Sept. 13, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State Football returns home to Beaver Stadium this week, set to meet its second consecutive in-state opponent. Nittany Lion head coach James Franklin met with members of the media Tuesday to preview Saturday's Stripe Out game against Temple, which kicks off at noon on BTN.
The Nittany Lions (1-1) and the Owls (1-1) are set to meet for the 45th time in program history and the third consecutive year. This week, Franklin took time to review a few items from last week's trip to Pitt before previewing the Temple matchup.
After taking time to look back at the Pitt tape, Franklin noted that he was especially proud of the team in its efforts to battle and preserve despite the final outcome in a challenging environment.
Among items to improve this week, consistency proved to be a major theme today as the Nittany Lions begin Temple preparations. Speaking about improving consistency in different areas, Franklin stressed the focus on offense securing the ball, tackling on defense and on special teams related to kick location.
Franklin also addressed the importance of getting out to a strong start early in the game.
"I think the first week was a typical first week," Franklin said. "Last week, it was a tough environment. That stadium was rocking. There was a lot of emotion. We anticipated all of those things. We did a lot of stuff to work with noise in the stadium and I made some comments to you guys after the game about some challenges that we had, but I'm going to move on from now. We didn't handle that as well as we would have liked."
Looking toward Temple, Franklin mentioned that the Owls would bring a great opportunity for the Nittany Lions in several areas come Saturday. Led by former Nittany Lion Matt Rhule, Temple presents tough physical traits on both sides of the ball.
TO VIEW THE FULL RELEASE CLICK HERE.