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James Franklin has bone to pick with officials about Pitt’s illegal pre-snap tactic

Connor O'Gara

By Connor O'Gara

Published:

Say what you want about Penn State’s offensive line play.

The group’s performance has been a major topic of conversation in James Franklin’s tenure. Whether it’s a postgame or a mid-week presser, the subject of the Lions’ O-line always seems to surface. Often times, Franklin has been criticized of making excuses for them.

The same was true again on Tuesday. But this time, Franklin wasn’t defending their play. He defended the fact that they shouldn’t have had to deal with one of Pitt’s tactics.

The Pitt defense was seen clapping during the pre-snap cadence. That’s illegal.

Franklin wasn’t pleased that nothing was done about it:

https://twitter.com/JourdanRodrigue/status/775739381986516992

Penn State had two false start penalties in the first half, including one on the opening drive. Even if it didn’t result in a false start, the tactic could’ve also thrown off the timing of the offensive line.

That, obviously, is why Franklin is still upset. It’s unclear how many times the Pitt defense clapped during the cadence, but it was enough for Franklin to still be fired up about it three days later.

There are a lot of things that Franklin wished he could have back from the Pitt loss, many of which were in his control.

But as Franklin said, missing a call like that multiple times can’t be rectified.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.