Penn State Football: James Franklin’s Odd Interaction with an Indiana Pastor

Penn State coach James Franklin had a story to tell this Tuesday afternoon before he took questions during his weekly press conference. The tale? A conversation with a member of the chain gang Penn State’s sideline at Indiana.

“It was towards the end of the game, and I don’t remember it specifically. It may have been during a time-out or something towards the end of the game,” Franklin said, starting the story.

“The chain gang guy was talking to me,” Franklin added. “They’re pretty much the same guys. Just like here at Penn State we’ve got guys who have probably been doing it for 30 years, and this guy is trying to talk to me, and he’s saying, ‘you know what’s funny?’ And I’m kind of giving him that body language demeanor like I don’t really want to get into a conversation with you during the game, but he doesn’t read my body language and he says it again — ‘you know what’s really funny?’

“I kind of turned, and he goes, ‘you know, I’m a pastor of a church.’ So now I have to listen, right?” Franklin said with a laugh. “‘And two years ago you were here and you were talking on the sideline about don’t score, don’t score, don’t score, and I’ve never heard a coach in 30 years talk about not scoring. Then you go on the field and you’re screaming don’t score, don’t score, don’t score, and then you scored [and then you know how it turned out, Penn State losing in overtime] but I’ve used that in my sermon, I don’t know how many times.’ And I’m like, I still don’t really understand what he’s talking about.”

“What he says is ‘what may look good in this moment may not be the right thing for you down the road.’ So finally the message kind of comes. But it was just an interesting interaction after all these years. I’ve never really had that kind of conversation, and during the game.”

Franklin and the pastor are of course referring to Penn State’s last trip to Indiana, a game the Nittany Lions nearly won before falling in overtime. The play in question was a 14-yard touchdown run by Devyn Ford that put the Nittany Lions ahead 28-20 with 1:42 to go in regulation. Indiana would go on to score with just 22 seconds left, convert the two point try, and send the game into overtime.

Why Franklin chose to tell the story? That’s something left up to each to interpret for their own, but as Penn State finds itself in the midst of a quarterback controversy — at least from the standpoint of fans — Franklin’s story might also be a nod to the idea playing true freshman quarterback Drew Allar right now might feel fun in the moment, but it might not be what Penn State needs in the moment.

Is he right? It’s probably not something that is strictly speaking right or wrong, but at least one Indiana pastor might understand the reasoning.