Franklin offers media more than two points on loss to Minnesota
James Franklin has successfully preached going 1-0 every week at Penn State, about moving from one game to the next.
His tweets on Sundays — like the one this week that said, “Indiana,” the 22nd of its kind — have become symbolic of that philosophy.
But even as he instructs the Nittany Lions to put their 31-26 loss at Minnesota last weekend behind them, Franklin made it clear Tuesday that he had not done the same.
At the end of his weekly press conference, the Penn State coach went on an unsolicited rant for nearly five minutes about why he went for a two-point conversion after a third-quarter touchdown against the Golden Gophers.
“A lot of those decisions are not clear-cut,” Franklin said. “There are some that are, but there are a lot that are not clear-cut. It’s a gut feel. And what I struggle with is when those decisions ... I already told you the two-point chart said go for it and the analytics stuff said go for it.
“But then opinions are stated as facts, and I struggle with that. I struggle with things that go on when it comes to discipline and people know very little of the story but have really strong opinions on how things are supposed to play out.”
Franklin was asked immediately after the game why he tried the two-point conversion, which followed Sean Clifford’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Nick Bowers that cut the deficit to 24-19 with 4:05 to go in the third.
On the conversion try, Clifford threw to running back Ricky Slade, who was lined up on the left side with Bowers and Pat Freiermuth, tight ends who blocked defenders to the outside. Instead of taking it inside, Slade went outside and was tackled short of the goal line.
“We threw a screen,” Franklin said. “We had three guys on the outside. They had two. If we run inside and score, we get two and it’s a great situation.
“I’m not saying I’m always right. But it’s easy after the fact to say that that was a bad decision when we don’t execute.”
He was not asked about the conversion try Tuesday, but it was apparent he wanted to vent his frustration with the criticism he’s received when he offered his soliloquy.
“I’ll give you another example,” Franklin said. “At the end of the game (after Penn State trimmed it to 31-26 with 3:49 left), we were trying to decide, ‘Do we try an onside kick or kick it deep, hold them and burn our timeouts?’
“We decided to kick it deep. We stopped them. They went three-andout and I burned the timeouts (and Penn State got the ball back). That was the right decision. Why? Because it worked. If they would have picked up two first downs and ended the game, I would have been getting my butt ripped in the press conference.”
Although Franklin’s mind was still on Minnesota, at least one of his captains is focused on No. 24 Indiana (7-2, 4-2 Big Ten), which plays No. 9 Penn State (8-1, 5-1) Saturday at noon at Beaver Stadium.
Middle linebacker Jan Johnson, a senior, was asked if the Lions could learn anything from when they lost the game following their first defeats in 2017 and 2018.
“We’ve learned that the season’s not over and things can still happen,” Johnson said. “We need to go out and handle our business. It starts this week with beating Indiana, which is a good team.”