What's he saying? Offensive coordinator John Donovan on Penn State's struggles

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Offensive coordinator John Donovan fielded questions from the media Thursday afternoon on a conference call.

Offensive coordinator John Donovan coaches the quarterbacks during spring practice in 2015. (Audrey Snyder/Post-Gazette)

It’s the first time since Aug. 6 that the Lions’ coordinator has been made available and with an offense ranked 103 in the Football Bowl Subdivision (344.3 yards per game) and 120th in third-down conversions (31percent) there was plenty to ask about. How is James Franklin’s involvement with the offense different? Remember, after the season opening loss Franklin vowed to be more involved with the offense? How is the offense improving from Week 1 until now? Is the criticism facing Donovan fair? 

All those questions and more are answered below as well as other highlights from Donovan’s 21-minute call:

Q: John, with this offense ranked 103 in the FBS are you surprised with the way things have gone so far this season for your group and why do you think the overall production hasn’t consistently been there?

A: John Donovan: “We’ve produced enough to win five games in a row and that’s what we’re focused on each and every week to do what we’ve got to do to win each game so if we can do that again this weekend we’re happy.”

Q: James Franklin said he’d become more involved with the offense after the loss to Temple. Can you go into the specifics of how he’s been more involved?

A: Donovan: “He’s involved of every aspect in this program, whether it’s football, recruiting, administration, whatever it is he’s involved in every aspect and it’s always going to be like that.”

Q: I’m wondering if you can assess where you see the improvement from the beginning of the season to now?

A: Donovan: “Like everything else it comes with experience and with playing time and all that. We’ve made some big plays which have helped, we’ve helped ourselves with some in the running game and week to week you just try to find whatever you can to win and we’ve been able to do that here the last few weeks.”

Q: When Saquon Barkley played he’s made a strong impact. Does that surprise you?

A: Donovan: “Talented kid, works at it, it’s important to him, very mature, especially for a true freshman, so you’re always surprised when a true freshman can come in and make an impact so it’s been a nice addition.” 

Q: Mike Gesicki said a few weeks ago he was aware of some of the social media criticisms of him. Do you pay attention to any of that and does it have an impact on you?

A: Donovan: “No, no I don’t. I stay in my bubble here. I try to worry about week to week who we’re playing and I don’t want to get involved in anything that could be a distraction to the kids or us so I just do what I do and it’s not going to help either way. The only thing that’s going to help is us putting in the time in, studying the opponents, studying ourself and trying to find a way to win.” 

Q: Is the criticism of you fair? Do you think people maybe have an unfair view of the job you’ve done so far?

A: Donovan: “I couldn’t tell you to be honest. I know we’re 5-1 and we’re looking to play this week and have a good outing and we’ve got a tough challenge. Ohio State is great, we’ll be on the road so that will be a new thing for us and we’re looking forward to this week and hopefully getting a win out of it.”

Q: How has James’ level of involvement with the play calling of the offense in general compare to the past few years that you’ve worked with him?

A: Donovan: “He’s involved in every single aspect of this program. He’ll give suggestions to everybody, he’s the head coach so he can do that, but it’s been the same routine for the last five years or so.”

Q: We’ve seen the speed sweeps and that package evolve each week with more wrinkles added to it. What are some of the keys to roping the defense in like that and showing them something on film and then switching it up?

A: Donovan: “It’s just a form of misdirection. When you can play with someone’s eyes and not let them get locked in all the time on base stuff that definitely helps and that’s just a version of that. It’s just sort of a misdirection play, we can do several things off of it and it keeps people honest and they can respect everything about it.”

Q: James said he was going to take a more hands-on approach with the offense and you said it’s been the same as the last five years so I just wanted to clarify that statement. Is he not in fact taking a deeper role with the offense?

A: Donovan: “He’s got the deepest role in every role in this program. He couldn’t be more deep. Offense, defense, special teams, administration, recruiting, you name it that’s what he does. He’s on attack mode and that’s one of his best strengths and we’ve been very successful and we’re on a roll right now and hopefully if we play the way we can this weekend, have poise, have great communication, we’ll get a win.”

Q: We saw James with a play sheet on the sideline after Week 1. What are those conversations like back and forth from up top to the sideline with you and him?

A: Donovan: “It’s no different than anyone else I’m sure. You’re always talking to the rest of the staff on the other side of the ball and what not and he’s involved in those conversations just like he’s always been and most guys are and it’s what are they doing? Is it what we thought? Is it not? Sometimes it’s what do you want to go to next or should we go back to this or whatever it may be. So, it’s the whole coaching procedure on the sideline, nothing too crazy, but you’ve got to have communication throughout the game and it’s important to be able to relay information from what they see down below or what we see up top and that’s kind of the deal.” 

Q: Through six games your third-down conversion rate is around 30 percent, which is one of the worst in the country. What’s been wrong and what can you do to fix it?

A: Donovan: “I’d say the biggest thing there is just too many third and longs we’ve got to stay out of those and get ourselves in more actual third downs, they’re easier to get and not too many people can convert third and longs. We probably had a couple too many of them so we need to be able to stay out of those and get a better chance to convert them.”

Audrey Snyder: asnyder@post-gazette.com and Twitter @audsnyder4.