Penn State football has reached ceiling under James Franklin
If Penn State football is ever going to reach the elite of college football, it needs to find a new head coach. James Franklin isn’t it.
Predictions can be difficult, but here’s one that I feel very confident in making: Penn State football won’t be making the College Football Playoff.
All offseason, we have heard about how this is the year for Penn State football. The Nittany Lions have an outstanding defense, a former five-star quarterback in Drew Allar, and one of the best running-back combinations in college football.
What Penn State football doesn’t have is an elite head coach. James Franklin reminded us once again Saturday that these kinds of games are too big for him.
Franklin has lived on his one upset over Ohio State for years, but even when his Penn State football team won the Big Ten title, it wasn’t the best team in the conference.
And as long as Franklin is the head coach, Penn State football never will be at the top of the Big Ten conference.
Penn State’s loss was ugly
The effort of quarterback Drew Allar was bad. Yes, the Ohio State defense had something to do with it, but Allar didn’t look like a five-star. He looked like a kid scared to throw the ball down the field, probably because James Franklin hasn’t allowed him to all season.
A reporter asked Franklin about this recently. The wording of the question could have been better but he had a valid question. Franklin embarrassed him.
After Saturday’s performance where Franklin was afraid to let his five-star quarterback throw on third and medium, Franklin is the one who should be embarrassed.
Allar was 17-of-41 for 183 yards and a touchdown. However, the TD came way too late with 29 seconds left as Ohio State was up two scores.
Penn State was having success running the ball, especially Nicholas Singleton who averaged 4.9 yards per carry. Yet, Franklin chose to keep throwing even though the game was close until late in the fourth quarter.
Penn State football will get a chance to change the narrative against Michigan in a few weeks, but there was nothing I saw Saturday that showed that the Nittany Lions are ready to compete with college football’s elite.
They are a New Year’s Six program and that’s the ceiling under James Franklin.