Big Ten Daily: Penn State Football Coach James Franklin Deflects USC Questions

Penn State coach James Franklin calls USC speculation a distraction, Ohio State coach Ryan Day says defensive changes are coming and Indiana cornerback Jaylin Williams will be back against Cincinnati. Here's the latest from around the Big Ten.

Author:
D.J. Fezler
Publish date:
Sep 14, 2021 8:54 PM EDT

When the USC football program made the decision to fire coach Clay Helton, rumors began to surface regarding candidates to fill his spot. Among them, Penn State coach James Franklin is being named.

Franklin was questioned about the speculation of him leading the Trojans, but he said he will discuss the rumors with the team's leadership council. He went on to add that he "can't stand any form of distraction."

No. 10 Penn State is 2-0 to start the 2021 college football season, and the team will host No. 22 Auburn this upcoming Saturday.

"I’ll discuss this today with the leadership council so we can make sure that all of our energy is on our preparation for Auburn and that’s how we’ll handle it," Franklin said.

Franklin was one of six candidates for the USC job mentioned by The Athletic senior writer Bruce Feldman. The others included Oregon's Mario Cristobal, Cincinnati's Luke Fickell, Iowa State's Matt Campbell, BYU's Kalani Sitake and Clemson's offensive coordinator Tony Elliott.

Ryan Day Says Changes are Coming in Ohio State's Defense

The Ohio State Buckeyes were one of the highest rated teams in all of college football heading into the 2021 season. But now, they sit at 1-1 after a 35-28 loss to Oregon at home Saturday.

In Week 1, Ohio State escaped Minneapolis with a 45-31 against Minnesota. For the Buckeyes to get back to dominant form, their defense must get better, and coach Ryan Day addressed the concerns this week.

"Yeah I'm not happy about that at all," Day told reporters Tuesday. "That's part of the deal — for me to do what I need to do on offense, I need the defense really on point, the special teams on point, I need Mark Pantoni to do a great job in recruiting, Mick Marotti to handle strength and conditioning, and the minute that I get taken away for those type of things, then it affects everything else that's going on on offense. So yeah, to be honest with you, I'm disappointed."

As of now, the program has not made any changes to the coaching staff, and Day assured that Kerry Coombs is still acting as the defensive coordinator. But there will be changes on the horizon.

Day indicated that there will be structural changes to the team's defense, but failed to specify what that statement entailed.

"We are going to make some adjustments, some changes," Day said. "We have to. But I'd rather not get into all that right now ... you want to act, not over react. You have to make sure you do things the right way and you allow people to do their job, but when it gets to a certain point, you have to get things fixed - and that's what we're going to do."

Indiana CB Jaylin Williams set to Return Against Cincinnati

The Indiana football program may not see a better quarterback this season than Cincinnati's Desmond Ridder. He is a 6-foot-4, 215-pound dual threat from Louisville, Kentucky, and is in his fourth year as a starter.

But when the No. 8-ranked Bearcats on Saturday, the Hoosiers will have cornerback Jaylin Williams back in the lineup. It's been tough sledding for the Indiana secondary, with multiple players missing some time due to injuries.

"That's just part of going through the season, so getting Jaylin back will be big for us,'' Indiana coach Tom Allen said. "We've just got to continue to develop our younger guys. That's where it's going to be big, and we're hoping to get (Ole Miss transfer) Jonathan Haynes back in the mix this week as well. That will help us ,too.

"Yeah, every year it seems like a certain position has a little more challenges than others, and that seems to be our spot for this year. But guys are working really, really hard back there.''

The unit will unquestionably be tested on Saturday. Indiana is 1-1 after two weeks, and Cincinnati has proven to be one of the top offenses in the nation.

"Obviously, their role is going to be huge this weekend because our secondary is going to be tested by a very, very talented receiver core and really elite quarterback,'' Allen said. "So I just expect them to play a little better this week than we did last week. That's the whole key, getting better every week. And I know they will because our guys are really, really motivated, and we've got a great staff.''