MADISON, Wis. — At the end of his post-game press conference late Saturday, minutes after his Nittany Lions defeated Wisconsin 28-13, Penn State coach James Franklin asked for a final minute to address his actions during his brief media availability Wednesday evening that followed Penn State’s practice.
“I want to apologize. I didn’t do a great job of handling Wednesday,” said Franklin on Saturday night. “Difficult, difficult situation. And I have to own that I did not do a good job of that.”
At the start of Wednesday’s regularly scheduled presser, Franklin twice walked away when asked for comments concerning the criminal complaints released earlier that day about the rape and indecent assault charges against former Penn State football players Kaveion A. Keys and Jameial J. Lyons Jr., both 19, who were dismissed from the team over the summer.
Keys and Lyons are accused of raping a 17-year-old Penn State student in July at their campus apartment and filming part of the assault. Lyons is also accused of indecently assaulting another female the same night. Both men were arraigned on Wednesday morning in State College by District Judge Don Hahn.
Hours later, at the start of his mid-week session with about 25 local media members, Franklin twice deferred making any comments on the situation and both times walked several feet away, leaving Penn State assistant athletic director for communications Greg Kincaid to read from a prepared university statement, which Kincaid had already read at the start of the session.
Late Saturday night, less than an hour after the No. 3 Nittany Lions (7-0), defeated Wisconsin here in Camp Randall Stadium after trailing 10-7 at halftime, Franklin ended his post-game press conference with this statement (in full — 165 words and 75 seconds):
“I want to apologize. I didn’t do a great job of handling Wednesday,” said Franklin, 52, in his 11th season as head football coach at Penn State after three seasons in the same role at Vanderbilt. “Difficult, difficult situation. And I have to own that I did not do a good job of that.
“I understand you guys [media] have a job to do. You have to ask those questions. I respect that. 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 wanted to take a minute and apologize for that. I understand you guys [media] have a job to do.
“I didn’t do a good job there. I’m trying to get better, like everybody else in a difficult situation. And I think that is a big reason for all of this, right? Because it’s a difficult situation, a challenging situation. I apologize.”
