Last word from Beaver Stadium

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The press conference after Saturday's 20-14 win over Army was punctuated by James Franklin's refusal to speak too negatively about his team. But the players and coaches did discuss over things before moving on to focus on next week's opponent, Indiana.

Wide receiver Chris Godwin on how much play-calling contributes to the offense's inconsistency: "I don't think any of it relies on the play call, I think it is just us executing the plays. No matter what the play call is we need to go out there and execute the line backing, the receiving, catching the ball, and the running backs running the ball."

Franklin on the team's execution without running back Saquon Barkley:  "As we have seen, the guy has the ability to make guys miss. We had a few times tonight where we had guys one on one and we weren't able to do that. Talk about receivers catching the ball, breaking the tackle, making someone miss, or running backs finding the hole and making guys miss, it obviously has a factor in the game. We haveto try and get these guys to do that. Not having Marcus Allen, Brandon Bell, and Saquon or Akeel Lynch, losing Angelo Mangiro in the game, not having Andrew Nelson,all those things factor in, there's no doubt about it."

Quarterback Christian Hackenberg on whether they were going to throw the ball more if it hadn't rained: "I think take some shots, definitely. Be a little bit more efficient in the quick game was definitely a big focus, but we also felt that we could also establish ourselves with a pretty solid run game. I thought we did so. I though we ran the ball at times really well. But just again I think it was a consistency thing."

Guard Brian Gaia on the offense's performance: "It was a grinded out game and we obviously wanted to get more yards and points but I think it just showed that it was one of those games we just have to grind it out through your offense."

Sophomore safety Troy Apke on defending Army's triple option: "Very, very tiresome, that's a really good question. Those kind of offenses eat up the clock there, those drives are long. Twelve plays, 13 plays, 81 yards, 14 plays, 90 yards, so very tiring for sure, and again like I said the depth of our defense kind of helped to counter attack the tiresome offense to get fresh bodies out there and still play well."

Running back Nick Scott on being a bigger part of the offense: "It felt amazing to score my first touchdown. It is something I have been dreaming about for awhile. The coaches trusted me and trusted the system, and I trusted the system, it turned out really great."

Sophomore cornerback Grant Haley on DE Carl Nassib's transformation: "He really is a motivational leader. Everyone knows Carl came in as a walk-on and just the progress that he has made since he's been here to now in his senior year and the opportunities, he is making the most of it. He has been a great leader and the passion that he brings to this game for us is unbelievable. I really look up to him."

Franklin on whether he's been more involved in the offense: "Yeah I have been more involved."

LB Von Walker on his first fumble recovery:  "First of all, Army is an unbelievable group of guys and probably one of the hardest fighting teams that we have faced all year. I had a lot of fun out there. Manny Bowen and I stepped up and it was a really fun experience."

Franklin on the linebackers' performance: "There's no doubt that those things factor into it. If you look at the numbers, as I said, Torrence Brown, Curtis Cothran, and Manny Bowen, all with career highs in tackles. We talked about Jason Cabinda with a high in tackles. So yeah, I think they did some nicethings there's no doubt about it. It's a difficult offense to stop when you have veterans out there. We have a bunch of young guys playing so overall, real positive. The turnovers were really big for us. We got to capitalize on those turnovers."

DE Garrett Sickels on the team's readiness for Big Ten play: "I didn't really see any drop-off between week two with Buffalo. I think Troy Reeder and [Jason] Cabinda and everyone, I think they just have been playing great football. I think those guys behind us in the D-line, we complement each other extremely well. I think going into the Big Ten play, we've been tested pretty well with different schemes, especially today. I think we're ready to go. I think everyone's ready to get the ball rolling. We've got guys coming back, and we'll be even better. I'm kind of excited to see what this week holds for us."