James Franklin’s postgame comments following Penn State’s first win of the season, 27-17 at Michigan, after an 0-5 start. The coach had some really good lines and observations, starting with this one:
“We’re gonna have victory Monday dinner, which is gonna be the most delicious thing I’ve tasted in my whole life.”
There also was this one, when asked about having no fans at the game:
“The whole year’s just been strange. You drive up to the Big House and there’s not a car on the road, there’s nobody giving you the middle finger like you normally get at every place. The parking lot was empty. We couldn’t meet at the hotel. There were no meals allowed at the hotel. and the wi-fi wasn’t working so we couldn’t even have zoom meetings.”
“I cold never have imagined this in my wildest dreams. I can’t even put it into words how surreal this whole year has been.”
“I want to give Michigan a bunch of credit. Got a lot of respect for this program and this university. That was a battle of two very, very respected programs in a very unique and challenging and weird year.”
“The biggest thing is obviously no turnovers. That’s been the issue we’ve been working through all year long.”
“The thing that stands out to me the most is first win at Michigan since 2009. This has been a hard place to win for a lot of teams for a long time.”
“A lot of adversity, a lot of things behind the scenes that our guys are battling through. Super proud of them.”
“Parker Washington nine catches … I don’t know the last time a true freshman had nine catches.”
“The most important thing, knock on wood, our guys are battling corona and as a program we’ve done a pretty good job of that. … Shaka Toney reminded them you see a bunch of programs after a big win they see a spike.”
On getting weight of first win off shoulders:
“I’m just happy for our kids. I know at the end of the day people are focused on football and they want a couple hours to get away from reality and support Penn State football, and I get that. But there’s been a lot of things going on this year, and to see our team battle through that adversity … with all types of issues and limitations and depths, I couldn’t be happier for our players.”
On Isaac Lutz:
“I am so proud of Isaac Lutz. There are so many stories behind the scenes about that young man and his family. To me, that’s what college football is about. … When his opportunity comes he’s ready. It’s a great lesson to people out there that want to play college football.”
On what learned about youth on team:
“One of the things that I’ve been proud of over six years is we have won all different ways. We’ve won pretty, we’ve won ugly. … To see some young guys that were forced into significant roles figure it out today and make plays and do some of the dirty work and play winning football, it was great to see.”
On Clifford playing better and handling adversity:
“I really feel that way about both of them because for (Will) Levis it’s the same deal.
“It’s been challenging on both of them. They’ve both handled it extremely well.”
“I’m really proud of both of them. They’ve been awesome, and they both have handled adversity really well.
“This is an opportunity for us to grow, and this is an opportunity for us to build on.”
“We’re gonna have victory Monday dinner, which is gonna be the most delicious thing I’ve tasted in my whole life.”
On Keyvone Lee:
“That was our fourth and fifth team running back (Lee and Caziah Holmes). And I don’t mean that in a negative way. We had one of the most respected RB rooms in the country.”
“To have two true freshmen carrying the whole load and to see them, do it … For me to sit here and say that I saw all that and knew that, we thought they were both talented kids, but you don’t get a whole lot of reps when you’re fourth and fifth on the depth chart.”
On mood in locker after:
“It felt good. There was a lot of emotion in the locker room, a lot of great leadership, a lot of thing said that are private to the locker room.”
“This has been a tough year, and I’m not just talking football.”
“I think sometimes we forget these are still young men, that their parents still play a sign role in their life and a part of our program.”
“The locker room was really good.”
On Keyvone Lee:
“He has showed flashes since he got here, him and Caziah have showed flashes that we were excited about.”
“But for me to sit here and say that I saw this coming, it’s just hard to say because the reps were so limited.”
“Obviously when we recruited them, we thought they were both talented guys, but we thought they would be rotating in in different kinds of games.”
On how team responded after 20-17:
“For six years we have found ways to win. Overcoming adversity, turnovers, comebacks, blowouts, we’ve just found ways to win. Big plays, grind it out. So to see that, to see that we were, I wouldn’t say in control, but we were playing pretty good football and the momentum started to shift and for us to battle back and overcome some penalties and some interesting calls … it was good to see us get a W and play complementary football.”
On defense:
“We battled and we made plays when we needed to make plays. It’s hard to stop people on fourth and inches, and we did that.”
“We just played gutsy. That’s who we’ve been. There’s just so many examples today of who we’ve been for seven years. We found ways to do it today; the earlier games we didn’t do that. We made a play when we needed to make a play.”
“There have been things we would have had a hard time battling back through that, when it didn’t seem fair.”
“It was great to see. They stood in the corner and took body blows and head shots and they kept swinging.”
“I’m really really proud of the guys.”
“A lot of fans out there that have stuck with us and sent me a lot of suggestions, I appreciate all of them.”
