Former Penn State football, there wasn’t a lot to be upset about regarding Saturday’s 56-0 win over Kent State.
But there’s always something.
For James Franklin, a big problem was penalties.
Kent State had just two penalties for 20 yards.
Penn State had seven for 65.
PSU averaged seven penalties through its first two games, and Franklin said during his pre-Kent State presser that this was a big area of emphasis during the team’s bye week.
So as one could imagine, he wasn’t too happy.
“Yeah, I don’t like them,” Franklin said during his post game presser. LI don’t like them at all, to be honest with you. You know, if you look at the analytics and the statistics, they don’t really have a significant impact when you talk about winning and losing, but as a head coach, it embarrasses me.”
Why?
“Because it shows a lack of discipline and it’s sloppy and it makes things harder than it needs to be,” he said. “We end up making a drive on offense harder. Everything for us, on offense and on defense, just like everybody else across the country, is you want to be ahead of the sticks. If it’s first and five because you jumped offsides on defense, you’re not going to get the sacks you want. You’re not going to get the tackles for loss you want, because they’re ahead of the sticks, and now they can run the ball, go quick game, go naked and things like that. So, I’m going to keep my poise, but I’m going to keep people accountable. I’m going to hold the staff accountable to it. We’re going to get it fixed.”
Franklin then gave an entertaining analogy of how much this upsets him.
“I’m totally bald now,” he said. “I’m basically gray, so there’s not a whole lot left I can lose. I guess, gain weight, eating from stress and embarrassment of penalties. But I ain’t got a whole lot left, you know, in terms of what else, right? Maybe gray eyebrows, that’s probably the last thing that goes but I’m not happy about it at all. So, we’re going to have a lot of discussions about it as a staff, and we’re going to work on getting it fixed.”
Franklin then joked with the reporter who asked the question.
“You’re not going to bring up this point at the end of this games and totally piss me off and then ruin my night and not enjoy a win where we just win by 50 points and have 700 yards, but you done it. Literally, I was good, so thank you. Fumi (his wife) is real happy with you.”
Penn State committed seven penalties for 65 yards today.
James Franklin, eh, wasn’t too happy about that.
“As a head coach, it embarrasses me.” pic.twitter.com/NHdKqinKKz
— Joe Smeltzer (@joesmeltzer775) September 22, 2024
