Evanston, IL— Penn State coach James Franklin and, well, every other coach, don’t like it when their teams commit penalties.
Whether it’s holding, pass interference, roughing the passer etc., Franklin wants his team to play as clean a game as possible every week.
But Franklin has said before that the penalties that bother him the most are the ones that happen before (Franklin calls these “focus” penalties) and after the snap (“discipline penalties”).
Penn State had two personal fouls called on it in its 30-13 win at Illinois in Week 3, each committed by veteran players in fifth-year DT Dvon Ellies and fourth-year WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith
Two weeks later, Penn State was back in Illinois, this time in Evanston to play Northwestern.
Penn State had another personal foul, and this one was committed by one of the team’s younger players: Second-year CB Cam Miller.
With Penn State leading 27-10 late in the third quarter, Northwestern QB Ben Bryant threw an incomplete pass. Miller defended the pass, which landed out of bounds on the Northwestern sideline.
Miller proceeded to pick up the ball and then get rid of it in a manner that the officials felt was uncalled for and got flagged 15 yards for it.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Franklin didn’t mention Miller by name, and he didn’t say much about the play. But he made his feelings clear in his postgame presser.
“Obviously, the unsportsmanlike penalty there, throwing the ball, was ridiculous,” Franklin said. “It was ridiculous. So we’ll get that cleaned up.”
Franklin wasn’t a fan of Miller’s actions on that play, but he’s a big fan of Miller.
In Franklin’s first Tuesday press conference of this season, he gushed over Miller.
“I’m proud of him,” he said. “I’m really glad that we were able to go to Florida and get him. I’m very appreciative that his mom and dad had the confidence in us to send him here. I may even try to, you’ve heard me say this before with certain guys, I might try to convince Mom and Dad to have a few more because we love him that much.”
