Penn State football: James Franklin addressed Micah Parsons’ ejection
Penn State football head coach James Franklin recently discussed Micah Parsons’ targeting penalty against Maryland.
You could feel the intensity through the air on Friday night in College Park, Maryland. In preparation for the Big Ten throwdown, the University of Maryland decided to shut class down early so a majority of their students could fill the stands for the Friday night lights action.
It was a sellout, and the house was packed for the beginning of the game. And as expected, the home crowd was extremely hostile towards the Penn State football program. All that did was just add fuel to the fire though. Coming into the game from having the week off, the Nittany Lions were fresh and ready to make a statement against their first Big Ten opponent.
The Nittany Lions were playing with some high energy, laying big hits on their opponent. However, one of their own got a little too carried away early on. Penn State Sophomore linebacker Micah Parsons was feeding off of the crowd’s hostile energy when he got to Maryland’s quarterback. Unfortunately, his hit on the passer called for a targeting review.
Moments later, the referees confirmed that Parsons hit was indeed a dirty one. For that, he would be ejected for the rest of the game. Fortunately, the Nittany Lions didn’t need Parsons, and he acknowledged that on Twitter while in the locker room later on.
Parsons tweets through it
Parsons was visibly disappointed when he found out that his night was going to end prematurely. But his head coach James Franklin wasn’t very thrilled either.
While some believe it could’ve been a ticky-tack call, Franklin flat out admits that what he saw was just not a very smart play by the linebacker on the field.
“We all know that you better tackle from the chest down. It wasn’t a big hit, but he didn’t even try to go down to the chest or lower,” Franklin stated after the game, according to Penn Live’s Greg Pickel. While Franklin isn’t happy it happened, he did look at the positives moving forward.
Next. 3 Nittany Lions that stood out against Maryland. dark
“Fortunately it happened in the first half, so we’ll have him for our next game.” The Lions didn’t need Parsons for the rest of the night on Friday — but they will need him for next week’s game against Purdue. The good news is that they will have him as he missed pretty much the entire game against Maryland. Hopefully, history doesn’t repeat itself though.