Penn State scored a touchdown with six seconds to play on Saturday, in their 38-15 win over West Virginia.
West Virginia head coach Neal Brown after the game responded saying, “who cares,” about Penn State not taking a knee and scoring late.
Brown would later add though, “I think stuff like that comes around, goes around. At some point it will come back around. When, I don’t know but It doesn’t bother me. I’m not upset about it.”
When Penn State head coach James Franklin was asked about it on Tuesday, he defended the move saying he put his backups in the game and they deserve to play like the starters would.
“Everybody looks at it differently. For me, I believe that my responsibility in those type of situations is to get my two’s in the game,” Franklin said. “But I think once those two’s get in the game then they deserve the right and the chance to play and compete. That’s what I believe. I believe that from the opening kick to the last whistle, you compete and you play.”
The quarterback who led the 46-yard touchdown drive was backup Beau Pribula. Pribula threw one pass for seven yards on a fourth down, which allowed Penn State to score late.
“Now if you leave your one’s in then that’s a different story,” Franklin said of end of game situations. “Then you should change how you play and you take knee’s and you run in situations that you normally wouldn’t run in, that’s different. But when your two’s go in the game, those guys get limited amount of reps, they should have a chance to compete.”
Franklin said if his team were on the opposing side of it, he would feel the same way about a late score.
“And I believe that not just from a Penn State perspective. If we’re ever in that situation, I see it in the same way,” Franklin said. “This isn’t me looking at it just from our view. I’ve got a bunch of other things I could say, but I’m just going to leave it at that. That is my philosophy and our philosophy. I think when our two offense was in against a majority of their ones, they have the chance to go compete.
“I think Beau getting in there and being able to run the offense, they went to cover zero which it’s hard to run when you go cover zero. Beau should have the ability to check to our cover zero plan and have a chance to execute a play that has a chance to be successful against cover zero and then have a chance to score.”
