James Franklin is still fuming over referee error against Auburn

Penn State coach James Franklin still hasn’t gotten over a key officiating mistake in last Saturday’s win over Auburn.

During the second quarter of Saturday’s game, the referees somehow managed to take two downs from the Nittany Lions on an intentional grounding call instead of one. It essentially led to Penn State punting on third down instead of fourth, which had Franklin fuming at halftime.

Franklin still wasn’t over it on Thursday. On the Penn State Coaches Show, Franklin admitted the team had to “clean up” some penalty issues. He then took the opportunity to take a shot at the SEC officiating crew that handled the Auburn game.

“I think we have Big Ten officials this week,” Franklin said, via Mark Brennan of 247 Sports. “So I don’t know if I would ever have said this before, but thank God.”

It’s safe to say Franklin wants things to be a bit cleaner this week, both from his players and from the officials. You can hardly blame him for being frustrated by a blatant mistake like that, even though Penn State won the game.

Maybe the qualify of officiating will be a consideration in a big decision Franklin may have to make in the coming months.