WATCH: James Franklin praises WR play, critiques red zone production vs. Nevada

After 233 days, Penn State football made its long-awaited return to the field Saturday afternoon against Nevada. With the program’s highest preseason ranking in over a quarter-century, all eyes were on the Nittany Lions to show they could cash in on their national title expectations in 2025.

And, for the most part, the Blue and White delivered. The Nittany Lions came out aggressive on both sides of the ball, putting up 438 yards on offense and forcing three turnovers on defense en route to a commanding 46-11 win over the Wolfpack.

Franklin pleased with Penn State receiver play in Week 1

Perhaps the most significant takeaway from Saturday’s season-opening win was the reliability that the Nittany Lions saw at wide receiver. Transfer portal additions Kyron Hudson and Trebor Peña combined for 13 catches for 163 yards and a score on the afternoon.

“Yeah, so my gut says ‘good.’ Need to kind of look at it, to talk it through,” James Franklin said of the performance afterward. “But yeah, Trebor Peña kind of surprised me. I thought Kyron Hudson would have led us, but Peña had seven catches for 74 yards. Hudson had six catches for 89 yards, so he got more yards.

“We got Nick Singleton involved, got [Andrew] Rappleyea involved. We would like to get more guys involved. We left some guys late in the game that last drive, trying to get a couple guys touches. We did that with Khalil Dinkins, and then as soon as he got the touch, we got him out of the game, trying to get a ball to Liam [Clifford] as well.

“But overall, good. Hudson looks very mature. He looks very poised. He almost came down with that ball that was left behind him in the end zone, which should have been a touchdown to start the game, but he just looks mature and strong and confident. Obviously, Peña did some really good things. We’ll continue to get [Devonte] Ross involved as well, and then we’d like to get more of the tight ends involved earlier in the game with the weapons that we have at that position. But overall, really, really good game one. But we got to take a step. We got to take a significant step between game one and game two, and this will be great film to do all that.”

Improved red zone production a focus moving forward

One area that was lacking in the Nittany Lions’ dominant win was offensive production inside the 20s. Penn State reached the red zone seven times on the afternoon, but were forced to kick three field goals.

“There’s an area that we need to improve; we stalled out a few times,” Franklin said. “I don’t want to give you the coach answer, the answer that you guys hate, which is, I have to watch the tape to decide, but obviously, we didn’t execute down there. And we need to do that. I thought our run game, especially our outside zone stuff, could have been better, but yeah, we stalled out there.

“Now exactly why? I don’t have that answer for you right now. I will on Tuesday or Wednesday, whenever we get together, but yeah, if you’re going to critique, that’s an area that deserves to be critiqued. I just don’t have the answer for you right now. But again, I do think the blessing in disguise. We went four-for-four on field goals, and that’s going to pay dividends for us down the road.”

Watch James Franklin’s full postgame press conference

You can watch James Franklin provide his full thoughts on Penn State’s season-opening win over Nevada on the Basic Blues Nation YouTube channel.

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