University Park— Penn State coach James Franklin is always happy to win but knows Saturday’s 34-0 triumph over FIU at Beaver Stadium could have been better.
Many Penn State fans would agree, considering the No. 2 team in the country only led a six-touchdown underdog by 10 at the half.
“I think we made it harder than it needed to be in a lot of areas,” Franklin said in his postgame presser. “We’re playing a bunch of young guys, and it felt like that at times. So, we have got to get those things cleaned up.
BLOCKED FIELD GOAL= NO BUENO
Penn State kicker Ryan Barker went 4-for-4 on field goals last week.
The only unsuccessful conversion was a blocked 53-yard field goal in the first half, and Franklin wasn’t too happy about it.
“That blocked field goal is frustrating,” he said. “We’ve had two blocked field goals in two years where a guy does completely opposite of what we coach: field goal responsibility. Then suddenly, I’m going to take two hands down on my inside gap and give out my outside gap, which is not what we coach and what we do. In the last two years, we’ve had a guy do that on their own without ever doing it in practice, without ever being coached. We need to clean up a couple of things, like the two kicks that went out of bounds. Those things are disappointing, but we’ve made some big-time plays on special teams, and we need to continue doing that.
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It’s really that simple: Penn State needs to do a better job at finishing drives with touchdowns, not field goals or no points.
Against Nevada, Barker’s four field goals were partially a result of Penn State not finishing drives.
Against FIU, Penn State drive into opposing territory in each of its first seven drives.
All it had to show for it were a touchdown and two field goals.
“I want to finish drives and score touchdowns too, and so does Andy Kotelnicki. and so do all of our players,” Franklin said. “We have got to get better. We got to get better this week. We got to be better on third down. We have got to be more explosive. We haven’t. We have not met our explosive play mark the last two weeks, and we weren’t good enough on third down today, and those things are going to stall out drives. I have the same concerns that you do, but that’s what they are. They’re concerns, and they’re things that we’re going to emphasize and focus on this week, and we’ll get better.”
James Franklin and Penn State take on Villanova next Saturday at 3:30 on FS1 from Beaver Stadium.
