(WHTM) – Penn State head coach James Franklin responded to criticism this week after backup quarterback Beau Pribula scored as time expired in Penn State’s 38-15 win over West Virginia.

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was asked after the game if he was surprised the Nittany Lions didn’t take a knee to run out of the clock. In response, Brown said “I wouldn’t have done it. But it doesn’t bother me, I just think stuff that comes around, goes around. You know, at some point it will come back around. When, I don’t know, but it doesn’t bother me, I’m not upset about it.”

Franklin responded to the criticism on Wednesday during his meeting with the Penn State media.

I guess everybody looks at it differently, right. For me, I believe that my responsibility in those type of situations is to get my 2’s in the game. But I think once those 2s get in the game, then they deserve the right and the chance to play and compete. That’s what I believe. I believe that from the opening kick to the last whistle, you compete and you play. Now, if you leave your 1’s in, that’s a different story. Then you should change how you play, and you take knees and you run in situations that you normally wouldn’t run in. That’s different.

But when your 2’s go in the game, those guys get limited amounts of reps. They should have
a chance to compete. I believe that, not just from a Penn State perspective. If we’re ever in that situation, I see it the same way. This isn’t me looking at it just from our view. I’ve got a bunch of other things I could say. But I’m just going to leave it at that. That is my philosophy and our philosophy.

I think when our 2’s offense was in there against a majority of their 1’s, they have the chance
to go compete, and I think Beau getting in there and being able to run the offense, they went
to cover zero, which is hard to run when you go cover zero, Beau should have the ability to
check to our cover zero plan and have a chance to execute a play that has a chance to be
successful against cover zero, and then should have a chance to score.

I’m comfortable with that. I can’t do a whole lot more than that and I’ll leave it at that.

James Franklin

Some bettors were happy with the touchdown as the Nittany Lions were 20.5 point favorites going into the game. For others, it caused a “bad beats” moment.

Penn State hosts Delaware this weekend after being ranked #7 in the AP Top 25 poll once again this season.