Four former Vanderbilt football players allegedly committed an on-campus sexual assault in June of 2013. Then-Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin initially told players and the court that he had seen dorm surveillance video of the incident.
Wednesday, Franklin, now head coach at Penn State, changed his story.
Testifying via Skype during a pre-trial hearing, Franklin said that he gave the players the impression that he saw the tape because he wanted to "emphasize the seriousness of the situation."
"I spoke as if I had seen the video because I was angry and upset and didn't want to water down the message to them," said Franklin. He went on to say that he had not then - and still has not - seen any video evidence, which is different from what he had said previously, according to USA Today.
"Coach Franklin: Did you lie?" defense attorney John Herbison asked Franklin.
"No sir," said Franklin.
The defense had suggested that Franklin threatened the team with sanctions or loss of scholarships. Franklin denied these allegations, contending that he held a single team meeting in the wake of the incident to announce the situation.
"I told them they better be honest, they better tell their parents, they better take this seriously, they're going to be dealing with this for the rest of their lives."
Franklin also claimed that he was told by university legal staffers to "stay out of it."
One of the accused students, Brandon Vandenburg, alleged that Franklin and Vanderbilt Associate Athletics Director Kevin Colon told him he could get back on the team by answering questions about the incident. But that if he didn't, there would be severe repercussions.
"I could lose my scholarship, my academic standing, pretty much everything I had at Vanderbilt," Vandenburg said officials told him.
Franklin and Colon both denied that they made threats or discussed scholarship sanctions.
