James Franklin lost another big game on Saturday as Penn State fell to Michigan by nine at home. The Nittany Lions lost 24-15.
Yes, 15. As weird of a number as it may be, it is not a typo.
Franklin elected to go for two after each of his team’s two touchdowns. Neither worked.
Deciding not to kick the extra point on both touchdowns was questionable, to say the least. The second was especially terrible. Embarrassing, even.
When asked about the thought process during his postgame press conference, James Franklin got very sassy. He was on the defense and proceeded to rip into the reporter who asked him a very fair question.
David Jones of Pennlive.com asked the initial question about the two-point tries. Franklin explained the first.
We felt like points were going to be hard to come by. We’re down by 4 [with only an extra point]. We wanted to put ourselves in a position to make it a field-goal game.
— James Franklin
The head coach did not really answer to the second two-point conversion attempt, which prompted Jones to push back. And then things spiraled into a chippy exchange from there.
JONES: I don’t understand the logic there. You make it an eight-point game to keep your team alive.
FRANKLIN: You don’t have to agree with it. I’m just telling you that’s the decision.
JONES: I didn’t think the answer had anything to do with the second one. The first one I understand.
FRANKLIN: We’re trying to get back. We’re trying to get points. We felt like points were gonna be hard to come by. We wanted to get it back.
JONES: There’s two-and-a-half minutes left in the game at that point.
FRANKLIN: Davy, I answered your question.
JONES: I don’t think you did.
Franklin was visibly enraged by Jones’ final response. He stared at the reporter like he was ready to jump over the table and strangle him. Rather, he stared through the reporter, into his soul.
Jones had every right to keep prying because Franklin never really gave a logical explanation for the second two-point try. On the flip side, though, Franklin didn’t have to answer anything.
It’s just not a good look to get into it with the local media after losing a crucially important game in front of the second-largest crowd in program history. The 51-year-old head coach never took accountability, and tried to explain away his baffling decisions with generic answers about points.
That isn’t going to fly if Penn State continues to lose the big one!
Jones was simply holding Franklin’s feet to the fire and ended up getting in a sassy exchange with one of the biggest names in college football. You can watch the full exchange HERE.