James Franklin testimony: Admits he didn't see assault video in Vanderbilt rape case

During testimony at a rape pretrial involving some of his former players, one-time Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin admitted he didn't see a video of an alleged rape, despite telling his players otherwise.

Franklin, currently the head coach at Penn State, admitted Wednesday to lying to his players about seeing the video because he didn't want to "water down" the seriousness of his message during a team meeting, reports WKRN.

After the meeting, Franklin said the players came into his office to plead their case. He said specifics weren't discussed, but he advised his players to tell their parents and to be honest.

“All I said to them was 'I can't talk to you about the case, you better take this very seriously, you should tell you parents, and you better be honest because you're going to be dealing with consequences to this for the rest of your life.' And that was it,” he said.

Former football players Brandon Vandenburg, Cory Batey, Jaborian McKenzie and Brandon Banks are each charged with five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery for the alleged rape that occurred during the early morning hours of June 23, 2013.