Urban Meyer reacts to James Franklin taking flag away from players on field

Penn State went to the West Coast and secured a huge win last weekend against USC, knocking off the host Trojans in overtime in a game that some Nittany Lions wanted to quite literally put a stamp on.

A handful of Penn State players planted a ‘We Are Penn State’ flag into the USC logo at the 50-yard line of the Trojans’ home field after the game. It was a gesture that Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin was not a fan of as he quickly took the flag away. It’s a situation that Urban Meyer has also found himself in before and recently reflected on The Triple Option podcast with Rob Stone and Mark Ingram.

“I can’t remember the exact game, and our players knew, we would always talk about that. Act like you’ve been there and those players, and there’s alumni, that pick fights. And I love players having fun, but have fun at your own expense. Don’t have fun at someone else’s expense,” Meyer said. “When I saw that, once again Mark, I believe in players having fun, but have fun at your own expense. I’m such a college football fan, you don’t do that, and I’m glad they didn’t do that.”

There have been a few notable 50-yard line flag plants in recent college football history from Baker Mayfield sticking the Oklahoma flag at the middle of Ohio State‘s field to Texas this weekend returning the favor with a Longhorns’ flag on top of Mayfield’s Oklahoma jersey.

But Ingram chimed in and felt like Penn State was not in the position to mark their territory at the Colosseum given the circumstances of Saturday’s game.

“At the end of the day, you just got off the hook because they missed the field goal,” Ingram said. “So you could have easily lost this game man. You’ve got bigger problems on your plate than planting a flag.”

Saturday’s win keeps Penn State undefeated this season and bumped them up to a No. 3 spot in the AP Poll. But that didn’t stop Meyer from sharing a message that he used to give his players when he was a head coach regarding how he’d address celebrations.

“We used to have a rule that whoever scores a touchdown you throw the ball the official and you go hug the lineman, because they got you there. So Zeke Elliot was the best at it, I’d show the videos on Sundays of the players celebrating with the offensive lineman,” Meyer said. “And I said however, if you score and you want to do something nuts, go nuts now.

“I mean take your helmet off, jump in the crowd, because it’s your last time you’re going to score in a while. You’re done, you’re not going to play. And the players used to just laugh like crazy, because I’d say don’t just dance in the end zone. I mean go nuts, make it worthwhile, I mean take your shoulder pads off, take everything, throw the ball, kick the ball in the stands and don’t stop,” Meyer continued. “Keep going, because you will not score again for the next four or five games.”

Penn State is hoping to keep celebrating a lot more this season as Big Ten title and College Football Playoff hopefuls. And it will be fascinating to see how they go about doing so given their head coach’s most recent reaction to the latest antics of his players.