Giger: Giving backups chance to compete isn't running up the score

ALTOONA, Pa. -- If you've ever played sports at any kind of higher level, odds are you eventually became a backup at some point.

You worked your butt off in practice, hoping to either become a starter or to at least get a chance to crack the rotation and play some. When you did get that chance to play, you wanted to give it your best effort -- and so did your mom, dad and friends sitting in the stands watching you.

If there's still time left to play in a game, you wanted to make something happen -- like scoring a bucket, running for a big gain, intercepting a pass. Or if you got an at-bat with your team leading 16-2, you still wanted to hit the ball as hard as you could.

You know, you wanted to actually compete, not just go through the motions.

Since this week's game is against Delaware, a lot of backups should get a chance to play for Penn State in what's sure to be a blowout. Just like some backups got a chance to play in Saturday night's season-opening 38-15 win over West Virginia.

But the final score of that game, according to WVU coach Neal Brown, should have been 31-15, because he didn't like that Penn State actually ran a play that scored a touchdown with 6 seconds to go, instead of taking a knee.

Putting a wrap on that hot topic is where we begin this edition of the midweek top five.

1. James Franklin explains why he let a play be called, which scored the late touchdown

Brown said this about the TD, scored by backup quarterback Beau Pribula, following Saturday's game: “I wouldn’t have done it, but it doesn’t bother me. Stuff like that comes back around.”

I asked Franklin about it during his Tuesday press conference, giving him a chance to respond to Brown's comments. The gist of my question is what's his mindset regarding letting the players play versus the possibility of getting criticized for running up the score.

"Everybody looks at it differently, right?" Franklin began. "You know, for me, I believe that my responsibility in those type of situations is to get my twos in the game. I think once those twos 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 ones 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. And that's different. But when your twos go in the game, those guys get limited amount of reps, they should have a chance to compete. And 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 just from our view."

At that point, it was clear Franklin really wanted to bring up something else about the situation -- "I got a bunch of other things I could say, but I'm just gonna leave it at that," he noted -- with the presumption being that he might have had some critical things to say about West Virginia.

Like what?

Well, this perhaps could have been part of it. The Mountaineers decided to run this little trick play on a 2-point conversion after scoring a TD with 3:34 left to play.

As one person responded in that tweet thread above: "Doing this while getting blown out is hilarious."

Did Franklin want to bring that play up, like many Penn State fans have over the past couple of days? Or did Franklin want to talk about how WVU was still using timeouts trying to get the ball back on the Lions' last possession?

Hey, who knows what Franklin really wanted to say. He decided to keep that mostly to himself, although he did add this football stuff about how West Virginia kept playing strategic football defensively and questioned why the Penn State players were not expected to.

"They went to cover zero, which it's hard to run when you go cover zero," Franklin said. "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. So, I'm comfortable with that. I can't do a whole lot more than that and, and I'll leave it at that."

Do you agree or disagree with Franklin about letting the backups continue to play hard, even if it means scoring? Let us know in the comments.

2. Pribula enjoyed a special moment

Lost in the shuffle of the whole "did Penn State run up the sore" thing was the special memory for Pribula, a lifelong Penn State fan who scored a TD while playing in his first game for the Lions.

"It was a special moment. ... Fun moment getting in the end zone for the first time at Beaver Stadium in front of a big crowd like that, and to celebrate with my teammates," Pribula said.

One big thing to consider in that whole situation is the reality that Pribula needs to be ready to play if something happens to Drew Allar. Giving the backup QB a chance to run some plays and build some confidence by scoring a touchdown could be a big factor if Pribula is needed to play in a meaningful situation at some point.

With Delaware this week, and an expected blowout, we should get to see more of Pribula.

The backup said he tries to prepare as if he's going to be the starter each and every game, trying to get himself ready to play physically and mentally.

"You always got to prepare as if you're the starter, so then, when you get into a game, nothing changes. You don't have to do anything different because you're prepared," he said.

Pribula wears No. 9, just like Trace McSorley did during his Penn State career. Pribula said he was a big fan of McSorley's and wanted to be like him. The two do have some similarities, as they're both strong runners, but so far we haven't really gotten to see much of Pribula throwing the ball.

"I started watching Trace as soon as he became the starting quarterback," Pribula said. "I watched every game that he played because I was a Penn State football fan. So you know I always watched him growing up. ... I was wanting to be like the Penn State quarterback, so we wear the same number and now I guess we look pretty similar."

3. Don't ever overlook how difficult it is to win

This Penn State team has extremely high expectations.

So did LSU.

So did Clemson.

Yet both of those other teams looked really bad at times during losses over the weekend. LSU played a very difficult opponent in Florida State and lost, 45-24. Clemson made a bunch of mistakes and suffered a very humbling 28-7 loss at Duke.

Franklin wasted no time alluding to those games, mentioning this in the first few seconds of his press conference:

"One of the things that we're going to talk about with the team is this week of football ... shows our staff and our players that you better appreciate winning and what winning takes. You better respect it, and you better appreciate it and what winning takes. Because it's hard to do. It's hard to do."

4. Franklin shares great story about kicker Sayahdak

Sander Sahaydak missed field goals of 34 and 38 yards before getting benched in favor of Alex Felkins. We'll see if Sahaydak gets another crack at kicking, or if Felkins will now be the guy full time. Franklin said no decision has been made yet.

The coach then told a terrific story about Sahaydak's leadership qualities.

"Sander Sahaydak got up in front of the team on Sunday, without me talking to him, without anybody talking to him," Franklin said. "I usually end practice and I say something, and he said, 'Coach, I've got something to say,' and got up and just handled himself really well. I was really proud of him as a young man, like if it was my son, very proud of him.

"As a member of this team, as a teammate, I just thought he conducted himself really well. I think he's earned everybody's respect. I thought what he did right there and what he said, did it even more."

No details were shared about what Sahaydak said to the team. We'll see if that information comes out at some point in the future.

5. Don't need to lose in order to get better

The Lions did some things well and struggled at times in their opener, and now they've got a better feel for what they need to take care of during games. They've got a weaker opponent coming up this week in Delaware, so the game will offer everyone a chance to focus on what they need to do to improve.

Defensive end Chop Robinson, for one, said he didn't think the defense played up to its standard against WVU. But Penn State still won easily, so that didn't matter much.

A lot of times, players don't always truly understand what they need to do to improve unless they lose, then there's a heavy dose of reality that sets in over a team. Players at LSU and Clemson, for instance, are dealing with that this week after their disappointing openers.

But Franklin made a good point when he noted that there also are plenty of good lessons to be had in winning, not just in losing.

"I think the best programs improve and learn and make corrections after wins," Franklin said. "They don't have to have setbacks, wake-up calls, to be able to do it.

"Now, that's easier said than done. But I think if you look at us ... we need to be more consistent on special teams, we need to create more turnovers on defense. Then on offense, we need to improve on our third-down percentage and stay on the field. The best offenses get most of their first downs on first and second down, which we did do, but when you're able to combine that with also being efficient on third down, then you're difficult to deal with."