Pat McAfee responds to Penn State football HC James Franklin

As we inch closer to the first game of the 2024 season for the Penn State football team the anticipation continues to grow. That’s on both sides with the West Virginia faith also expressing their excitement and confidence heading into this matchup. Pat McAfee of ESPN has also expressed his take on the big game with the point of view coming from himself being a WVU letterman. McAfee has responded to some recent comments made by Nittany Lion head coach James Franklin.

During Monday’s media availability, Penn State football head coach James Franklin was asked if he has used any of McAfee’s remarks in the locker room for motivation heading into the West Virginia game. This led To Franklin explaining his thoughts on Pat McAfee.

“First of all, I love Pat McAfee and his energy and enthusiasm for sports and specifically college football. I think he’s been good for college athletics and sports in general. I think it’s fun, right? You know, I think his ability to speak freely is unique and fun in a lot of ways.

“For us it’s a fine line, right? I think it’s very similar to the old billboard material. I want to make sure that our guys and staff don’t say anything that creates billboard material. For some people that motivates them, right?”

McAfee then provided his thoughts on what Franklin said during his show the Pat McAfee Show.

“I don’t like anything about the answer he just gave,” McAfee said. “I appreciate how complimentary he was but boy, towards the tail end there it certainly sounds like have you heard what this guy is saying…?”

What's this all abaht James Franklin 😂😂#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/vih1Yji7qb

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 26, 2024

Franklin’s comments were directed toward bulletin board material

Syndication: Hanover Evening Sun

While Pat McAfee could be joking about his comments on James Franklin, it does seem like he was bothered by the way Franklin phrased his response. However, Franklin’s full statement was directed more toward motivation from social media ahead of the West Virginia game, not just what McAfee has said in the past.

“…But it’s funny, KJ Winston came up to me yesterday at practice and said, ‘Coach, you got a couple things up on the monitors. You’re telling us to get off social media, but you got a couple things on the monitors for us to see.’ I said, but here is the difference: When you guys are on social media, you’re reading whatever comes in. There is no filter. What we can do is I can have Destiny or Greg Kincaid or Kris Peterson pull things out to show to me and strategically say, we want to use these things. There is a filter there. He said, that makes sense.

“So we do a little bit of it, but not a lot of it, for those very reasons. I want to make sure what we’re saying is consistent but look at it like old bulletin board material. Now, we’re a true bulletin board material team in terms of we just cut out what’s in the newspaper, where there are some staffs and coaches get on their computer and create stories that never existed to try to motivate their team. We’re not going to do that. There is enough out there you can find it on your own.”

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