After his team’s latest big-game failure Saturday night, James Franklin explained a coaching decision that baffled some Penn State fans.
On the first possession of the second half, Penn State drove to Oregon’s 36 before its drive stalled out.
Earlier in the game, kicker Ryan Barker nailed a 49-yard field goal, giving Penn State its only three points of the first half.
This was hardly an anomaly. Barker has been excellent all season, having made 10 of his 11 field goals with four of them being from 40+ yards. So it would have been logical for Barker to go out and kick it from 52 yards.
It also wouldn’t have been crazy for Penn State to go for it on 4th and 9, especially considering it called a quarterback run the previous play, suggesting it felt it was in four-down territory.
Instead, Franklin decided to punt. That punt went for a touchback, setting Oregon up at its own 20, a difference of 16 yards in field position.
WHY FRANKLIN DID IT
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Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Here’s Franklin’s logic:
“We have the analytics book on the sideline, like everybody does,” he said. “We went through those scenarios. The punt becomes a challenge when you punt it in the end zone. You go in for a short yardage punt, or a situation where we call a “sky punt”, where you’re going to pin them deep.”
“When you decide not to go for it, and then you punt it into the end zone, then you should have gone for it. That magnifies the decision that you made.”
ANOTHER QUESTIONABLE CALL
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Later on, James Franklin made a call that was easier to justify than punting from the opposing 36, but still was worth questioning in the post game press conference. When Penn State scored to pull to within one late with 30 seconds left, some would have gone for two in the win. Franklin went the more conventional route and kicked the extra point for the tie, and didn’t consider doing anything otherwise.
“No, we were going to have a tremendous environment and a really good opportunity,” he said. “Obviously, we went down and scored (in the first overtime). Felt like we were in a really good position for our defense to get a stop. They made some significant plays. “But no, we felt like going to overtime at home with the crowd advantage that we were going to have, would give us the best situation.”
No. 7 Penn State takes on UCLA in Pasadena Saturday at 3:30 ET on CBS.
