Penn State defensive end Jayson Oweh seeks to offer more

This season has been a struggle for Penn State football coach James Franklin.

And for reasons far more profound than his team’s 0-3 record.

His family.

While Franklin directs his team in State College, his family has taken residence in Florida as a precaution because of the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, his daughter, Addison, deals with the challenge of sickle cell anemia.

The absence has been trying for Franklin.

“One of the things that I have not done a great job of handling personally … is I have not done a great job of managing my family being gone,” Franklin said during a video conference Tuesday. “I have not. They’re my fuel.

“I have to manage those things. I have to come to work.”

One of Franklin’s top players offered his support Wednesday.

“We’re all going through a lot of stuff right now,” redshirt sophomore defensive end Jayson Oweh said. “It’s a hard year. A lot of adversity. We all have stuff we’re going through. We don’t feel bad for anything. This is the situation that we’re in, and it’s not going to help us if we’re dwelling on the negatives. We’ve got coach. We’re his family. We always make sure he tells us he loves us. We love him. So we’ve got him.”

What Penn State doesn’t have is a win this season. Oweh, who has yet to record a sack in three games, realizes he needs to offer more.

“In terms of my play, I can’t even just look back and enjoy anything because our record is 0-3,” Oweh said. “Cleary, what I’m doing is not enough. Clearly, what I’m doing is not up to par. We’ve got to find a way to play well. Instead of being (a loss), it’s got to be a (win). I’m happy with how I’m playing, but we’ve got to get some wins.”

As a team, Penn State is second in the Big Ten with eight sacks. Despite that, Oweh feels a greater contribution is needed by the defensive line.

“We’ve just got to find a way,” Oweh said. “We’ve got to keep on being disruptive. Try to wreak the most havoc that we can. Me and (defensive end) Shaka Toney, the guys inside like (defensive tackles) P.J. (Mustipher), Antonio (Shelton), Judge (Culpepper), Hakeem (Beamon), we’ve got to just continue to push the pocket because what offenses are doing now, they see we’re a disruptive (defensive) line so they’re trying to get the ball out quickly with like quick-access throws, angle sets, over sets, sliding to chip in. All that stuff.

“We knew we were going to get that, especially with the game we had in Indiana. Teams are going to try to scheme us now, but we’ve got to find a way. There’s always a way to get home. We’re trying to find that. When we do, more production is going to come from that.”

Despite a poor start to the season, Oweh is optimistic Penn State can rebound.

“Just execute,” Oweh said. “I feel like a lot of our stuff is just we’re going so hard wanting to just make the play but we’re not doing the little details. Execute, play within the framework and just the little details. Once we do that, we’ll start clicking on all cylinders.”