STATE COLLEGE — As Appalachian State lined up to try and match his team’s touchdown in overtime Saturday, Penn State coach James Franklin bounded up and down the sideline, gesturing wildly for more than 105,000 fans to make noise.

Franklin knew it would take everything for the No. 10 Nittany Lions to hold off the Mountaineers. From his perspective, that’s not necessarily a bad thing this early on.

“You look at any really good season, there’s always a win like that where you had to overcome adversity, you had a gritty win, you had to fight it out, you had to stick together,” Franklin said. “We’re going to look back at the end of the year and this is going to be a critical win for us.”

The Nittany Lions’ current run of 21 wins in 24 games began with a comeback victory in overtime against Minnesota in October 2016.

Coughing up a 31-17 lead in a fourth quarter that saw Penn State allow 175 passing yards to a first-time starting quarterback is the glaring issue from Saturday.

“We’ve got to be better in coverage,” Franklin said.

The Nittany Lions’ asecondary is all new pieces this fall.