Penn State football coach James Franklin was blunt Monday in explaining why the Nittany Lions struggled to run the ball and score touchdowns in the red zone in their opener.
“We had some missed assignments that made the game more difficult than it needed to be,” Franklin said about the 46-11 blowout win over Nevada. “We need to get those things fixed.”
Penn State rushed 36 times for 135 yards, a pedestrian 3.8 average, and scored touchdowns on just five of nine trips inside the Wolf Pack’s 25-yard line.
“On one of the drives we’re running an outside-zone (scheme) on the first play,” he said. “We don’t block the 3-technique (defensive tackle) and they get a tackle for loss. Now you’re off schedule. That’s what we still have to get cleaned up.”
Franklin also mentioned that Nevada used a five-man defensive front quite a bit to slow Nick Singleton and Kaytron “Fatman” Allen, two premier backs who combined for just 62 yards on 16 carries.
“If you’re the defensive coordinator at Nevada and you’re coming to Penn State, the proven commodity is Nick and Fat and the running game,” Franklin said. “Everybody’s model is going to be, ‘We have to do everything we possibly can not to allow the obvious choice (the running game) to beat us.’ Staying out of negative yardage plays will be how we’ll be more efficient and more effective. We just had too many negative yardage plays to allow us to go where we want to go and play the way we want to play.”
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Gabe Nwosu was introduced Saturday as Penn State’s starting punter to the surprise of many.
Riley Thompson had been the Lions’ punter the last two seasons and averaged 44.2 yards per kick. The 6-6, 292-pound Nwosu handled kickoff duties the last two seasons and punted twice in 2022.
“We’ve been very, very happy with Riley, but Gabe is special,” Franklin said. “He’s the closest thing to (Baltimore Ravens punter) Jordan Stout we’ve had here. His A ball may be as good as we’ve ever had here. Like a lot of guys, he just wasn’t consistent enough.
“He just had a phenomenal camp, not only in kickoffs and punting but also in field goals. He made a 62-yarder in practice at the stadium.”
Penn State never punted against Nevada, but Nwosu did kick off nine times with five touchbacks.
“He’s always had a big, strong leg,” Franklin said. “He just put it all together this summer and was consistent. It was pretty obvious to everybody.”
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Franklin said he decided to try a 2-point conversion in the third quarter against Nevada so that future opponents have to prepare for it.
“You’d like to get some of these things on film, so that people have to spend time working on them,” he said. “You’d be amazed how much time you spend working on things like that. That was a miss on our part and my part.”
Third-team quarterback Jaxon Smolik, the holder, was pressured and forced to throw an incompletion.
“It was not well-executed whatsoever,” Franklin said. “They (Nevada) didn’t have enough numbers to cover the O-linemen and the eligible (receiver) to the field, which is why when we snap it and don’t throw it over there we’re in a real tough situation. It was not coached well. It was not executed well.”
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Defensive end Zuriah Fisher and running back Quinton Martin Jr. did not play against Nevada for medical reasons.
Fisher missed all of last season with a lower-body injury. He participated in preseason camp and was expected to start.
“I was hopeful to have Zuriah (for the opener),” Franklin said. “We got to the game and Zuriah was excited and wanted to play. We held him because he hadn’t practiced enough and didn’t think that was the right thing to do for him or us. That’ll be significant getting him back.”
Martin was expected to compete with Cam Wallace and Corey Smith to be the third-team back behind Singleton and Allen.
“The only reason you didn’t see Quinton on offense or special teams is because he had tweaked something,” Franklin said. “He was out for almost two weeks of training camp. He just got cleared right before we got into game week. It’s still a battle with those guys, whether that’s Cam, Corey or Quinton.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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