James Franklin explains field goal miscue at end of first half

After a 24-10 loss against Arkansas in the Outback Bowl, Penn State head coach James Franklin addressed kicking game which plagued the Nittany Lions throughout the first half. After a bad miss on the opening drive, Franklin was seen on the sideline reacting to his new kicker’s miss and later opted to run a fake instead of attempting a 54-yard field goal near the end of the half.

James Franklin first addressed the use of kicker Jake Pinegar instead of Jordan Stout, who started the season filling all special teams roles.

“Yeah, Pinegar was the field goal kicker for the last game of the year,” said Franklin. “I thought we talked about that. But he was the field goal kicker for the last game of the year. We made that change to take some off of Stout’s plate. Stout had punted and kicked off really well all year long. We were a little inconsistent with the field goal game. So we made that change at the end of the season so that was consistent.”

After addressing who kicked and why, Franklin moved on to his controversial decision to fake a field goal rather than attempt the long kick.

“There at the end of the half, it was a 54-yard field goal,” said Franklin. “We didn’t feel good about kicking it. We had a fake in the game plan. Felt like in that situation we would either get a pass interference call or I was hoping they would catch the interception, which would have been as good as a punt.”

James Franklin on Joe Lorig

Penn State coach James Franklin addressed reports that special teams coordinator Joe Lorig is expected to join Dan Lanning’s staff at Oregon. Although Franklin acknowledged that Lorig is “being pursued,” he did not say whether he has accepted a position with the Ducks.

“Yeah, I’m not going to address that right now,” the coach said. “Obviously he’s been pursued. He is being pursued. I think you guys know that. That information has been out in the public. But we’ll see how that plays out. There’s a lot of things that factor into this, as you guys could imagine, some professional and some personal. But we’ll see how that goes.

“I think you guys know I’ve been pretty adamant in the past about the type of moves, lateral moves, but there’s also some factors when it comes to where guys are from. Both Joe and his wife are from there, so that factors into this thing as well.”

An Edmonds, Washington, native, Lorig began his coaching career in the state of Oregon. He played cornerback at Western Oregon University in nearby Monmouth from 1994-95, and started coaching there soon after his playing career ended.