Penn State coach James Franklin contacted the woman who alleged she was raped by four of Mr. Franklin's Vanderbilt football players, according to a court filing filed by a player's attorneys and reported by the Tennessean.

In the filing, defense attorneys claim Mr. Franklin and Dwight Galt, now Penn State's strength and conditioning coach, contacted the victim four days after the rape to explain "that they cared about her because she assisted them with recruiting," according to the Tennessean.The attorneys also wrote in the filing that at some point, "Coach Franklin called her in for a private meeting and told her he wanted her to get 15 pretty girls and form a team to assist with the recruiting even though he knew it was against the rules. He added that all the other colleges did it."The rape case dates back to last summer when aggravated rape charges were filed against Vanderbilt football players Brandon Vandenburg, Corey Batey, Brandon Banks and Jaborian McKenzie. A fifth player, Chris Boyd, pleaded guilty to covering up the rape. All five were kicked off the team by Mr. Franklin.Penn State did not respond to a request for comment. The Tennessean reached Mr. Franklin by cell phone, and Mr. Franklin said, "he was not interested in talking."According to several media reports from last year, the prosecution had cleared Mr. Franklin of any wrongdoing. A report from Buzzfeed from last September quoted an unnamed source close to one of the defendants who said Mr. Franklin encouraged a player to delete a video of the incident after the player showed the video to Mr. Franklin - an accusation Mr. Franklin has denied.When Mr. Franklin was hired in January, athletic director Dave Joyner said the vetting process for Mr. Franklin was thorough and that he and the search committee contacted several people close with Mr. Franklin, including Vanderbilt administrators and officials.In January, Mr. Franklin said of the rape case, "It's the most challenging thing that I've ever been through personally, as a father of two daughters, and professionally. …We made decisions quickly and tried to do everything we possibly could to respect the situation with the utmost class."