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James Franklin on Iowa's pink locker room and more

The Penn State coach also talked about his first trip to Iowa and having two quarterbacks on the field at the same time.

Penn State coach James Franklin has the luxury of playing two quarterbacks at the same time.
Penn State coach James Franklin has the luxury of playing two quarterbacks at the same time.Read moreAP File Photo

What Penn State head coach James Franklin said at his weekly teleconference:

On the pink visitors' locker room at Iowa's Kinnick Stadium: "I think it's awesome. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it with our guys. I'm actually going to talk to our guys about it being a really, really nice gesture by the University of Iowa to welcome Penn State, since our original school colors are pink and black, and how wonderful it is that they painted their locker room pink for us. I'm going to have fun with it and then just kind of move on."

On having quarterbacks Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens on the field at the same time: "We've got a lot of different ways and a lot of different things that we can do. What's nice about [Stevens] is he can play like a receiver, he can play like a running back, he can play like a quarterback, and we've used him in almost all of those ways. I don't think there's any doubt that it creates stress on a defense."

On Tyler Davis' missed field goal against Georgia State: "What I love about Tyler is he's a mature kid and he's very honest. He missed the one on Saturday. He came to the sideline and he goes, 'That one's on me, I just missed it.' To me as a coach, there's a lot of value in that when you've got a guy that is going to say, I just mis-hit it, rather than the guy that every time he misses it, it's the snapper or the hold or the wind or the rain or whatever it is. Tyler's a guy that you're going to get really good feedback."

On running the football to keep the clock moving in the last four minutes: "You read all the c-oaching books and the four-minute offense is, you run the ball, you milk the clock and you win the game on your terms. I think one of the mistakes that we made last year is we tried to be a four-minute offense in four-minute situations, and that's not who we are. You can't say at a critical time of the game: We're going to now become something that we never are. One of the things we looked at is, let's really own our identity."

On his first trip to Iowa: "I've never been there. I want to educate our players. I want to educate myself on what to expect. I've talked to a lot of people. I've called a lot of people. I've asked a lot of questions. That place is going to be rocking Saturday night. Their sidelines are very tight. Their fans are going to be right up against you. We want to get our players prepared for that."