DisruptU PSU Presents Quite Franklin with LaVar Arrington And Coach James Franklin and in this engaging conversation, LaVar Arrington and Coach James Franklin discuss the recent game against Washington, analyzing player performances and strategies. They delve into the dynamics of the team, focusing on both offensive and defensive strengths, and the importance of maintaining player health throughout the season. Coach Franklin shares insights into his coaching philosophy, emphasizing the significance of building strong relationships with players and managing their mental and emotional well-being. The discussion wraps up with a look ahead to upcoming games and the challenges that lie ahead.
Takeaways
•LaVar's visit to Washington highlights his connection to the city.
•Coach Franklin emphasizes the importance of winning and improving.
•K-Tron is recognized for his physical playing style.
•The defense is performing well, with key players stepping up.
•Drew's consistency as a quarterback is crucial for the team's success.
•The receivers are improving, but consistency is needed.
•Health management is a priority as the season progresses.
•Building relationships with players is essential for effective coaching.
•Coaching requires balancing hard demands with emotional support.
•The team is focused on upcoming challenges and maintaining momentum.
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What's up?
Everybody's LeVar Arrington here and yes, it's another week of Quite Franklin with coach James Franklin and myself. Yeah, we're gonna talk about the win against the Huskies and what they need to do moving forward against the boiler Makers of Purdue. We talk mental health. Yeah, that's right, we talk mental health on this show. Coach gives us a little bit of insight on how to talk to or how to interact with the kids, the young players, young men that he's.
Coaching and guiding.
Is it easier, is it harder to coach at the end of the year or the beginning of the year. A lot of things to manage at both points and times during the season. We'll get into that and a whole lot more. Stay out and buckle up. Here's the ride. We're gonna do this with Coach Franklin. Quite Franklin. Coach, did you see I had to leave the game early. I do apologize for leaving your side a little bit early. I had to to get to Washington, d C. You know, our old stomping grounds.
Uh.
I made I made a long, long, long time coming visit back to Washington for for a Commander's game.
But I got to ask, uh, did that same student.
Run up on you after this this home game when y'all were hitting the victory bell, that did anybody run up on you?
You know and and telling you everything?
But but your name is James Franklin for uh this this last white out.
Game that we just played against the Huskies of Washington.
No. But but I want to stay a little bit more on a positive.
I just I just needed to know that I want to be positive too. I just wanted to know. I just wanted to know.
But I wanted to say to you that I actually saw that you went back to Washington, and I'm so happy that you did that. And I'm so happy that you were able to do that because you are beloved in that town and that city, and I'm glad you were able to go back and experience that and have a great you know, have a great day.
Yeah, I would have liked for it to have been a win. I know a lot of people were like, oh, he went back. It was a Pittsburgh game. I mean, I am a Steelers fan, I'm from Pittsburgh. I'm a Pittsburgh kid. But I definitely love my mob. I appreciate the kind words, but I did get my win in State College, and the white out has been preserved and protected. This Washington team, while a little bit of a struggle.
Not the same team as last year.
But Jeb is a dope coach man, and that was I mean, you have plenty of trap games. That could have been one of the bigger trap games of the season, just based off of I know how it feels to have a devastating loss a week before and have to turn back around and get your emotions repped up for another game. You guys seem to do that. It seemed like a very balanced game as I watched it. K Tron is a is a He's a battering ram.
He's a ram.
He got he got the bulk of the work. But I see you working the baby in there. I see Corey is getting his he's getting some touches now and getting some some run.
And Nick is Nick.
Their numbers were a little lower, but but k Tron had the lower What like, what was the thought process?
And I know we're into the next game.
I do know this, I do know it, but just quickly, what was the thought process going into this this week, that past week?
Into that game with Washington offensively.
