What James Franklin is saying ahead of Saturday night’s game at Pitt

What Penn State head coach James Franklin is saying (Week 2)

On poor tackling by his team Saturday

"I think that's probably the biggest thing that stood out, too many missed tackles. … How much do you tackle in preseason to make sure your guys are ready to go in Game 1 and don't have a situation like that where we miss so many tackles? We're going to have to look at our camp model next year and do a little bit more tackling without putting ourselves in a situation that we increase the injury rate. So that's the fine line there."

On cornerback John Reid, playing his first game after missing all of 2017 with a knee injury

"John played like a guy that hadn't played in a year, did some things really good, but did some things where he was a little bit inconsistent. I think part of that is John's a perfectionist. He's like that in school. He's like that in football. It's really important to him, and he works really hard at it. But I think there was a little bit of rust on him and we were able to chip some of that rust off, and I think John's going to have a huge year for us."

On new blocking rules for offensive linemen

"They basically have eliminated cutting, specifically cutting at the second level unless you are blocking someone that's in front of you and within five yards of the line of scrimmage. When I say in front of you, square, we're looking at each other, no blocks from the side. That was very clearly expressed to us through a video that went out, and then officials that we have work our practice. So we were very clear on that. I thought our guys handled it well."

On the environment Saturday night at Pitt

"We'll make practices as loud and as challenging as we possibly can. We'll show video. We'll show clips. We'll give them the best examples we possibly can of what to expect, what it's going to be like there. I also think that with it being in the state of Pennsylvania, though, that I think we'll get a good percentage of Penn State fans there. We usually travel pretty well, and obviously it makes it easier to travel in the state. So I think we'll have good support there."

On tweeting the name of his team's next opponent repeatedly during game week

"I always want to use 280 characters. But literally, the hashtag 'We are', which I usually put, I think is five, and it wouldn't add up. So it was either the 'Pitt" or the 'We are' and then when I did it, I think I came up three or four characters short, which usually really bothers me because I want to maximize every experience. I probably should have just put exclamation points in."