The James Franklin era at Penn State is over as the Nittany Lions fired their long time head coach on Sunday amid a disastrous season. The Nittany Lions are 3-3 this season with an 0-3 record in Big Ten play after losing their last three games two of which came to UCLA and Northwestern. Less than a year after leading Penn State to the final four of the College Football Playoff, an autopsy will be done to see what went wrong for James Franklin.
Everyone knows of James Franklin's struggles in big games as you could almost pencil him in to lose to Ohio State and Michigan. Any time James Franklin went against a team with more talent it seemed certain that he wasn't going to be able to pull off a win. The question is, why wasn't Penn State ever more talented than Ohio State.
The 2022 recruiting class is one of the biggest indictments on James Franklin
The last time James Franklin signed a 5-star recruit was in the 2022 recruiting class when he was able to reel in 3 of them. When you compare that to teams like Ohio State and Oregon who just beat Penn State you see the first flaw as those teams sign several 5-star recruits on a yearly basis.
This class was supposed to be the group that put Penn State on the same level as Ohio State as each side signed three 5-star recruits. Penn State's class will have gone through 4 seasons and unless they shock the world season they'll leave 0-4 against the Buckeyes. The same can be said for Michigan as both times these teams met as Top 10 teams and Penn State helped spark Playoff runs for the Wolverines.
What James Franklin did with his 5-star recruits in that 2022 recruiting class is another massive indictment on his tenure. Drew Allar was the 5-star quarterback Penn State always wished they had yet, his career ended much like James Franklin's as he was carted off the field ending his career against Northwestern.
Everything James Franklin and Penn State did the past few seasons should've been about sending Drew Allar to the NFL as a 1st round pick. Developing Allar into a first round pick would've opened doors for Penn State with other recruits while he could've helped mask any other issues on the roster. After the way Allar played in limited time this season, he's most likely going to miss out on being a 1st round pick.
In the 2022 recruiting class, Penn State also signed 5-stars in edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton and running back Nicholas Singleton. Both players have been solid for Penn State but, Dennis-Sutton hasn't record a sack in any of the Nittany Lions' Big Ten games while Nicholas Singleton hasn't rushed for 40 yards or more in a single league game.
Ironically enough, it was the 9th best recruit in Penn State's 2022 class that turned out to be the biggest star in edge rusher Abdul Carter. Once Carter left for the NFL Draft, this defense as a whole has taken a massive step back in part because they no longer have that dominant pass rusher that Dennis-Sutton hasn't been able to become.
If you want to knock James Franklin for another issue, it may be his ability to evaluate quarterbacks. While Sean Clifford struggled mightily at Penn State, Will Levis transferred to Kentucky and was a far better player. In that 2022 class, Drew Allar was the 5-star recruit but, Penn State also signed 3-star Beau Pribula. It's not even a debate at this point that Pribula is a better college quarterback.
The Nittany Lions in-ability to sign 5-star recruits was ultimately a key flaw for James Franklin and part of the reason he could never get over the hump. While the teams he couldn't beat reeled in elite prospect after elite prospect, Franklin wasn't able to land that game changing quarterback or field shifting wide receiver that could make the big play when the game hung in the balance.