Until proven otherwise, this is it.
There is no up. There is no down. There is no left. There is no right. There is no future. There is no past.
Things are stuck. Things are frozen. Things are locked into place.
This is it with Penn State football and nothing is changing until proven otherwise.
After Penn State’s second crucial loss of the season to yet again another top-10 team – a loss that officially ending any hope at a berth in the four-team era of the College Football Playoff – there’s not a lot that can be done to fix Penn State in its current state.
Until proven otherwise, this is Penn State football.
It’s a bit bizarre how much this year’s Ohio State and Michigan games mirrored each other. An absolutely inept offense struggled to provide a spark while stellar defense kept the game alive until really the very end.
Even a late, what-could-have-been back-breaking touchdown still saw Penn State’s offense get it together just enough to be able to score late and try to win the ball back for a miracle in both games.
But in between there, that’s the problem.
We saw that twice this season.
We’ve seen it twice in other seasons.
And yet with the reality of the situation, there’s nothing that can be done about it.
The sophomoric and lazy take is to call for James Franklin’s firing. But that’s just not real. That rationally will not happen. This is Penn State and people love their football program but hate to open their pockets for their football program.
There is no one donor or Texas oil money (presently being used this morning for Jimbo Fisher) that can bail the angriest of Penn State fans out of Franklin’s contract which has a buy-out of at least $51 million until 2025.
And even then, go ask a Nebraska fan how firing Bo Pelini – who didn’t have big bowl wins or as many double-digit win seasons as Franklin – worked out? It’s nearly 10 years later in Lincoln and the Cornhuskers are no closer to the days of Tom Osborne as they were back in 2011.
There are few coaches out there that are better than Franklin in big games that would come with a guarantee. That hiring, too, would still involve opening up purse strings by some mythical Penn State version of T. Boone Pickens. It would also certainly involve a fight from any of those schools who too have big boosters to fight back against the coach leaving.
Until proven otherwise, Franklin is Penn State’s head coach for the foreseeable future.
But that doesn’t mean Franklin, in game situations, is as good of a coach as he should be with his current contract. For much of this season, I had thought he learned his lessons when it came to in-game management. Yet there were two massively head-scratching decisions Saturday against Michigan that will haunt you or me until we’re proven otherwise.
It made little sense for Penn State not to punt the ball on 4th-and-six from inside their 50 down by one score late – not when Manny Diaz’s defense played well enough to keep it a one score game. Instead, Penn State dialed up a play that seemed like no one knew what it was doing, resulting in a turnover on downs.
And it made absolutely no sense to go for two after Penn State cut the lead to nine with about two minutes left and still two timeouts in its pocket. Franklin was correctly pressed on it by the media after the game and stood combative yet again on his decision making.
No matter what the answer would have been, it was not the right call.
But until proven otherwise, Franklin’s in-game management has not gotten better.
What did, seemingly, get better between Penn State’s loss to Ohio State and before the Michigan game was Penn State’s offense.
Quarterback Drew Allar finally looked like he was starting to click with his wide receivers, particularly against Maryland.
And yet, until proven otherwise, Allar just doesn’t seem to have the support he needs to be the 5-star quarterback so many, myself included, thought he would be. Instead, Mike Yurcich – and by proxy Franklin – have left their best offensive weapon floundering, wasting the best defense the Nittany Lions’ may have for quite some time.
There were times on Saturday where Penn State’s wide receivers did not run the route that Allar expected. There were other times — one of which cost Penn State a timeout — where players weren’t properly set in the positions they should have been.
And until proven otherwise, it’s clear that Yurcich is not helping Penn State move forward. Unlike Diaz’s bunch, his offense was not ready for the biggest moments.
But that’s the problem. Where do you, or really, Franklin go?
Until proven otherwise, Franklin has not hired a Joe Moorhead 2.0 that can lift his offenses to the next level.
Firing Yurcich might be the right call but that’s another new playbook that Penn State’s offenses are going to have to learn – and ever since Moorhead left for Mississippi State, Franklin’s track record of hires on that side of the ball hasn’t been good – and now 10 years into his tenure, he’s on offensive coordinator five.
Once again, Penn State is stuck – even if it makes a move.
Right now, the only way that fixes this is winning. And sure that includes Penn State’s final two regular season games and a-maybe-New-Year’s-Six bowl if things work out in the Nittany Lions’ favor, but this type of winning opportunity – the one that fans really want – probably won’t come around until Oct. 12, 2024 when Penn State goes to USC.
Until then, preseason hype and 5-0 or 6-0 or 7-0 starts will mean nothing. Franklin has proven he can win the small games — most of the time in dominant fashion. But that’s not fixing any of your anger this morning.
Franklin has to win the big game to fix all of this and yet he hasn’t, really since 2016. The 1-0 mentality is not working, until proven otherwise.
Sure, it may be a slogan. It may be a PR catchphrase. But it’s been beaten into Penn State’s collective head for virtually every day of Franklin’s tenure.
The problem is, until proven otherwise, it treats every game the same.
A tweet or a poster over top the tunnel likely had nothing to do with Penn State losing to Michigan but it’s rather symbolic that the problem fails going 1-0 when it matters most. Every one of 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023’s games included the 1-0 mentality.
That’s why so many are frustrated this morning, rightfully so, because it’s hard to hear one thing but see another thing.
And until proven otherwise, Franklin isn’t going 1-0 when it matters most.
It’s also probably hard to accept that until proven otherwise, those things aren’t going to change. Things are jammed. Things are backed up. Things are stuck here.
This is it for Penn State football.
Until proven otherwise.
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