Penn State Faced Communications Tech Issues at Wisconsin

Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said the sideline lost contact with the coordinators "at a very critical moment" against the Badgers.

Penn State head coach James Franklin during the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Penn State faced issues with its communications equipment last week at Wisconsin, to the point that head coach James Franklin said the sideline lost contact with the coordinators and players on the field in the fourth quarter. Coach-to-player communications equipment has become an issue in college football, as ESPN and The Athletic reported Wednesday that Big 12 teams are returning devices to address "technological concerns."

After practice Wednesday in State College, Franklin said that coaches on the sideline could not connect with cooordinators Andy Kotelnicki and Tom Allen in the press box or quarterback Beau Pribula and middle linebacker Kobe King on the field. Pribula and King wore the in-helmet earpieces, through which coaches relay play calls. Franklin said the blackout occurred in the fourth quarter of the Nittany Lions' 28-13 win over the Badgers. It's an issue Penn State will want to fix before Saturday's game against No. 4 Ohio State at Beaver Stadium.

"Last week at the end of the game, we lost contact with the booth, so we had no contact with the coordinators at the end of the game, we had no ability to communicate with the quarterbacks and the linebackers on the field," Franklin told reporters. "We've been working on that, coming up with a soliution, but we did have a problem at the end of that game at a very critical moment."

Asked how long the issue persisted, Franklin said, "if it's one play, it's too many plays."

Penn State's issue was different than those of other programs reporting concerns with the technology. According to The Athletic, Big 12 officials asked teams to return their coach-to-helmet devices because of concerns about encryption. The Athletic reported that teams believe others might be able to listen to their in-game discussions.

Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt told ESPN that he learned his football team's in-game conversations might be accessible to anyone with a scanner. Hocutt told ESPN that it's about operating a game "whose integrity is not questionable in any way on a Saturday afternoon."

Penn State has had issues with its in-helmet communications system this season, though apparently not regarding encryption. In early games at West Virginia and the home-opener against Bowling Green, Franklin said that Penn State's defense had trouble with the audio. Penn State solved that in part by moving Allen, the defensive coordinator, to the coaches booth and having defensive analyst Dan Connor call plays to the linebacker.

"I think the other thing that's a big one for us that we got settled in the second half [against Bowling Green] is the communication," Franklin said in September. "We were trying to rely specifically on the headset communication, and at home that can be a little bit more challenging with the linebacker trying to verbally communicate to all 11 guys on the field. It’s very similar to what I had explained to about-no huddle teams on offense trying to get the quarterback to communicate to everybody. That was still going to be challenging unless you're huddling."

This is the first season in which college football teams can use coach-to-player communications equipment to make play calls. Franklin has said that he's uncertain whether the technology will curb the sign-stealing concerns it was meant to address.

"The interesting thing is, all of this got pushed because of the whole sign-stealing [issue], and for the offenses that are no-huddle, it doesn’t change them at all," Franklin said before the season. "Because you still have to get the information to the wide receivers. How do you do that? You signal. Do I think we should have had helmet mics? They’re good changes, but I don't know if they’re necessarily solutions to some of the challenges out there."

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Penn State on SI is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on X (or Twitter) @MarkWogenrich.