little bit. But we'll talk
grading out the team. We'll talk what did you take
from from the game to go into UCLA week. We'll
also talk Nick Singleton, k Tron Allen, Abdul Carter, Kobe King,
Zane Durant, all that and more coming right at you
on Quite Franklin. Coach, it looked like it was a

(00:52):
dominant performance that took place on last Saturday on white
out energy. How you great the team and out of
the game. How you great the team coming out of
this week?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, I just thought we played well, really, you know,
offensively and defensively. Specifically, I thought our offense was physical,
really controlled the line of scrimmage, made some big plays
as well, and then you know, defensively again, when you're
playing a team that is committed to running.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
The football the way Illinois is, and you're able to
limit their effectiveness and control the line of scrimmage, then
it's going to give you a chance to be successful.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
And we talked about what their identity was and how
they've been built. I got a tremendous amount of respect
for Brett Bielima and Illinois and what they've been able
to do, coming off a big win at Nebraska and
coming to our place with a lot of confidence, and
I thought, you know, we kind of built that. We
beat them in a way that they're built.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Coach, when you have a game like this, what do
you take out of this particular game into your next
game versus U c l A.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, I think the biggest thing is I think good
football teams have to find a ton of different ways
to win, and I thought last week was an example
of that. You know, you look at the West Virginia game,
the Bowling Green game, the Kent State game, and now
this Illinois game. They've all been different ways that we've
had to find ways to win. So, uh U c

(02:29):
l a Is coming to our place, It's not an
easy trip. You know, they're they're battling and fighting through
with a first year head coach and kind of figuring
out what their identity is gonna be. We see a
ton of talent on the tape, but just trying to
kind of figure out how they're going to put it
all together. So you know, those teams can be dangerous,
and you know we're we're looking forward to hopefully taking

(02:53):
another step in the right direction, and that's been our
focus all week.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's a lot going on. Listen. Carter showed up, Zane
Durant showed up, Kobe King showed up. How dominant can
this defense this year be? It looks as though they
can be as dominant is pretty much any defense that
you've had.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I think second half and third quarter specifically, we've
played really good football. I think the next step for
us defensively is just make sure we're starting games stronger. Right.
You know, they were able to go down on the
opening drive and score a touchdown. After that, they weren't
able to do a whole lot. So we just got
to make sure that we're starting games the right way.

(03:36):
People spend a ton of time on opening drives, So
can we do some things that are tendency bait breakers,
make them second guess their plan early in the game
and hopefully created three and out and after that we've
we've played really really good football. I think the other thing,
obviously to clean up is some penalties, especially the pre
snap penalties where we're jumping off sides and things like that.

(03:59):
You build a reputation up there, people try to take
advantage of it. It's like anything else. Once you put
it on tape, you're actually going to see more of it.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Coach Nick Singleton k Tron Allen both guys that are
having tremendous years, all American campaign years. I mean, they
had such a great game against Illinois, but they've had
great games all season long. What's been the difference between
last year and this year? How are they aboul to
have so much more success now than what they were

(04:30):
able to have last year?

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, I just think we're using not only those two,
but all of our offensive guys in different ways. You know,
two weeks ago, you know, I think we had eight
different guys score a touchdown. Where you're able to do
that causes a lot of stress on the defense. I
think the other thing that we're doing it Andy col
Nicky's doing a really good job of is the focusing

(04:55):
on the things that guys can do rather than the
things that they can't and playing to people strengths as
we develop kind of the whole player, and I think
that's been very valuable. But we got two experienced running
backs that going into year three here, they're guys that
can take at the distance. They can make you miss,
they can run over, they can run you over, they

(05:16):
can pass pro They're just very well rounded backs that
cause it difficult for people to defend us.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
That'll do it for this week's addition of quite Franklin.
As you can see, there's a lot of excitement building up.
The stakes are getting higher, everything is getting bigger. UCLA
is coming in this week, and it looks like a
Penn State team that is continuing to improve. Like I said,
they're going to have to shore up kicking. They're going

(05:45):
to need those three points every single time they kick
for field goals. It can be missing field goals. Other
than that, the defense is looking like they're improving every
single week. The offense looks like they're improving every single week.
You got stars at different positions tight end and back.
The receiver's position still needs to kind of develop a personality,

(06:05):
but Drew Aler seems to be gaining more confidence. So
this is a good looking team and we'll see how
that looks going into the UCLA game and beyond. They
go from playing an LA team and state college to
playing an LA team in LA playing USC the week after.

(06:25):
So let's see it all how it all unfolds. We
are Penn State. Till next time, make sure you check
out Disrupt You PSU. Wherever it is that you get
your social media from, wherever it is that you download
your podcast, Go look up up on game presents and
check out Disrupt You PSU. Check out quite frankly, until
next time

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Y'all awesome, Appreciate you so much