What They Said After Penn State's Week 2 Win Over FIU

No. 2 Penn State shut out FIU 34-0 on Saturday, a result that Nittany Lions coach James Franklin mostly praised. But a 10-point first half and some offensive line issues didn't fill Franklin with total confidence.

Here's what the coaches and players said after the game.

Penn State coach James Franklin

Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin during the second quarter against the FIU Panthers. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

On quarterback Drew Allar's game: I didn't think he was in his normal rhythm. We had some drops. He had some throws that he normally makes that he didn't. That was a major factor for us on third down. But we just couldn't seem to get into the rhythm on offense, and that was part of it.

On the offense's inability to finish first-half drives with touchdowns: I want to finish drives and score touchdowns too, and so does [offensive coordinator] Andy Kotelnicki, and so do all of our players. We have got to get better. We got to get better this week. We got to be better on third down. We have got to be more explosive. We haven't. We have not met our explosive play mark the last two weeks, and we weren't good enough on third down today, and those things are going to stall out drives. I have the same concerns that you do, but that's what they are. They're concerns, and they're things that we're going to emphasize and focus on this week, and we'll get better. That's what we have done, really, in my time here is we focus on getting better every single week, and usually it leads us in a good direction.

On receiver Devonte Ross: When we started dealing with some of his bumps and bruises, it was being projected that we wouldn't have it until game four. So the fact that he has played in week one in a limited capacity, and was really no limitations in week two and he was able to have an impact in the game, is a positive. I think we're way ahead of where we hoped to be with him, and we just have to continue to build on it. But the good thing is, you guys now have had the opportunity to see [Kyron] Hudson, [Trebor] Pena and Ross. Now we’ve got to be able to get all three of them involved on a consistent basis.

HOW DID DEVONTE ROSS CATCH THIS?! 🤯@PennStateFball adds on another TD pic.twitter.com/PqUgcESi1z
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 6, 2025

On the team's identity: I think we're still working toward that. I don't know if you necessarily know at the end of training camp what your identity is going to be. You have an idea of what you think, but it's an evolution until you get to the games and start doing it. I don't know if we're there yet. I still think we're trying to figure that out. But I would also say this, we've gone into these first couple of weeks with a philosophy of things we were trying to get done in terms of building chemistry and confidence in certain aspects of the game, rather than just going to do what we got to do to win games and score points. I think that those things could factor in to a degree, and that really kind of revolves around those three receivers, but we need to be more balanced. We need to be more explosive on offense. Defensively, we're not playing fast yet. They're still thinking a lot about some of the new wrinkles in the new defense. We’ve got to get some of those things cleaned up so they can play faster and more naturally.

Quarterback Drew Allar

On his play: I just don’t think it was good enough in general. Just go back to the drawing board.

On the first half: I knew coming off the field I didn’t play as well as I wanted to play. I just knew I had to come in, reset and flush it. I think we did a good job on the first two drives of the second half in putting up points. I just have to be more consistent throughout the game. That really starts with me. I kind of killed our momentum at times throughout the first half.

On what held him back: I caught myself just overthinking a couple times, not just going out there playing. We had the bubble [screen] to Nick [Singleton] that I just completely missed on third down. Just overthinking it. In reality, I made that throw all week in practice, so it’s just going out there and shutting my brain off and going out and playing.

FIU coach Willie Simmons

FIU Panthers head coach Willie Simmons stands on the field prior to the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions. — Florida International Panthers head coach Willie Simmons stands on the field prior to the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium. | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

On his team's performance: I told the guys before the game that it would really show them who they are. And I thought for the first half, we showed everybody that when we are doing the right things, we can play with any team in America. We had the No. 2 team in the country on the ropes, even with some missed opportunities. And now we have this decision as to what team we are going to be. Are we going to be the team that played like we did in the first half, that shows that we can play with any team in the country, or are we going to be the team that allows little things to be self-inflicted? It was a hard-fought game. I thought they fought hard for four quarters. They obviously came up short. But again, learned a lot about these guys today. I think a foundation was laid today that could help us propel through the rest of the season.

On what FIU learned about itself: Faith and fight are two of the seven Fs. So again, having the faith to know you are good enough to come into a game of this magnitude and I think my guys showed that. And the fight to go in and go toe to toe with one of the top teams in America and we didn’t flinch. I am extremely proud of the effort that we played with. Obviously, still attention to detail and some things we have to clean up. The good thing is they’ve shown that they will fight and compete.

Penn State coach James Franklin

Quarterback Drew Allar

FIU coach Willie Simmons

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