Penn State coach James Franklin said he shouldn’t have walked away from reporters who were asking questions about former players charged with rape earlier this week.
Franklin refused to take questions from reporters who asked for comment after Jameial Lyons and Kaveion Keys were both charged with felony rape and other charges for the alleged sexual assault of a 17-year-old female over the summer. The two players, both 19, are no longer enrolled at Penn State.
The alleged incident happened July 7 at the on-campus apartment the players shared. Before they were removed from the team, they had been suspended for what the school had called a “personal matter.”
“First thing I’d like to say is I want to apologize, I didn’t do a great job of handling Wednesday,” Franklin said after Penn State’s 28-13 win over Wisconsin. “Difficult, difficult situation. And I’ve got to own that I did not do a good job of that. I understand you guys have got a job to do and you gotta ask those questions and I respect that. The university put out a statement and the reality is, I think, there’s not a whole lot more I can say other than that statement. It’s an ongoing legal situation. And it’s challenging. It’s challenging on everybody. At the end of the day I did not do a good job of handling that situation and representing this program the right way so I want to take a minute and apologize for that and understand you guys have got a job to do.”
Instead of simply declining comment on the charges Lyons and Keys are facing, Franklin twice stepped away from a post-practice media scrum on Wednesday when he was asked about the former players. As Franklin stood awkwardly to the side, a Penn State media relations staffer read a statement from the school.
Franklin’s handling of the situation can be seen as a lesson of what not to do when asked for comment about a sensitive issue. Had he stood in place and said that he couldn’t comment further on the allegations, his actions and words don’t become an additional story. Instead, the way he walked away exacerbated the situation and resulted in an apology days later.
Penn State’s win Saturday night pushed the No. 3 Nittany Lions to 7-0 ahead of a massive game against Ohio State in Week 10. The victory came as QB Drew Allar missed the second half with an apparent knee injury. Franklin didn’t get into specifics about Allan’s injury after the game and said that Allar told Franklin that he didn’t feel like he was ready to play after suffering the injury late in the second quarter.
Allar was replaced by backup Beau Pribula. Allar was 14-of-18 for 148 yards and a TD before leaving the game while Pribula was 11-of-13 for 98 yards and a TD as Penn State rushed 35 times for 173 yards.