Joining host Steve Jones and a crowd at The Field restaurant in State College, Penn State football head coach James Franklin took questions Thursday evening.

As Penn State gears up for its showdown Saturday night at the Horseshoe in Columbus when the Nittany Lions take on No. 5-ranked Ohio State, here's a look at three of the key takeaways from Franklin's radio show appearance:

Coming off the Nittany Lions' second loss in as many tries, last Saturday dropping a bizarre 20-18 nine-overtime decision to Illinois on Homecoming at Beaver Stadium, Franklin was asked to address the obvious.

What had happened with the program given its standing as, just two weekends prior, the nation's No. 4-ranked team before it lost 23-20 to then-No.3 Iowa at Kinnick Stadium?

"When you say two games by five points, I think that tells a lot," Franklin said. "At the end of the day, I get it. It's the result. The final result is all that matters. But there are factors that go into the details that really tell the whole story."

Among those, Franklin offered that the margin of error has been so small that one slight difference here or there could have been the difference in outcomes, which amounts to a responsibility of Penn State's players and coaching staff, both in preparing backups who have been forced into action and those players themselves.

"I think it's a play a half. I also think we've had a bunch of injuries, obviously, and the next guys are going to have to step up and find a way to get the job done," Franklin said. "And it's our job as coaches to put them in the best position to be successful."

Still, coming off the most recent setback, Franklin noted that the response of the team that he has seen this week has largely been positive as Penn State faces inarguably its most difficult matchup of the 2021 regular season.

"We got great leadership. So the energy was really good," he said. "Our practices were excellent, the energy was excellent. They know we have a tremendous challenge, but we also we look at it as an unbelievable opportunity. Being able to go on the road against Ohio State, in the Shoe, it's gonna be a tremendous challenge, but we're excited about it and our mentality was great all week long."

Originally asked by a fan in attendance about Penn State's assistant coaching salaries, citing a report that showed Nittany Lion offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich as being among the nation's highest paid assistants but also noting a drop-off after his compensation, Franklin touched on that specific element of his job.

"All these things matter and they factor in and that's where it is my job as well as the administration to come together and really evaluate what's happening nationally. Who are we truly competing against? What our expectations are? And then go after with everything we have," he said. "But I think it's a good point. There's some of the things that I think there have been a lot of discussions going on behind the scenes, but those are some of the many challenges that we're going to have to do consistently."

Prompted by Jones to discuss the ongoing construction process taking place at Penn State's Lasch Football Building, a topic covered at Blue-White Illustrated earlier Thursday, Franklin added that the work that has been done is a positive step as one of many necessary in the program's trajectory.

"I think it's positive. I really do. It's something that is needed. And it's positive. It's taking a step in the right direction. And I think we have done that. We have made some positive steps, there's no doubt about it," he said. "I think it's a very important discussion to have, on a very high level, exactly what we need to do to have the success and the consistency that everybody wants. So it is a step in the right direction. We're very appreciative. We're very positive of the support that we've been given. But we're still a lot of work to do."

One of the Nittany Lions who'd received some buzz behind the scenes during the course of the 2020 season, then again in the winter and spring leading into the 2021 campaign, redshirt freshman receiver Malick Meiga saw his first game appearance Saturday against Illinois.

The reason?

Franklin revealed Thursday that the 6-foot-4, 200-pound receiver had been hurt and missed an extensive amount of time because of it.

"Malick had a pretty significant injury early in the season during training camp that kept him out. So we've been waiting to get him back," Franklin said. "He's got a great physique. In terms of just flat out running., he is one of the faster players on our team. Obviously coming from Canada, there's a little bit of an adjustment there, but he's a guy that we wanted to get some experience in his first game back last week and allow that to grow.

"But in terms of body type, athleticism, personality, he's got unbelievable personality and a huge smile on his face all the time. He's got a lot of the things that you can't teach. So it was good to see him gain some experience and we're going to need that to grow as the year goes on too."

Meiga finished with two reps in the game on Saturday.

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