James Franklin explains punting on 4th and 1

James Franklin, along with dealing with a disappointing bowl loss to Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl, was left to explain a decision to punt on 4th and 1 while his team trailed in the second half. But the Penn State coach stood by the call.

For one, he noted Penn State was at its own 34 yard line. And with more than 20 minutes of game clock left and the game still within a score, Franklin didn’t want to give the Ole Miss offense a potential short field.

“We were backed up on our end of the field, felt like we needed to obviously punt the ball, pin them deep, and make them go the length of the field. We had not been moving the ball the way we needed to offensively. They had been moving the ball. So I felt like I needed to give our defense the best chance,” Franklin said.

In the game, fourth down decisions and aggression was somewhat of a difference as Ole Miss rolled to a 38-25 win. Lane Kiffin had his offense attempt a trio of fourth down conversions, all successful, whereas Penn State went 1-of-2 on fourth down tries, including a turnover on downs late as the Nittany Lions tried to come back.

The other fourth down conversion for Penn State was a short touchdown pass in the first half to tie the game, 10-10.

“Obviously that was a big story in the game, them going for it on fourth down and having success. We did go for it on fourth down and scored a touchdown, but we did not go for it in that situation,” Franklin said.

Franklin was not pleased with officiating in the bowl

While he ultimately stopped himself from spinning off into a long rant, it was clear Franklin didn’t like some of the calls — or no calls — on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. He pointed to one sequence very early in the game where Penn State settled for a field goal instead of taking the lead on a touchdown.

“I won’t get into all the details. I thought the officiating was less than desirable. That first drive, we have the field goal, we run a slant, we get turned around, but I’ll move on. I could list out a number of examples. That’s a big play in that game at a critical moment, starting out with a touchdown rather than a field goal is significant. But I’ll move on,” Franklin said.

Franklin also explained that the changes at both offensive and defensive coordinator in the last few months have made things difficult for Penn State.

“Specifically to the game, just too many moving parts with the staff and with the players against a good team. Too many moving parts, staff and players, to have the type of success that we wanted to have today,” Franklin said.