James Franklin has fielded thousands of questions from reporters during his career, but there was one at his press conference on Tuesday that genuinely seemed to blow the Penn State coach away.
Corey Giger of DKPittsburghSports.com asked Franklin if the Nittany Lions have given any thought to encouraging sophomore quarterback Drew Allar to not “overthink it” and take a deep shot, even if his intended receiver is covered. The point Giger was trying to make, which he later explained in a column, is that Penn State’s deep passing game has been nonexistent this year and Allar seems to have no confidence throwing the deep ball.
To say that the question did not register with Franklin would be an understatement. Franklin immediately began berating Giger and said it was like the reporter was speaking a foreign language.
“I don’t really understand what you’re saying, because we would never … like, my skin is curling when you say just drop back and chuck it deep no matter what,” Franklin said. “I don’t even know what you’re saying. It’s like you’re speaking from Mars.”
You can see the full exchange below:
Quite the scene from #PennState Football HC James Franklin's press conference this week ☠️ pic.twitter.com/5NDvegIh4s
— Penn State Nittany Lions | Happy Valley Insider (@PennStateRivals) October 10, 2023
Giger tried to follow up by being more specific and asking if Penn State would ever send a receiver on a post pattern and tell the quarterback to take the shot and give the receiver a chance to make a play. Franklin still was not having it.
“You’re speaking Japanese. We have never done that — just throw the ball up and maybe he’ll be open and maybe he’ll catch it,” Franklin said. “My skin is like … you’re making me uncomfortable. I don’t know what you’re talking about. We would not do that. We would never do that. We’ve never thought about doing that, as a head coach, as an offensive coordinator, as a receiver’s coach. So, no, no, strong no. I’m hoping we can cut this out so this doesn’t even like get out into the universe.”
The question was worded poorly, but it was not nearly as preposterous as Franklin made it seem. He probably knew that the reporter was trying to get him to address the struggles Penn State has had throwing the ball down the field. For whatever reason, Franklin was in no mood to read between the lines.
