Penn State’s James Franklin Explains Eli Manning Incognito Tryout

The head coach was in on skit.

Eli Manning went undercover in August at Penn State football’s tryouts for his latest episode of Eli’s Places on ESPN+, but James Franklin was hesitant at first.

The Nittany Lions head coach was worried Manning’s stunt would interfere with the team’s training camp, but ultimately he was just needed for 10 minutes.

“Really, they were able to do 99 percent of it kind of without messing up our normal routine,” he said. “I think I had to give them 10 minutes of my time, which took time away from either lunch or my walk, which was good. So once I was comfortable with the fact we were going to be able to do that, and it not impact our normal routine or become a distraction, then we were all about it.”

Manning disguised himself as Chad Powers, a freshman who was homeschooled and never played organized football. ESPN only released a few minutes of the episode as a promo, but it already went viral on social media.

Franklin loved the way it came out and believes it was a way to promote Penn State football.

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“I hope people watch because it was cool and funny,” Franklin said.

The full episode airs Wednesday on ESPN+, where we will finally find out the true saga of Chad Powers.

• All Penn State: How Penn State Landed the Eli Manning/Chad Powers Tryout