Photo by: Michael Corsey @ Michael Corsey Photography

Penn State James Franklin Postgame Press Conference
Penn State – Maryland
October 24, 2015

Opening Statement from Coach Franklin:
“First of all I really appreciate everybody being here. Most importantly, what I just talked to the team about was that we were resilient tonight. There was adversity that we faced. There were highs and lows. There were big plays and plays that we have to clean up. We uncharacteristically fumbled the ball. That is something we haven’t really done all year long. Our defense made big plays. I thought early on that they had us on our heels with some of the check-with-me and quarterback run game. We got some turnovers but we kept being in situations where our offense was backed up. We weren’t able to swing the field most of the first quarter. They had a good plan. They basically said that we are going to go high-risk high-reward. Basically they said your receivers won’t beat us. But we made big plays tonight and a number of guys made big plays. I thought the punting was important. We didn’t allow [William] Likely to have a dramatic impact on the game, as we know he can. Great win on the road in the Big Ten. We are 1-0 this week. We are bowl eligible. We will talk about it for about 30 seconds and then move on and go back to being 1-0 again. Like I told the seniors, tonight allowed us to keep our family together for another month or so at the end of the season.”

On the defense:
“I thought early on the mobile quarterback was a pain. All the run pass options kind of get you on your heels. Because we are so aggressive on stopping the run, they pull the ball out and now the linebackers are vacated and then they throw the ball. They are also doing a quarterback running game. So you have to stop the running back, you have to stop the quarterback and you have to stop the run-pass-options. It’s a challenge. The most important thing is that we held them to one less point than our offense scored.”

On Maryland’s gameplan:
“If we go back and watch this film the amount of cover-zero which is man, no deep safeties, or cover-one, with pressed corners, they hadn’t lived on that. Usually when you play someone like that and you burn them a couple times deep they stop. And they didn’t. Good for them. Again, it was a good plan. The fact that they were able to move the ball on us and then force us to throw the vertical game like that and make plays was a good plan.”

On Hackenberg’s performance:
“I think what he did was he threw balls and put balls in positions to where our guys had chances to make plays. We had another one at the end of the game.”

On the receiver’s performance:
“I was big time proud of all of them. They are doing a good job, with the opportunities that they get, taking advantage of them. Geno Lewis hasn’t had a lot of opportunities lately but he went up and snagged the ball. I am really proud of him and how he handled that.”

Defensive Back Trevor Williams
On how the defense played:
“We knew we were going to get hit with some adverse situations but we just realized that we had to have each other’s backs and play for one another, and we got the win today.”

On his interception:
“I think it was 4th and 2, we were in Cover-2 and I happened to read my keys. I saw the fullback sprint out, I figured it was a pass and once the ball was in the air I got my hands on it.

On making the interception in his hometown
“It’s a great feeling. I haven’t played here in five years ever since high school. And just to make a play here at my hometown, in front of my family, it’s just a great feeling and a moment I’ll remember forever.”

Quarterback Christian Hackenberg
On the win:
“That was huge for our team. We all came in and we made plays when we needed to make plays. Defense made plays for us, offense made plays, our receiving corps, our line, they battled through a lot of stuff today. A lot of different looks that we hadn’t really seen or expected them to do as much of, they came out and threw the kitchen sink at us and we were able to react and make plays and do what we needed to do to get the job done.

On how the receiving corps played today:
“They practice extremely hard and that always translates to success on Saturdays. And they’ve done a fantastic job each week of just getting better and better and really taking practice and using that as a tool for Saturdays. And for us, that’s just breeding confidence in that room.”

On breaking Penn State passing records
“That’s awesome. For me, that’s something that’s not going to hit me until later on down the road. But it was really cool to be able to go out and get that done today, and have my teammates around and those guys making plays. I think it’s a product of a lot of things, a lot of great players coming through here helping me out. I don’t ever try and make it about me.”

Wide Receiver Chris Godwin
On being a receiver going against man coverage all game:
“I think they came out and challenged us early on, and it was up to us to respond to the challenge of man-to-man coverage to go up and make plays. It’s definitely awesome because you realize you have to go out and make some plays that you’re capable of doing and we were able to do that today.”

On the chemistry between Hackenberg and the receivers:
“These are things that we work on every day and every week in practice. Building our chemistry each and every day so we can come out and put on performances like this. We know the talent that we have. We know the ability we have. We just have to go out and turn that into production out there, and that’s what we work on each and every week.”