So this happened, it appeared ...

James Franklin takes a timeout to ice the Georgia State field goal kicker with the score 56-0. — Black Shoe Diaries (@BSDtweet) September 17, 2017

... and it worked!

Georgia State misses the field goal, and Penn State maintains the shutout. 56-0 is the final score. — Black Shoe Diaries (@BSDtweet) September 17, 2017

(Does icing the kicker actually work? Well, the research on the matter is dubious. But in this case, GSU missed on its only attempt of the night, so it must’ve!)

From the box score, just to confirm:

And in full-motion timeout action:

Why call a timeout late in such a sure victory?

Penn State head coach James Franklin has an explanation for this. He says the backup kick block group was having a hard time getting lined up.

Franklin explains why he called a timeout up 56 points. pic.twitter.com/iXgvTTvqIR — Collegian Football (@psufootblog) September 17, 2017

This comes one week after he compared a win over state rival Pitt to a win over lowly Akron, which was totally a recruiting branding thing.

"Last year for their win it was like the Super Bowl, but for us this was just like beating Akron."



- @coachjfranklin on win vs. Pitt pic.twitter.com/RXG9FnTd34 — Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 10, 2017

In the BCS/Playoff era, you also want to dominate an opponent as convincingly as possible, though the Playoff committee has said it doesn’t pay much attention to scoring margin. Still, a year after barely missing the Playoff, this is no time to allow a single field goal to a Sun Belt team in garbage time!!

Before you email me, Penn State fan, know that I think this is funny. I also like the end of the GIF, when he seems to be embarrassed by being put in the position of icing Georgia State’s kicker while up by 56 points.