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Penn State Football: Franklin Addresses Handful of Officiating Calls During Auburn Game

Penn State coach James Franklin ended his Tuesday afternoon press conference with a few thoughts regarding a handful of officiating decisions during Penn State’s 28-20 victory over Auburn on Saturday night.

In total the Nittany Lions were only penalized five times for 35 yards but a series of decisions along the way could have greatly impacted the outcome of the game, including an accidental loss of downs.

“Just to kind of go over a couple things that did come up in the game that I want to discuss, not from a critical standpoint, but I did some of my own homework in making sure that we understood some of these things,” Franklin said. “I did want to kind of address how we interpreted some of these things that kind of happened during the game.”

The first on Franklin’s mind was the intentional grounding call itself that sparked the eventual loss of downs. Quarterback Sean Clifford sailed a pass intended for receiver Parker Washington in the second quarter that was deemed intentional grounding.

The ensuing mistake aside, Franklin took issue with the grounding call itself.

“The one was the intentional grounding penalty that led to the loss of downs, which I think was already addressed publicly with a statement,” Franklin said. “From the way I understand, kind of reading the rule book, talking to other people that study the game and interpret the game, you have to be under duress to get intentional grounding from the pocket. So studied that pretty closely and that was an interesting call, but I think for you to get intentional grounding from the pocket, you have to be under duress. I didn’t really feel like we were under duress in this situation.

“And just so you guys know, that was an option route, so Sean wasn’t throwing it away. We had the choice to go deep or short, and he thought the receiver was going to go deep. So I would have agreed with that call if we were in a situation where he was under duress. So that was one I just kind of wanted to talk about, make sure we’re all on the same page with some of these things.”

Later in the second half, Auburn quarterback Bo Nix would throw the ball away in a similar circumstance as Clifford did, but this time Nix appeared to be just outside the tackle box, thus violating a much more objective portion the grounding rule.

“[The officials] said that [Nix] left the pocket,” Franklin added. “Again, interpreting the rules and trying to learn from what happened in games and educate my staff and educate myself, not being critical, just making sure that we understand these situations. I think the ball was snapped from just inside the hash and the quarterback threw the ball from the hash. So I would not interpret that as outside of the pocket.”

From there Franklin went on to discuss a fourth-and-1 call in which Penn State opted to run a fake punt with PJ Mustipher. Mustipher appeared to be stopped before the line of gain but was eventually pushed past the first down marker by teammates before the whistle blew.

The officials would ultimately marks Mustipher short of the first down, but Franklin’s issue came not with the spot but a different aspect of the play itself.

“The other one, we ran a fake punt on fourth-and-1,” Franklin said. “In punting situations, in kicking situations, it is illegal to have the center covered in kicking situations, and looking at that play and in studying that play and interpreting that play, I don’t think you can cover the center on those plays. So obviously without somebody over the center, I think we would have been in a much more positive situation there.”

Finally Franklin addressed a second half penalty on linebacker Brandon Smith who was called for a late hit on Bo Nix even though Smith appears at the time to be pulling up to avoid Nix.

Smith would ultimately make contract with Nix and send him to the ground out of bounds, but whether or not Smith should have been given a penalty remains a point of debate for Franklin.

“The last one I would say is Brandon Smith got called for a hit out of bounds, and I thought going back and watching that tape, it’s one thing to disagree with something during the game, it’s another thing to go back and look at some of these things and I thought Brandon was trying to pull up and hold the player up,” Franklin said. “That one, I guess, could go either way, but again, I think if you’re trying to pull up on the sideline after running full speed, that’s challenging.”

In the end Penn State would win the game, albeit not without a certain frustration along the way.

“I was fiery for a number of reasons,” Franklin said. “Last week because I felt like we were fighting more than Auburn.”