Well, I think the first thing was, you know, we needed to win the game, no matter what one point, twenty one points, whatever it is. We had to win the game, and we had to get better. And I thought we did that. I thought we got better, you know, on our offense and specifically about the running backs. K Tron's just playing really well, really physical. He's just such a productive back. Battering Ram is a great way to describe. I mean, he loves contact. Nick got a little dinged up door in the game, so he missed i think most of the second half, so that affected it. And then Quintin is a guy that we are trying to preserve his red shirt and he already played a couple of games, so it was Corey's opportunity and next man up, and we had been preparing him that way for the last couple of weeks. So for him to get in and have some big runs, you know, the long run is what everybody got excited about, but really his first run I thought was his best run. Where he got he got vertical, he got north south, it's a little bit of a dirty read, and was able to really get a productive run to start his college career off, which was great.
That builds, That builds experience, continued experience. On the defensive side of the ball. Coach Allen's defense, they showed up and and Abdul is is. I thought, Abdul has played good football and really good football. At times. I have always felt like he could give us a little more. There's there's always a little bit more there. That more looks like it's coming to fruition and how he's playing the game and this defense, Kobe had some great plays the secondary, they had some great plays. Just how confident are you knowing that the defense is playing at that level and that the offense looked good. Drew had a good, good game, went for over to h yards. How does this How does the confidence play into how the defense played, how the offense play Going into a game against a Purdue and Lafayette that's a tough place to play.
Yeah, I think it helps, right. I think Kobe's playing really good football right now. I think with Abdul, I think the best word is he's disruptive. When you talk about tackles for loss and sacks and things like that. But I think you also realize when you change positions. There are some things that you have to figure out and get comfortable. It's very different being on the line of scrimmage compared to being off the line of scrimmage. And I think the biggest thing that he's doing right now he's eliminating some of the negative plays where you know, he's so focused on his get off and getting off the ball. He's got caught jump off sides a few times, and you know, when you're able to eliminate the negative place, now people can just focus on all the positive things he's doing. Then I think he's getting the attention that he deserves. I think he was National Player of the Week for a couple different awards and publications, which is cool. But I think that's the biggest thing is he's just eliminating some of the negative plays, you know, specifically when it comes to penalties, so people can just focus on the good things he's doing. But Kobe's playing really well. The secondary Terryan Decks always got the back end playing well. Zaye Durant, I don't think he is getting enough attense nationally.
He is a beast. I mean he's a bull.
Zay Durant is one of the most impressive, physically gifted dudes that I've seen, like perfectly built to be a three technique inside guy. I mean, I agree with you there, Zaanine durant Is. I don't know why it's so quiet, but he is a disruptive force to that defense front with you there, coach.
And then I think, you know, I think we should have Deny back this week in a bigger role. And as you know, when you got Deny on one side, an Abdul on the other side, and Amine and Smith in the rotation, now it's a problem. But if Denys not in there and they can, they can put more attention on Abdul, that makes it even more impressive what Abdul's done the last couple of weeks. So with with Deny back that I think that will help too.
He's a beast too.
You got some you got some goings, some some goblins out there. You go into West Lafayette with this group with with a good feeling, Uh, get the taste out of your mouth. Give the fans something to be excited about as well. What is the message this week? What has that been going into this Purdue game?
You know, it's it's it's pretty consistent around here. You know, again, we just we can't get caught up in too many other things and we got to, you know, focus on the task at hand, and that is Purdue and being able to get back on that plane Saturday night one to oh and have gotten better. They got an athletic quarterback who's been playing for them a little bit more, and he's a problem. He's six foot four, he's two hundred and fifteen pounds. He can run around. The head coach is a really good defensive mind, you know, you know, build a reputation at both Missouri and Illinois. The defensive coordinator had Illinois with one of the best defenses in the country. But I think the mobility of the quarterback is problematic. So that's going to take a lot of our attention and handling that because now now you're having to defend all eleven guys on the field.
That is eleven on eleven.
