James Franklin calls out officials despite win over Auburn

Penn State head coach James Franklin called out officials after Penn State defeated Auburn 28-20 on Saturday.

“I was fiery last week for a lot of reasons because I felt we were fighting more than Auburn,” Franklin said via ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg. “I’m not going to get into the details of that, but I felt like we were fighting a lot.”

The game was officiated by SEC officials, who most notably skipped a down, prompting Penn State to punt on third-and-11, while trailing 10-7 in the second quarter. The error was not noticed by the officiating crew until a media timeout. The SEC released a statement regarding the error.

“At 11:45 in the 2nd quarter, Penn State throws an incomplete pass that was judged to be Intentional Grounding,” the statement said. “The crew’s enforcement of the penalty erroneously set the down to 3rd; the correct down should have been 2nd. The replay booth was consulted to confirm the down prior to the punt. The replay booth had it as 4th down as well.”

James Franklin offered a comment on the error after the game .

“I talked to all of them (officials),” Franklin said. “They all agreed on the call and so did the replay. They all agreed. And I kept bringing them over and saying, it’s not accurate. I don’t know what else I can tell you, but they all concurred with the officials. They got the headset, they talked to each other, they all agreed. They ran it by replay, they agreed as well. I don’t know what else I can do or what else I can say.”

The intentional grounding penalty on first down, leading to the error, was controversial as well. Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford suffered a miscommunication with his wide receiver, Parker Washington.

Later in the game, defensive tackle PJ Mustipher appeared to convert a first down via a third-effort surge on a fake punt on fourth-down. The officials marked his forward progress short of the first-down marker.

Penn State did win the penalty battle against Auburn. Penn State was penalized five times for 35 yards while Auburn was penalized six times for 45 yards.

Ultimately, despite errors by the officials, Penn State defeated Auburn in a statement win for a program coming off a 4-5 season in 2020.

After the Nittany Lions punted on third down, Penn State responded on the ensuing drive, taking their first lead of the game, 14-10 and did not let it go. Penn State added another touchdown after the half to take their largest lead of the game, 21-10. Both teams exchanged scores through the second half, but James Franklin and the Nittany Lions held on to secure the 28-20 win.