James Franklin declines to wade into sign-stealing scandal during Michigan game week
Penn State’s biggest game the rest of the season is Saturday but the spotlight is on its opponent in the lead up to the matchup.
Michigan has been embroiled in a sign-stealing scandal that has included allegations of staffer Connor Stalions — who has since resigned — buying tickets to games of future opponents in order to have their play signals recorded to then be decoded ahead of a future matchup.
Stalions reportedly gave someone tickets to the Nittany Lions’ games against UMass and Indiana. The UMass game happened before news of the scandal broke and was attended by the person — who told ESPN in a story published on Oct. 27 they did not plan to attend the Indiana game.
Penn State head coach James Franklin was asked at his Monday press conference about the ongoing scandal and how it will impact his team’s preparation ahead of the game.
“I know these questions are gonna come this week,” Franklin said. “I’m gonna focus on the things that we can control. We always have to have a plan. I think I’ve already covered this and talked about this in terms of what we do and how we communicate to our players and how we communicate to our team during games. But I’m gonna leave it at that because less is more.”
Franklin’s previous comments came after the news of the scandal had more recently broke.
Back then, he was asked about the impact it had on how they signal as well.
“You’ve got to have a way to disguise your signals,” Franklin said on Oct. 24. “Everybody does it, whether they do it with sheets or boards or whatever it may be. We made some changes after the bye week as well in how we operate on offense and defense. Specific to that, I probably won’t get into what’s going on at that other school and the things that are going on. I probably won’t get into that, but I think in general, we’re always aware of how we signal, are we disguising it? What happens is you get to after games, and you feel like you called a very unpredictable call in a certain situation, and they’re in the perfect defense for it. You are sitting there saying, well, how is that? What would ever make you play cover two on fourth and one, and we’re in the heavy personnel group? But they’re in it, and you have a shot called there. Those things kind of make you second guess, and you kind of go back and look at those things and what you need to do to disguise it. If it happens once, that’s one thing, but if it happens over and over, then you’re aware of it. For us that’s something that we always are looking at, but obviously with some of the things that are going on right now, it magnifies it.”
The Big Ten’s head coaches also reportedly had a call with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, and so did the conference’s athletic directors. The coaches wanted Petitti to act with immediacy and ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Saturday that a decision on any punishment, including a potential Harbaugh suspension, could be on its way in the coming days. He then reported Monday that one should not be expected for at least 48 hours.
Franklin was also asked about Harbaugh’s potential absence.
“I’m focused on all the stuff I see on film,” he said. “That’s what we’re focused on, is all the stuff we see on film — their players, their scheme. All the stuff, when I say see on film, what we see on the coach’s copy of the stuff that’s going on between the sidelines, the 53 1/3 (yards), that’s what we’re focused on.”
The Nittany Lions will take on the Wolverines Saturday at noon in Beaver Stadium.
