Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula surprised Wisconsin on Saturday night, but not his own head coach. James Franklin said he has “a ton of confidence” in Pribula after the quarterback, filling in for the injured Drew Allar, completed 11 of 13 second-half passes for the Nittany Lions. 28-13 win over the Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium.

Both coaches also called Penn State safety Jaylen Reed's interception return for a touchdown a crucial point in Big Ten play. Now the Nittany Lions (7-0) prepare to host Ohio State next week at Beaver Stadium in a highly anticipated game. Earlier, Franklin and Fickell told reporters in Madison the following after the game.

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Penn State coach James Franklin

To win: Just a brave away win against a team that is really developing in a really positive direction. Difficult playing environment, just a courageous victory. You lose your starting quarterback, you lose your starting defensive end (Dani Dennis-Sutton), you lose your starting right tackle (Anthony Donkoh), the next man up, no excuses. I thought it was a bold cultural victory from my perspective.

The other thing I noticed is a selfless team and selfless players. Here's Beau Pribula waiting for his number to be called in a quarterback battle, and when his number is called he's able to capitalize on it and take advantage. I think the offensive coaches did a really good job of changing the way we had to approach the game once he came into the game to play to his strengths. And obviously Jaylen Reed's interception was a game-changing, game-changing play. Just proud of our boys. I think sometimes as coaches and fans we get too close and I know we want all the victories to be nice. It was one of the nicest and ugliest victories we've ever had, but that's the beauty.

On Drew Allar's injury: I'm not going to delve into too many medical topics, especially when I don't have a lot of information. (The decision) was: Will he be mobile enough to give us a chance to run the offense the way we need to? It really came down to Drew. When he came out, the (NBC reporter) asked me and I told her Drew was going and Dani wasn't. And when we got out there and they loosened up, Drew told me he couldn't go and Dani couldn't go (Dennis-Sutton played one snap in the second half before leaving the game). It turned out to be the opposite of what I had told her. I asked (Drew) to be very, very honest with me. He just didn't feel like he could move well enough to walk. Even at the end of the half you could tell that even throwing was a challenge.

About Beau Pribula: I have great confidence in Beau. He is a character child from a character family. Very talented. Some of his talents differ from Drew's. That's one of the things that's really important as a team, and as an offensive coordinator you have to commit to running the game differently. And that is easier said than done. We have enough variety in our offensive system to play to (Pribula's) strengths. … I reminded (coordinator Andy Kotelnicki) that we now have to decide the game based on Beau's strengths, and I thought he did that. … It doesn't surprise me at all that (Pribula) was able to make yards and switches for us when we needed them most.

About Allar's supporting gig: I think that's the important thing. This goes back to selflessness: “Drew, you are a leader for us, and even though you don't have the role you envisioned, we need you.” The way you act, the way you carry yourself, the way you help Beau , all of which will be crucial. We won’t be able to do it without you.” We talked about that in the locker room before we went out (for the second half).

On Reed's interception: Momentum is a real thing. I think that was an important play to increase the momentum. From that point on we were really able to control the game, especially on offense and defense.

On Nicholas Singleton's one-handed touchdown catch: It's probably the area where he's improved the most during his time at Penn State, as a receiver. That was a one-handed catch, a tough catch, and it's a matchup problem. Guys are going to play man coverage, and if you put him with a linebacker, that's going to be a challenge. I think we can use him more in this role and develop him further, but that's important for us and that's also important for Nick and his development.

Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell

About the game: The whole idea was to make it to the fourth quarter and put ourselves in a position where we feel like we can deliver and execute on excellence in the fourth quarter, and that's exactly what didn't happen. That's difficult when your plan somehow gets put into action and these people recognize it and then you're unable to finish and execute the plan. For various reasons we know this. But here we need to make sure we get back to what we do and keep climbing this mountain to get better. … Unfortunately, we weren't able to take advantage of the obviously incredible atmosphere, the crowd and things like that to finish things off and be able to play when it mattered most.

On Wisconsin's 81-yard rushing performance: I don't know. Obviously it's the penetration (of Penn State's defense). Even the things where you let it run and only get 2 yards or 2.5 yards on first down, but all too often we get negative 1. Obviously, as aggressive and athletic as they are, we knew they were going to make it difficult . They probably performed best on first down because we were able to shut down the offense and give (quarterback Braedyn Locke) a chance.

About the pick 6: That probably hurts more than anything else. I can't say it took the crowd out of the game or anything. It's just one of those situations where it puts a little more pressure on the defense to understand that we have to make up for it somehow. … We've been pretty good and well-equipped to handle some of these situations over the last few weeks, but this is a situation that's really difficult to overcome. That's probably what we didn't do optimally.

About Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula: I don't know if we knew that would be the case before half-time (Pribula replacing Allar). In some ways, he's the guy that plays 4-5, 6-8 snaps a game, sometimes just at wide receiver or sometimes with two quarterbacks, so there was a little bit of preparation for him to be in the ball game. But give them credit. They did a really good job with him in the second half and caused us some problems. As much as they prepare you for so many things, when you actually get into the game it becomes a slightly different game, which gave us some problems. You give them credit for having a plan in case he was in there, and I don't think we did a good enough job of making sure we understood what he was going to do. He also threw the football pretty darn well. He made some plays in the second half that were really, really great.

On punter Atticus Bertrams' first-down conversion: It wasn't the plan. We didn't do a good enough job of making sure we were prepared for that (Penn State blocking attempt). It's one of those situations that we obviously talk about and are aware of, especially with our customers. We should have blocked much better. Then you put him in a situation where he has to make a play. He pulled the ball down to avoid having it blocked, then made a great decision and realized he could keep running for a first down. This wasn't planned, but this is a guy who improvises and makes something happen.

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