What James Franklin is saying …

What Penn State head coach James Franklin had to say at Tuesday's news conference:

On the mood of his players the day after: "They had a player-only meeting on their own Sunday. It was not a long meeting at all. The feedback I got, it was really good. Some things I think they just wanted to get off their chest. … I think we kind of, as a coaching staff, set the tone for everything. Coaches weren't defensive, players weren't defensive. We were able to make corrections. We were able to learn from it and grow."

On Penn State's final scoring drive when it had first-and-goal on the 7 but ran three times and kicked a field goal to make it 38-27: "You don't know when we have a run or pass called because every play is essentially a run or pass. We're not going to throw the ball into the end zone if the look is not there. We had a fade call to [tight end] Mike Gesicki, but there were two defensive backs over his head, so we ran the ball. You'd love to come out with a touchdown in that situation."

On defensive end Shaka Toney (Imhotep Charter), who played more than as a situational pass rusher because of Ryan Buchholz's injury: "We're very excited about Shaka and his future. We still feel like at this point he's still a situational defensive end. We were forced on Saturday to play him more as an every-down defensive end. That's going to be an ongoing process. You don't resolve that in a couple of weeks although we're very excited about his future."

On telling his players and coaches how it is: "As the head football coach, I've got to be very honest with myself. I've got to be very honest with our players and I've got to be very honest with our coaching staff and ask the tough questions and be critical of the things that need to be critical, starting with me. I also need to be aware of the progress that's being made as well, and be able to tell the players and the coaches what we've done well and what we need to do better."

On not being able to run time off the clock in the final minutes: "When we actually went back and watched the tape, when we tried to run the ball, we weren't successful. When we tried to throw the ball, Trace [McSorley] was running for his life. [Ohio State] was able to take advantage of the stadium environment, similar to how we were the year before. It's easy to sit there and second-guess … but I do think we probably could have been a little more aggressive in terms of throwing the ball, do some things to help our offensive line out."