Penn State coach James Franklin used an interesting word to describe the team’s failed two-point try against Nevada Saturday afternoon.
“Disgusting.”
Franklin didn’t have much to complain about afterward.
Even against a team like Nevada, it’s hard find a ton of fault in a 36-point win.
But this bizarre play was an exception.
Here’s what happened.
After pushing the lead to 36-3 State decided to run a gimmick two-point play.
It, uh, didn’t work.
That wasn’t the only moment that upset Franklin during the day. At the end of the game, Franklin was furious with the officiating crew for a delay-of-game penalty called on Penn State, and talked about that in his postgame presser.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“Obviously, we did not win the penalty battle,” Franklin said. “I was not happy with the last one. The official is in the huddle holding us, turns to the umpire, says, pump the clock. He doesn’t do it. Then throws a flag on us. Then I go and address it, and the same thing he’s behind him going. ‘I tried to tell him.’ So, I wasn’t happy about that.”
Franklin also talked about the guy he yelled at the officials.
WHAT JAMES SAID
“The only thing that was somewhat disgusting was the two-point fake,” Franklin said. “That was probably the only thing in the that was disgusting.”
A CLEAN GAME OVERALL
Despite the one “disgusting” play, Franklin was happy that the sloppiness that can sometimes come with early-season football wasn’t generally an issue for Penn State Saturday.
Penn State only had five penalties for 45 yards, and one of them was the delay of game that led to Franklin screaming at the officiating crew.
“We didn’t have stupid penalties,” Franklin said. “We didn’t put the ball on the ground, we didn’t turn it over, we didn’t burn timeouts. That was big. I think we had a two-minute drive at the end of the half, had all of our timeouts available, scored a touchdown, then came back because we deferred, went middle eight, got points, I think it was a field goal coming out of the second half. So, one to middle eight, that was big. Was very pleased with how we handled that.”
No. 2 Penn State’s next game is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 6 at noon against Florida International. The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network from Beaver Stadium.
