James Franklin on Justin Fields: “It’s not Justin, it’s all the pieces around him”

When the No. 2 overall player in the 2018 recruitment class promised Franklin and the Nittani Lions – if they did so largely due to the abnormal white out environment on Saturday night – it would have brought a great deal of talent to State College.

Instead, Franklin now has to build a game plan for him for two years in a row, and on Saturday night the future top five NFL draft selection will combine his career with four passing touchdowns to cross 288-34 with 318 yards and a 199.7 quarterback rating.

The best quarterback fields Franklin has ever coached in his life, and when asked that right question – Have you ever faced a better quarterback than Justin Fields? – Franklin put it to the side and instead pushed it to the overall skills used by Buckeyes.

“I’m not sure,” Franklin said. “He’s talented, it’s not just Justin, it’s all around him. I think we got a good pass rush. We could not get him tonight, so they defended him well. They did a good job of mixing the run and the pass. Very talented at all levels – all we know. ”

Franklin was not at fault.

When you have receiver duos like Chris Olev (seven catches, 120 yards, two touchdowns) and Garrett Wilson (11 catches, 111 yards), the former borderline five-star tight end chance at Jeremy Rugert is likely to catch two touchdown catches and a run. The game is led by an excellent attacking line (one of Master Deak’s 110 yards and a score-led 200 yards to finish), and of course an absurd skill must be stopped.

But there are also humorous throws that Fields made throughout the night and this Houd Dini play:

Easy. He is a magician.ustjustnfields #GoBuckeyes https://t.co/QbOLz1GGmw

– Ohio State Football (h Ohiostate FB) November 1, 2020

So the fields may have gotten more credit there.

Nevertheless, Franklin & Co. They knew what they were doing against coming to a game against a country 3rd ranked team with national title aspirations.

“We had a lot of respect for them coming into the game,” Franklin said. “But, frankly, we couldn’t do any plays tonight. We had some opportunities for some great plays. Got a chance to be sidelined. You have to take advantage of opportunities against a team like that. We can’t get problems for loss, they always fall forward. We could not get excuses or breakthroughs. ”

Franklin also explained his decision to move up to fourth in the first quarter, knowing that Ohio would be next to the state’s worst crime prevention.

“We wanted to be aggressive,” Franklin said. “That’s why we went early. We went into this game knowing we had to do points, score touchdowns. So, in the fourth scenario we wanted to go for it as much as we could.”