Penn State Nittany Lions

Penn State Football: James Franklin Iowa Week Press Conference Recap

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media Tuesday to review last week’s game and to look forward to this week’s game with Iowa.

The mood around the Penn State football team has been improving each week as the Nittany Lions continue to win. With the current win streak at four games, James Franklin met with the media to discuss the state of the program heading into this week’s game.

Before previewing the matchup with the Hawkeyes, Franklin opened the session by reviewing the dominating win in West Lafayette last Saturday. The coach pointed to the fact that his team forced four turnovers while not committing any as a key to the victory.

Penn State struggled in the first half and actually went into the locker room tied with the Boilermakers. However, despite the early mistakes, Franklin was pleased overall with his team’s performance.

“Overall, I am really proud of how the guys played, how they competed when going on the road, winning a game against a team that had been playing with a lot of energy recently and with the confidence they had from what they had done against Nebraska the week before. So, I was pleased with that.”

Up next for the Nittany Lions is a primetime home matchup with the pesky Iowa Hawkeyes. Franklin called for an unofficial White Out earlier in the week and an atmosphere that will rival the one that was set when Ohio State came to town.

Despite Iowa having a down season and the fact that Penn State is favored, Franklin isn’t overlooking the Hawkeyes.

“They have a really good defense. If you look at them statistically, they’re one of the better teams in the conference on defense. Offensively they don’t make mistakes. They’re one of the better teams in the country,” Franklin said.

An entire transcript of what the coach said can be found on GoPSUSPORTS.com.

Highlights from Franklin’s press conference can be found below.

On Winning the Turnover Battle:

“We emphasize limiting turnovers. I think I’ve told you guys before, we work ball security more than any program that I’ve been a part of. I think probably most of our coaching staff would say we work on ball security more than anyplace they’ve ever been. We do it every single day in a drill and that’s the entire focus. A lot of people make it a priority all practice and we do that as well, but every single day we do a ball security drill.”

On the Beaver Stadium Crowd:

“I think all that’s great. Most importantly we need that stadium rocking. I would assume that most people are going to wear some of our colors anyway, white or blue, but most importantly we need that stadium rocking. We need a home-field advantage. This is a very good football team. They played in the conference championship game last year. They returned almost everybody from that team. They’ve been successful. They have the most veteran coach in our league, probably the most veteran staff in our league. Coach Ferentz has an 8-4 record against Penn State. We need a home-field advantage. We’ve had that. We need this place to be rocking and as supportive as we possibly can of our team, while also being a great host to our guests.”

On the Improvement of Paris Palmer:

“I think he’s improved because he’s a year older. I think Coach Limegrover is doing a good job. Paris has improved. The work he has put in over the last year, Coach Limegrover, I think he handled a difficult situation very well. You go from being a starter last year to not playing as much.”

On the Closeness of his Team:

” I think any successful team is really close. You have to have trust on any successful football team. You have to have love for one another. You have to have belief. Those are three things that you have to have: trust, love and belief for any team to be successful. Any organization or corporation for it to be successful. We have that right now.”

On the Leadership of DE Evan Schwan:

“Evan is a unique individual. We talked about people kind of owning who they are, being comfortable with who they are. I think Evan is a really good example of that. I thought the piece he wrote in the game program earlier in the year was really impressive. I got that framed and hung it in my office. I think the title was Live Your Life Like It’s Third-and-Long or something like that. He’s really good.”