What they said after the Penn State-USC game

LOS ANGELES | Penn State coach James Franklin celebrated his team’s stirring comeback, while USC coach Lincoln Riley lamented a third missed opportunity in the Trojans’ first season in the Big Ten. After the Nittany Lions’ 33-30 overtime win over USC on Saturday, head coaches discussed their big moments and key decisions in the game. Here’s what they said.

Penn State coach James Franklin

About tight end Tyler Warren: A big story of the game is obviously Tyler Warren, 17 catches for 224 yards. A school record for tight ends and the second most yards ever for a Penn State football player. It doesn’t even matter what he does in the running game, he has a pass and what he blocks. I’ve talked about him being the best tight end in college football, but the reality is that he’s now part of a conversation about one of the best players in all of college football.

About kicker Ryan Barker: Another great story, Ryan Barker. He goes on to Penn State, an opportunity presents itself and he’s ready. For me, this is what our country is all about. That’s what the game of football teaches. He earned a starting job, then lost the starting job and then came here. He’s 4-on-4. Game-winning field goal there in overtime. Ryan “Cold as Ice” Barker is what I call him. So I’m really proud of him and how the whole game went.

About quarterback Drew Allar: What I probably love most about Drew, and what probably reflects our entire team, is that things weren’t perfect for him today and he just battled through it. He erased the bad plays and moved on. That’s what you have to do in college football. It won’t go perfectly. They have talented guys and our guys just battled through. I think Drew is a great example of that. I don’t know what his final stats were, but I also want to give Julian Fleming his flowers. I think they were two big fourth-down plays. That was big for us. I think Drew was just a really good example of what I think our team did throughout the day. They just kept fighting and overcoming the odds.

On possession of the ball in extra time: We wanted to run the ball in this situation, but you never know. Sharing one and scoring a touchdown is what you love to do. You should also be borderline conservative because you are already in field goal range and you don’t want to do anything that puts you out of field goal range. So that worked out really well. Stig [coordinator Justin Lustig] stood next to me on the sideline and said, “Listen, if it’s even possible, we.”

Favor the ball either in the middle or on the left. We were able to call a play to get us back into that sweet spot. Then they tried to ice it [Barker]and he just went out and struck.

On Allar’s return after two interceptions: The first thing I want to say is that our defense only gave up six points after those turnovers, which was great. If they don’t, it will be difficult to achieve the ending we just had. But Drew, he’s just growing up. Based on the way he was recruited and then when he shows up, expectations are through the roof, right? Last year he played in the Big Ten for the first time, and his touchdown-to-interception ratio was far too low.

People were still critical, right? And I get it, it’s Penn State. We really have very high expectations. He has simply gotten better, in every single area. One of the main reasons he’s gotten better is because guys are making plays for him. The wide receivers are playing in a way this year that they didn’t last year. So are the tight ends. We weren’t able to get the game going today like we had hoped, but I have a lot of respect for their defensive coordinator [D’Anton Lynn]who is a Penn State guy. I have great respect for their employees. This is a talented team and these are talented employees. Going out there and finding a way to get a win was important to us, and Drew was a big part of that.

On the comeback after a 14-point deficit at halftime: You have to find different ways to win over the course of a season. Some will have breakthroughs, hopefully more, but some will have comebacks. Some will be at home where you have the fans and they support you. Some will be on the road where things go against you and you don’t have much support in the stadium. Maybe the weather or whatever is a big factor. I think the word “resilient” was probably the best word to define our team today. It’s good to be able to go in and say, “Guys, we’re a second half team,” but I’d rather not say that anymore. I prefer to be a four-quarter team, a fast-start team, a fourth-quarter team, all of it. And that’s what we have to be in order to continue winning the games we want to win in the future.

USC coach Lincoln Riley

About the game: A hard-fought game, you know, just a really tough loss. There’s really no way to sugarcoat this. Or the boys fought their asses off from start to finish. As a coach, you can’t ask for anything better than the effort our boys show on the field. There are two good football teams. It came down to the last bit and it hurts not being able to get it done. We had a few games like this where we had a chance to win at the end – and when you don’t make the plays and some breaks don’t go your way, it’s a punch in the gut. There is no doubt about that.

We are very disappointed that we didn’t finish it. I’m proud of the way the boys fought. I’m proud of the way the team played and gave us a lot of opportunities to win there in the end. We still have a lot to do. We definitely made some crucial mistakes in some of these games that we didn’t win – where we have the opportunity to finish teams and that’s something we all need to do better. We have to identify ourselves, we have to train it better, we have to develop as a team. We have a united group of people in this room who are miserable right now because they love playing the game with each other. I think you can tell they love playing for each other and for USC, and that’s why you see us playing the way we play. And so they’re hurt, but we will, we will absolutely recover. We are excited about what lies ahead and we understand the opportunities in front of us and we will be a hungry, motivated football team that gets back to work and of course throws itself into the second half of the season.

Regarding the decision not to call the time-out too late in regulation: We talked about it a little. When we had the lost yardage play – I think it was the first down – we started talking about, ‘Okay, do we need to use timeouts and stop the clock?’ I think it was a second and a second Twelve, if I remember correctly. We talked about the question, “Do we need to use timeouts here and stop the clock?” Because all of a sudden it’s 2nd and 12. If you don’t get anything there, then it’s third and 12th and you may have just bought

They had a series and we weren’t within field goal range yet. So we went back and forth and said, ‘Are we going to use it and stop the clock or not?’ Honestly, I felt so good about Mike (Lantz) hitting the ball that we said – when we got it was it, I think, a third-and-six – ‘If we convert that, we still have timeouts, maybe we’ll get another one’ shot and then had him kick the field goal.’ Because Mike kicked so well, that was the main reason I wanted to make sure it was the last possession.

On Tyler Warren’s appearance: Listen, he’s a great player. I mean, it’s a guy that we knew would be a challenge. We had a few disappointments with him and I think that’s what we’ll look back on. When you play a really good player like that, you want him to earn it, right? When they make a play, you want to say, “Hey, we were in cover, we were in the right place.” Listen, the guy made a play. But we gave them a few so they couldn’t earn it. And that’s probably what hurts the most.

On losing another close game: I think you could look at all sides. We have options on offense, we have options on defense. The offense had the ball with a chance to score after two minutes and substitutions and all timeouts. Defensively, we took them to two quarter-and-longs in the previous series, with good chances on both occasions, and they made two crazy plays. So we all had our chances. It belongs to all of us. We have to train better. We have to play better on offense and play better defense in those moments.

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