HEAD COACH JAMES FRANKLIN: Kind of getting into Minnesota, I've gotten to know P.J. pretty well over the years. He's obviously done a great job. You look at what he was able to do at Western Michigan, you look at what he's been able to do now at Minnesota, it's hard to not be impressed with what he's been able to do.

Obviously they were returning 17 starters this year, so I had a lot of confidence coming into the season based on that, you look at offensively, Kirk Ciarrocca, who is a native from Lewis Barry, went to Redland High School, I've known him for a long time, has done a really good job.

You look at them offensively, it's probably the best offensive line that we have played. They are massive, I mean, massive. The right tackle is 6-9, 400 pounds and not skinny, if that's -- if that's -- excuse me and not heavy, if that's even possible to say. The guy next to him I think is 6-5, 350. They have the biggest offensive line I think in the country, college, including the NFL.

Best wide receiver group we have played. They are going to play a mix of ten personnel, 11 personnel, 12 personnel and then we'll get into some heavy packages with an extra lineman in there, as well.

Guys we have been impressed with, the quarterback is very efficient. He's very accurate. He manages the offense really well. They have got a lot of confidence in him. He's playing at a high level right now. Rodney Smith, the running back, seems like this guy has been playing there for ever; he has. He's been there for six years, and really doing a good job for them.

Then wide receivers, Tyler Johnson, as well as Bateman. Really could name all their wide receivers. They are playing extremely, extremely well.

Defense, another Pennsylvania guy, I try to track all the Pennsylvania guys across the country. That's something I always try to be aware of, but Coach Rossi has done a great job. He's now I think going into his second year, really a year and a half, because I think he took over at the midpoint from last year. He's from Pittsburgh, went to Pittsburgh Central Catholic, which is where Coach Limegrover went to high school, as well.

They are a base front, four-down defense. They are going to play variations of two high, quarters and quarter, quarter half. They will mix some cover one in there, as well. They play extremely hard on defense.

I have a huge man-crush on Winfield. I think he's playing on a really high level, their safety. Five interception, runs the alley, is physical, just playing really good football right now. Their linebacker, Martin, is playing extremely well and then Carter is a legacy there, playing really good at defensive end, does a lot of different things for them, runs extremely well.

Then their special teams coordinator, Rob Wenger, they do a nice job. Play good, complementary football, offense, defense, special teams. They have one returning starter, their punter, and Smith is doing a great job as a return man and then they have a graduate transfer DB transfer from Michigan, a Canadian kid, Benjamin St. Juice, if I'm saying his name correctly. Their DB No. 5 is a gunner on the punt team and is a problem. Has been very effective.

I look at them as a program, started out the year with some games against the jackrabbits and against the boys from Fresno and found ways to get wins. As the year has got on, like good programs and coaches do, they keep getting better. They just keep getting better. They know how to win. They play probably a style of football that you don't see much anymore.

He wants to dominate time of possession with their offensive line. Literally, if they get up by a lead early in the game, they are going to start milking the clock already. They are going to try to suffocate you with their offensive line, with their style of offense and with time of possession.

They have been unbelievable on first down. You look at their numbers on third down; their numbers on third down are great because their numbers on first down are great. They have very little negative yardage plays, tackles for loss, sacks, things like that, they stay on schedule and are very efficient.

Defense, they are able to get a bunch of turnovers and special teams, they do a great job of complementing the offense and the defense. Obviously it's going to be on the road against the 13th-ranked team in the country at 12 o'clock. That's going to come at us fast.

So looking forward to the opportunity. And got a lot of respect for Minnesota, their football program, their coaches and what they have done so far this year.

Q. What was the team's primary focus during the bye week? Did you accomplish what you wanted and did it come at a good time for you?

HEAD COACH JAMES FRANKLIN: I think the first thing is rest and recovery. I think the older I've gotten, I've gotten a little bit better at that. My answer for everything is more and that's not always the right answer.

So during the bye week, the rest and recovery was as important as everything. Our normal Monday off, our normal Sunday practice before that, and then Tuesday and Wednesday, we were able to get some good-on-good work and then really spent some time on individual, because sometimes as the season goes on, you have to cut the individual work back to make sure you get all the game plan-specific reps done to get your guys prepared for what they are going to see.

Been able to amp up the individual work, plenty of individual work and good-on-good work against each other and some of the young guys scrimmages, which is great.

The travel squad guys were able to have off Thursday -- Thursday, Friday, Saturday. The non-travel squad guys were able to have a practice on Thursday which was great. Something that we've done now for a while. Allows those guys to get a little bit of extra work and allow them to get a little bit of extra attention and allows the GAs to really coach, so that was great.