Football is seemingly more and more the new trend taking place in football. What's what's the word on on our quarterback? And going into this game, you said better, what do you feel as though you see good about Drew and what he can build on After last weekends showing in the white out.
Yeah.
I just think he's really for the last two years, he's just very consistent. You know what you're gonna get from him every week. I think his mobility has been a big part of his success this year, and then most importantly, the pieces of the puzzle around him were making more plays around them. Obviously, Tyler Warren, we could talk about him all day, but the running backs in the passing game, the receivers continue to get better and better and better. We're gonna need that as this season continues to go on. So we just we got a lot of different guys that can hurt you, and we're pretty balanced offensively, and Drew does a really good job of managing all that. But not just being a game manager, he's also making plays for us that we need to make, you know, with his mind, with his arm, and with his feet.
Mm hmmm.
You got you got receivers like there. I know everybody says there's there. You know, that's always the question that that is being circulated around. But you got Wallace, you got warn uh, you got you got some good guys out there on on the edges. I'm just looking at it, you know. Clifford is a guy that that can do some things. He runs amazing routes and and and gets open. I just I'm curious and looking at what you have on the outsides and heading into a game like Purdue. They throw the ball. They like to throw the ball. They're known for one and to throw the ball. But also just that getting better and building towards more. How are you viewing you know, your receivers, how are you viewing the passing game where you're at right now?
Well, I think we're improved from last year. Last year we didn't have the game where Omari went off and had over one hundred yards. We did to have the game where Liam Clifford went off and went for over one hundred yards. I think Trade has done that in the past and he's doing that again this year. Julian Fleming has showed up in some big moments.
You know.
For us, we got some young guys that I think are going to start to show up more that we're going to start to use as well. Tyser Denmark is a guy that you know has gotten through that red shirt period now and is getting more confident and comfortable. What we need to do is we need to have some weeks and on a more consistent basis where all those guys are showing up in the same game, not Liam in one game, Trey in one game, Julian one game. We need it where they're all they're all making plays week in and week out. And I think one of the things we did last week that helped with that is we were just so much more efficient on third down. We were seventy seven percent on third down. We were seven to seven in the first half. You know, our punter Riley or punted, he was like over there on the sideline, you know, uh, drigging my ties or whatever, relaxing. But I think you know, when you're able to be that effective on third down, you create more plays and more opportunities and more touches for guys. So I think that was a big part of it. But that's that's the next step for us. We just need multiple guys to have big games on the same week and not one guy one week and another guy another week.
You mentioned Deny coming back and being being healthier for this game. How's the health of the team right now?
Yeah, all things considered, knock on wood, all things considered at this time of the year pretty good. You know. We spend a lot of time on that. We modify practice, go from full speed periods to jog through periods, not all of them, but more of them. We cut some time back out of practice, you know. I'm also all over to coaches about rotation during game, very specific plans. You know, are we three to one with Kobe, three series to one series with Elsden? Or are we two to one where we're going two series with Kobe, one series with Elsden and then tame her or whatever it may be. Because it's not just the practices, it's it's the game as well. And when you can reduce reps, get wins, keep guys healthy, keep guys fresh, and develop depth, that that's what it's all about. So it's that constant discussion about strategy and the what you know, how can we handle all those moving parts and make sure we're putting our team in the best position long term to have success.
Here's my last question for you, and this is this is an interesting one. You mentioned how the coaches have to do what they need to do and you guys have to modify practices. Is it harder for you to coach earlier and heading into the season or at this point in the season you're at the end, you can you can start to feel and see what the finish line line of the season looks like. Is it harder when you have the whole season in front of you or is it harder when you get down to those one to oero games that you're playing in are like it's literally now getting to one game.
Is it easier or harder beginning or end? Or does it not matter?
