What They Said After Penn State’s Big Ten Win Over Illinois

Penn State coach James Franklin, who spent the pre-game week asking fans to bring “White Out energy” to Beaver Stadium, saw the results Saturday night. A crowd of 109,911 fans, overwhelmingly wearing white, impacted seven different plays in the Nittany Lions’ 21-7 victory over Illinois, Franklin said. From timeouts to a bad snap to four false-start penalties, the crowd made a difference. Even the Illini acknowledged that.

“It was a crazy atmosphere for sure,” Illinois tight end Tanner Arkin said. “I think that first kickoff, you can feel it in your chest almost. It was awesome and blessed to have the opportunity to play here, great atmosphere.”

Franklin’s postgame press conference centered mostly on the positive, though he did address some nagging issues from the victory. Here’s a look at what Franklin and Illinois coach Bret Bielema said after the game.

What we learned from Penn State’s win over Illinois

Penn State coach James Franklin

On the atmosphere: That was a phenomenal environment, that wasn’t even a white out, and we had that. The fans were phenomenal. We thought the fans had seven impactful plays on the game. Seven plays, whether it was timeouts, whether it was false starts and penalties, whether it was bad snaps, we thought they had seven plays that were significant in the game. We’re so thankful and appreciative for the fans and the environment we get here. It’s like nothing else in all of sports, let alone college football.

On the difference in the game: That game really played out for a long time the way Illinois wants the game to go. They want one-possession games. They want to keep it tight. Where I think it went different is, I challenged our offensive line against their defensive line. And I challenged our defensive line against their front, and I think that was the difference, really, in the game. We rushed for 239 yards. They rushed for 34 yards. And it’s not just 34 yards, that is a team that is committed to running the football. They are committed to running the football. And when you’re able to take somebody and force them out of the style of play that they want to play, then usually good things happen.

On rushing for 239 yards: I think the first thing with the offensive line and tight ends, they’re playing a

physical brand of football, and they’re doing a great job of protecting our quarterback. They’re allowing us to get ahead of the sticks. And the combination of our O-line being physical, and I don’t know if there’s a better combination of running backs in the country. There were physical runs out there today, so I just I couldn’t be more proud of that group and how they’re playing. That’s going to be important for us the rest of the year. But when you’re able to run the ball like that on offense and stop the run on defense, you know good things are going to happen for you. I don’t want to lose any doubt about that. And for running as often as we did, when you look at Kaytron Allen averaged 5.7 yards per carry, Nick Singleton, 5.9 yards per carry, Beau Pribula, 5.7 yards per carry. You’re stupid to get away from it right? So, Andy [Kotelnicki] was doing a great job calling the game, as you guys know, I’ll mix in every once in a while, just reminding him to stick with the run or time to take a shot. I’m down

there, I’m on the sideline. Sometimes with the play cards It’s good to kind of have these things to reinforce what he’s already doing. But that was the biggest reason. We’ve got to get better in the red zone. We weren’t as good in the red zone tonight. Again, got to give them a little credit, too.

On Illinois scoring on its opening drive: We’ve got to be better on opening drives. The looks you’re expecting to get that you can go down the field to be successful. That’s a week’s worth of preparation to open the game. Same thing on defense, we’ve got to break some tendencies that people aren’t as

comfortable going down and make them question their game and what they studied. But when you hold a Big Ten team to seven points, you have a chance to win a ton of games. I’m very proud of our defense and proud of Tom Allen and the defensive staff. When you hold people to 7 points and 34 rushing yards against a Big Ten opponent, you give yourself a chance to win a lot of games.

On kicker Sander Sahaydak missing two field goals: He’s been awesome for us, and we just

won that game, and he should be celebrating this thing like everybody else. But ultimately, we’ll have a competition and all these things will factor in decisions that we’re going to have to make moving forward. But I want Sander to celebrate this win like everybody else, because he’s put a ton into this. He’s a great kid and a great representative of Penn State.

Illinois coach Bret Bielema

On the game: Obviously disappointed in the results. I give credit to Penn State, an undefeated top-10 team, but our guys prepared well all week. They came in this game with the idea of being successful. Obviously we had a lot of success and did a lot of really good things. I felt on the plane ride coming over here that I had a really good football team. For me as a head coach, we can’t do the things that cause us to fail. We have got to give our guys more chances. I think we came out pretty clean. I stress all the time we learn more in moments of adversity than in moments of success.

On his team: I think we are a good football team. I like our demeanor. I like their work ethic. I like their

edge. They are very disappointed as I hope they’d be. We did enough things today to cause the failures that we had but I don’t see any of them being anything we can’t do correctly.

On his concern with the run game: We say it all the time, good teams do three things; they run the ball, defend the runs, and cover kicks. Obviously, this will be a recipe that others will follow and see and you know they have a good running game we knew that coming in.

On Penn State tight end Tyler Warren: Number 44, I just love him. One of the things I took from the [NFL] is, when a guy has a lot of position flex, which means he can do multiple things besides what he’s slotted into, I just think his skillset just allows a lot of other things to happen. James does a really good job at putting players in their position. I have a lot of respect for what he has done.

More Penn State Football

Penn State football report card: Illinois edition

The Penn State-Illinois game breakdown: Nittany Lions’ front lines take charge in win