Then we got back in here on Sunday and got back to work again. So rest and recovery was probably the biggest thing and then from a coaching staff perspective, we were able to go back and study some of our tendencies, self-scout ourselves and then we did a little bit of self-scouting across the ball. So allow our offensive guys to look at our defense and vice versa, same with special teams. Some value in that.

And then be able to get on the road in recruiting, to make sure that we continue building for our future. I thought we had a really good bye week. Got a lot done. Got a lot done here in Happy Valley. Got a lot done all over the country from one coast to the other and then we're able to get back here this week.

Thought we had a really good bye week, but obviously we've got to have a great week of preparation this week so we can go play well Saturday.

Q. You mentioned in your opening remarks about Minnesota's suffocating offense and the success they have had in time of possession and third down conversion and obviously your defense has to get off the field against them on Saturday, but what is the role of your offense on Saturday in keeping the ball away from them and sustaining drives during the day?

HEAD COACH JAMES FRANKLIN: I think the worst thing that you can do is go into a game like this and try to change your identity and be something that you're not. So we're not changing anything.

Obviously we always want to be efficient on offense and convert on third downs and stay on the field and obviously our defense wants to get off the field. You know, I think a lot of times, it's funny when you talk about time of possession, everybody talks about the offense, especially when you run a spread, no-huddle style offense, but it's both.

Defense has a responsibility to get off the field with turnovers and three-and-outs and offense has responsibility to stay on the field and convert, because obviously this is the style they want to play, and part of our responsibility is try to get them out of the style they want to play and make the game go in a way they are not used to playing in. That's challenging.

It's obviously very challenging to do on the road, as well and it's challenging to do against opponent that's had as much success as they have had and they are confident right now. That's going to be a tremendous challenge, no doubt about it.

Q. The last time that you guys came off a bye and played a road game, which of course was Maryland, I thought your overall execution in that game from beginning to end in all phases was about as good as it could get, and so I'm wondering if there's anything about handling the bye that fed into that, and anything that you maybe learned about that going forward that would be useful.

HEAD COACH JAMES FRANKLIN: Well, I think for us, for nine years now I've been doing, this we've tried to refine our process and our process has not changed a whole lot in nine years. But we are refining it and we are tweaking it and finding ways that we can get better and that's from a coaching perspective; that's from a scheme perspective; that's a fundamental technique perspective; that's from a sports science perspective; that's all of it. That's nutrition.

You know, all those little wins add up: How our guys sleep; that adds up for us. How our guys eat, the quality of food, the type of food they are getting, those things add up for us. The information that I'm able to get from the sports scientists in terms of where our team is and when we need to practice harder, when do we need to condition more, when do we need to cut back, all those things, there's value.

So our process really has not changed a whole lot in nine years, but it has been tweaked. It has been refined. We've gotten better. We've gotten better in how we've practiced. We've gotten better in how we prepare. We've gotten better in how we handle a normal game week. We've gotten better in how we handle a Friday night game through experience and trials. We've gotten better in how we handle bye weeks and then how we come off of the bye week.

It's all of it and what I try to do is I got a great staff of coaches and trainers and doctors and our academic people, and like I said, the sports scientists and nutritionists, all these different people and what I'm trying to do is get as much information as I possibly can get from them and our players, and then in the off-season, some discussions with some other coaches and other programs, and come up with the best plan for Penn State. I think we've been able to do that.

We've got to go do it again on the road against a really good opponent in this conference, which isn't easy to do, but I do think the experience we had of playing a ranked Michigan team at home, there's value in that.

Going on the road at Iowa and playing at night in Kinnick Stadium, that stadium has been a nightmare at night for a lot of people and we found ways to win there. Not that necessarily those wins do anything specifically for us against Minnesota, but there is some confidence that comes from that.

I've never been there. Haven't been to the stadium. Haven't been to this venue, so trying to get as much information as we can on what to expect. What's the wind like in the stadium because the wind is different in all these stadiums; what's the temperature going to be like; what's the locker room going to be like, just so we can plan and be as prepared. The fact that we haven't been there before, some of those things are a bit new to us.

So looking forward to the opportunity. It should be great. It should be a great -- I would think it's going to be a great environment. It's going to be great for our conference. It's going to be great for college football. Love the fact the game is at 12 o'clock. That should be great, too. So looking forward to it.

Q. You complemented Minnesota's offensive line a little bit earlier, so I'm curious with P.J. Mustipher, how does he match up against a tough lineup and what do you see his ceiling with the snap counts?

HEAD COACH JAMES FRANKLIN: Yeah, I think you'll see probably C.J. and Rob probably get between 15 more reps a game. Could be 20. Probably 15 more reps in this game. We think that they can handle that, we do.

Obviously you'll see a little bit more Fred and a little bit more Judge and some of the other guys, too. That's going to be a big story line for this game. I don't think we've seen an O-Line like this this year, but I'd also make the argument that I don't know if they have seen a D-Line like us before, either.