Yeah, I think in the end of the seed season it's harder because you just have more things to manage and more things to be aware of. You got to be very aware of, like we just got done talk about how fresh the guys are, you know, managing your depth, you know, injuries, keeping guys healthy, trying to factor in the red shirting and all these things that you're trying to wear. Early in the season. You're just coaching hard like you've always coached your your whole life, because you're not worried about those types of things. You're just trying to develop your team and develop an identity and just coaching hard all the time. Where this time of year you got to pick and choose your spots and be smart about it and be strategic about because uh, you could just wear them down. And yeah, you're having great physical, tough practices, but then you're getting into the game and you got no juice.
Well let me let me let me add on to that when when you get to this point and you're you gotta manage it the way that you're managing it, and you're looking at it the way that you're looking at it. One thing that I've always respected about you is the players love you.
Your players love you.
And that's something that is more and more it has to be prevalent with coaches, and in this era of football than it's ever been before. I mean you, you know, I know back in the day, coaches really didn't give an f about your feelings or anything like that. It was either you're ready to go or you're not. And and that's what it is. And that's how the I guess, the whole terminology of players coach became a thing because they're actually ended up being coaches that well, you weren't a number that they needed to put in.
You were a.
Person managing I would assume for you, because you build personal relationships with your players, managing their expectations and managing their mental and emotional states is probably a big part of what you.
Guys have to do as well.
Can you give us just a glimpse of what that like, what that feels like, what that entails, because these guys got to worry about schoolwork. Is the weather's changing, so all them scooters cats beyond them scooters is gonna go away because you're gonna have to walk on what surfaces and snow and stuff like that. You know, you just sometimes guys get homesick, whatever it may be. But managing guys and their emotions and their mental I would assume it is super important as well.
What's that like right now?
Well, I think that's the biggest part of the job. I think it always has been. But to your point, LeVar, although I've always gone about.
It this way.
Back in the day, they had less options, they had to figure it out, they had to work through, and now they can just jump anytime things get tough, which I also don't think is the right thing. But where I think you have to in my opinion, it all starts with how you start the relationship. Are you honest and transparent on the front end During the recruiting process or are you just telling them everything they want to hear. Are you being honest about how you're going to be Like I tell them, I'm going to be very hard. I'm going to be very demanding on them, and I'm a disciplinarian, So like when they get here, I'm not trying to be the player's coach. I've already established a relationship with them and they know that I truly care about them and their development. So that allows me to be hard on them because they know it's coming from the right place. I think if you're trying to be a player's coach, then you're probably soft and you're probably just, you know, trying to be their buddy. Like a lot of these kids, their parents are their friends nowadays, not their parents. I ain't trying to be their friend, you know. But if they know you truly care and it shows up at the moments when they need it, then then I think everything else really takes care of itself. And you know, I'm a big believer that this game is what they choose to do. It doesn't define who they are. Their entire identity is not just as a football player, and I think that's what Penn State is all about. You know, my beliefs and Penn State's beliefs are the same. So we're treating these people as young men that we care about, and we're trying to develop them both on and off the field. But that doesn't mean we don't coach them hard and hold them to a really high standard. But when you do that, they'll give you the benefit of the doubt and and are okay with you being hard on them because they know what's coming from the right place.
Indeed, good luck to you, coach.
Appreciate you brother.
Y'all gonna be on the road for a little bit, but hey, it's time to pay rent. You know, when when the landlord shows up in town, you know usually because they're there to collect the rent. So, you know, good luck to you guys, and we are man.
I appreciate everything you're doing.
You too, I'll see you sooner, brother.
All right. Coach, all right, that's coach Franklin.
This is quite Franklin with the coach James Franklin and myself, LeVar Arrington.
That's right. Make sure you stay dowed in, tuned in to all things. Well. Disrupt you PSU, that's right.
You can check us out at disrupt YOUPSU dot com. This is also available on your iHeart channels wherever it is that you get your podcasts from, So make sure you just type in up on game and you'll be able to see this presence of quite Franklin with coach Franklin. So until next week, we are Penn State's LaVar Arrington signing out m HM