ALTOONA, Pa. -- In James Franklin's eight seasons as Penn State's head coach, he's never sounded more ticked off or gone on a longer rant than the one he went on Wednesday evening, when discussing the ongoing faking injury situation from Saturday's 23-20 loss at Iowa.
You can read all about the situation here.
Before doing so, Franklin did say that defensive tackle PJ Mustipher has been lost for the season with an injury. And QB Sean Clifford did not practice Wednesday. (More on him later).
We will give you Franklin's entire answer when asked what he thought about Iowa fans booing his injured players, and then Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz condoning it Tuesday.
This is Franklin's entire response:
"First of all, I want to ask anybody that's listening to take your Penn State hat off or take your Iowa hat off, and I'm just going to talk in what I believe and what I think -- from a strategy standpoint, from a common sense perspective, from what's good for football, in my opinion, college football.
"So, how does this strategy make sense against a huddle team? People use this strategy to slow people down. Spread offenses tempo offenses. They huddle. So that strategy did not make sense in this situation. In our six years of playing them -- six years straight -- 4-2 with our record. Has that ever shown up? Has anybody seen that? In my eight years as a head coach, has that shown up at Penn State? In my 12 years as a head coach, has that showed up? Has not showed up.
"Plus our defense is playing lights out. Our defense is playing great. Our defense is playing lights out. We turned the ball over to start the game, inside the 5-yard line, held them to a field goal. So again, go back and check it. Again, I'm not I'm not talking ... I got tremendous respect for the University of Iowa, I got tremendous respect for their fans. It was a hell of a game in a tough environment. Not making excuses. I'm just stating how I see the facts. Take your fan hats off. I want the Penn State fans to take their hats off.
"Now let's talk about injuries. OK, now hold on a second, before that. Now put yourself in the shoes of a parent of a parent. Your son is down on the field for an injury, and the stadium is booing them. We didn't just do that; we booed balls falling off tees by the wind. I don't know who we were booing for that. We weren't gaining an advantage of that. But your son's down on the field with an injury, and I just told you PJ Mustipher is done for the year, and we're booing. Is that good for college football? Is that good for college football?
"Now, again from a strategy standpoint, would it be strategic for us to tell PJ Mustipher to go down and fake an injury? One of our best players, one of our starters, one of our captains. Does that make sense? If you're gonna do it, you wouldn't do it with your starter, your captain.
"Alright, let's talk about his backup Dvon Ellies, who also got booed. So would it make sense for the backup D-tackle -- we've already lost our starter -- to send him out of the game for a play? I don't think so.
"AK (Arnold Ebiketie), maybe our best defensive player, and his probably looked the worst. He went down. Maybe it was because he played so hard and he was cramping. But am I gonna tell AK to go down and not play a play on defense? Does that make any sense?
"(Jaquan) Brisker, he went down twice against Wisconsin. They didn't boo him.
"Sean Clifford, did we want him to go down and not return in the game? Devyn Ford our starting tailback in the game went down and did not return in the game. Did we want that to happen? (John) Lovett went down, did not return in the game. (Jonathan) Sutherland, our captain, went down and did not return in the game.
"So, it was a physical game. Was there a bunch of injuries? I get it. I get it. And how it may have looked, I get it. I'm telling you, we don't coach it, we don't teach it. And, may it have may looked that way because it was a bunch of injuries in the game? I get. It was a bunch of injuries in the game. But 70% of those guys never returned.
"So, all I'm saying is I don't think it's right for college football. If a player goes down and it's my son, and the stadium's booing him, it's no different than a player go down to practice. One of the things I tell the coaches all the time, when a player goes down practice, what do coaches usually say for 100 years -- get up, you're fine. What if he's not?
"So I just, I wasn't I wasn't attacking the University of Iowa. I'm trying to protect college football. And I don't think that's the right thing for our game.
"So, I know that was a long answer. But I got people coming into me all day, showing me things and things like that, and I got tremendous respect for their program, their head coach has been doing it for a long time. But I felt like after the game I had to say something, because when I got my starting D-tackle PJ Mustipher been down on the field and he can't play for the rest of the season as my captain, and they're booing him, I don't think anybody would would feel good about that. We had a number of guys go out of the game and never came back."
You can watch the entire response here, from a YouTube post by Sean Fitz of Lions247.
— Sean Fitz (@seanfitz247) October 13, 2021
CLIFFORD UPDATE
As expected, Franklin did not give any concrete answers on Clifford, who was knocked out of the Iowa game early in the second quarter.
Clifford did not practice Wednesday and was not seen by reporters on hand for the open part of practice on campus. Ta'Quan Roberson and Christian Veilleux handled the QB duties during practice, and offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich also was throwing passes during drills.
"Nothing's been decided or determined," Franklin said when asked at first about Clifford.
Franklin did not say that Clifford is out for the season, which is usually the only kind of injury update he ever gives.
"He's doing everything he possibly can to get back as soon as he possibly can and go from there. What he's dealing with is not uncommon with the quarterback position."
Franklin also was asked about getting a starter ready for the Illinois game next week. He answered around that question by saying, "Sean's gonna prepare to be the starter every single week."
It's not much of an update, but at least Franklin acknowledged that Clifford is not out for the season and is trying to come back.
MUSTIPHER OUT FOR SEASON
The news isn't so good for PJ Mustipher, who was lost for the season with an injury suffered at Iowa.
It's unfortunate timing for Mustipher, who on Wednesday was named one of 12 semifinalists for the Lombardi Award, which goes to the nation's top down lineman or linebacker.
