James Franklin responds to comments by West Virginia’s Neal Brown on Penn State’s late touchdown
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Those who wagered on Penn State to cover the 21-point spread on Saturday night were thrilled with how the final few seconds shook out. But apparently West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was not too pleased.
The Nittany Lions, with their backups on the field, scored a touchdown with six seconds left to go up 38-15. That was after Penn State went for it on fourth-and-2 and converted with a pass. And instead of kneeling it on first-and-goal — or just letting the clock run out — Penn State ran two plays, including a Beau Pribula touchdown.
Brown was asked by reporters after the game if he was upset that Penn State scored so late. He said he wasn’t, noting that he used all three timeouts on the drive.
Pressed further on the matter, Brown said: “I wouldn’t have done it, but it doesn’t bother me. Stuff like that, what comes around goes around. At some point, it’ll come back around. I don’t know when. It doesn’t bother me. I’m not upset about it.”
At this Tuesday press conference, James Franklin was asked if he had a response to Brown’s comments and the criticism that followed.
Here is Franklin’s response in full, all 295 words:
“I guess everybody looks at it differently, right? For me, I believe that my responsibility in those types of situations is to get my two’s in the game. And I think once those two’s get in the game, then they deserve the right and the chance to play and compete. That’s what I believe. I believe that from the opening kick to the last whistle, you compete and you play.
“Now, if you leave your one’s in, that’s a different story. Then you should change how you play and you take knees and you run in situations that you normally wouldn’t run in. That’s different. But when your two’s go in the game, those guys get a limited amount of reps. They should have a chance to compete. I believe that, and not just from a Penn State perspective. If we’re in that situation, I see it the same way. This isn’t me looking at it just from our view. I’ve got a bunch of other things I could say. But I’m just going to leave it at that. That is my philosophy and our philosophy.
“I think when our No. 2 offense was in there against the majority of their one’s, they have the chance to go compete. And I think Beau getting in there and being able to run the offense — they went to Cover Zero, which is hard to run when you go Cover Zero. They should have the ability to check to our Cover Zero plan and a chance to execute a play that has a chance to be successful against Cover Zero. And they should have a chance to score. I’m comfortable with that. I can’t go into it a whole lot more than that. I’ll leave it at that.”