Four questions into James Franklin’s press conference following his team’s nail-biting and harrowing 33-24 victory over Indiana in Beaver Stadium on Saturday, a TV reporter tossed him a softball.
This one was lobbed right over the plate.
“James, there was so much emotion after last week and trying to flush it, move on, come back home, perform against Indiana. Can you describe the mental, emotional toll that takes on your players playing the Big Ten, having to respond? Can that be difficult for guys and how proud are you of what they did today?”
Here is how Franklin responded:
“Yeah, I’d love to talk about that. No one cares. Let’s be honest, for me to sit here and say that, I appreciate the question and I understand the question, but no one cares. So, for us, we’ve got to find a way to handle adversity during games, adversity during the week and adversity in life and rebound and tune out all the other stuff. And I think for the most part, we’ve done a pretty good job of that. But to your point, is it easy? No, but no one cares.”
Franklin is right, at least partly:
Most fans do not care about the behind-the-scenes challenges. He and his staff of nearly 80 full-time Penn State football employees and his players are paid handsomely to handle that.
But the fans do care how Penn State looks on the field during fall football Saturdays — style points, as it were. What Beaver Stadium offers is entertainment, as well as sporting competition and a strong emotional connection to their alma mater. And, they care about the results. High expectations? Yes.
That is why, after Saturday’s game against Indiana, most Penn State fans and the media corps were fixated on its first 58 minutes and 14 seconds. And for the Nittany Lions, that was not very pretty. There is no denying that.
The Nittany Lions were tied 24-24 against a team with a head coach at the verge of getting fired and that was in a deep spiral, with a 2-5 record — with wins against Indiana State and in OT vs. Joe Moorhead’s Akron squad — and an overall 8-23 mark since 2021. Quarterback Drew Allar had just thrown his first pick of the year, and the mighty PSU defense was reeling, having surrendered touchdown passes of 90, 69 and 26 yards.
Then, with less than two minutes left in the game — and the season, in some ways— Allar hit the biggest of the 314 passes of his 18-game Penn State career — a career already likely at its midpoint. It was a 57-yard touchdown scoring strike to KeAndre Lambert-Smith, for a 31-24 lead that was punctuated with a safety precipitated by a Dani Dennis-Sutton sack on Indiana QB Brendan Sorsby 13 seconds later, for a final 33-24 closer-than-it-looked victory.
And, despite the exciting and somewhat unexpected finish, for many it was still an unsatisfying victory at that, even though Penn State upped its record to 7-1…and on Sunday jumped one spot to No. 9 in The Associated Press poll.
Today’s All-22 recap looks at the dichotomy that is Penn State football these days.
1. It was a butt-ugly, uninspired, ugly win. But…it was still a win. With juggernaut I-Spy Michigan on the horizon, Penn State is still in the hunt for an 11-1 regular season record, a Big Ten championship game berth and a spot in the College Football Playoff. (Heather Dinich of ESPN has Penn State No. 10 in the initial CFP rankings to be released on Tuesday.)
2. Penn State was ranked No. 7 in 2021 when it lost at home in nine overtimes to 2-5, 24-point underdog Illinois after previously losing at No. 3 Iowa. Penn State was ranked No. 10 in 2023, when it won at home in the final two minutes to 2-5, 31-point underdog Indiana. That’s the improvement Franklin says he is always seeking.
2a. Franklin after that 2021 loss: “Obviously, we did not have our guys ready to play.”
2b. Franklin after the 2023 win over Indiana: “Really proud of our guys. Battled, were resilient. Found a way to get a win. Found ways to make plays at critical moments. Dani’s play, obviously, was huge. KeAndre’s play was huge. Drew responding like that.”
3. Franklin is 9-1 vs. Indiana and Penn State is 25-2 (.926) overall against the Hoosiers in football. The other loss was 44-24 in Bloomington in 2013. Penn State AD Pat Kraft, who has three degrees from Indiana University, was a linebacker there in 1997-99. He was on the Indiana squad with Antwaan Randle El — two TD passes, one TD run — that lost 45-24 in 1999 in Beaver Stadium.
3a. Penn State vs. the Hoosiers in men’s basketball? 15-42 (.263), better than I thought.
3b. A narrow Penn State win over Indiana is not an anomaly. Of the Nittany Lions’ 25 victories over IU, 10 of them — counting Saturday — were by single digits and nine were by a touchdown or less.
4. Penn State ranks No. 2 in the country in average attendance in 2023, and has the top two largest crowds in college football, with six of its games in the top 12 two-thirds of the way into the season (chart above is from ncaa.org). And that’s with Michigan in Beaver Stadium on Nov. 11 still on the horizon.
5. There were several rounds of resounding boos in Beaver Stadium for a team that has won 10 of its last 11 games. Fans want what they perceive to be their money’s worth:
5a. For the 2021 home football season (the most recent numbers publicly available), Penn State grossed about $47.5 million, according to numbers it submitted to the NCAA. That’s almost $7 million per game. Broken down, it’s $40.65 million from ticket sales and another $7.82 million in parking, concessions and novelties.
5b. Penn State is charging $10,000 to join the Tunnel Club.
5c. All of Penn State’s scholarship football players are in NIL deals with the Happy Valley United collective, guaranteeing each player a minimum of $25,000-plus, beyond an additional $11,000 a year from Penn State in cost of attendance and Alston money. Plus, there’s that “perk” called a full ride.
5d. Franklin often publicly professes a stellar work ethic. On his radio show two weeks ago, Franklin said, “in 28 years, I’ve never missed a day of work.” And during his Tuesday press conference, he referenced the long hours he and his staff were putting in after getting beaten in The Horseshoe: “Yeah, you can probably tell from my voice, we haven’t gotten a whole lot of sleep since that game, for a number of reasons. From fixing the issues, coming up with the plan for this week, moving forward and all the things that have to happen moving forward on Sunday, I think our staff has done a good job of that.”
5e. Shed no tears. His compensation is $24,096 a day and $8.5 million a year, with a buyout that will be $64 million come Jan. 1, 2024.
6. Speaking of crowds, I went by Champs in downtown State College on an early game day walk Saturday morning. It was packed. My pals at Rapid Transit, a few doors away from the popular bar on Allen Street, said the line was forming at 5:45 a.m. on Saturday. When I stopped by 90 minutes later, every seat was taken. Why? Free breakfast. (And early morning pre-gaming.)
7. Over the past 21 games, Penn State has had 18 wins – including a win in the Rose Bowl, on the road vs. Auburn and three shutouts.
7a. Those 18 were by an average margin of 27.3 points against all opponents and 22.9 against Big Ten foes, with just two by single-digits: 34-31 at Purdue in the 2022 season-opener and Saturday’s vs. Indiana.
7b. Penn State’s margin of victory in those 18 games: 4, 36, 29, 19, 10, 28, 31, 30, 45, 19, 14, 23, 56, 17 31, 28, 63, 9.
8. But oh, those three losses over the past 21 games: There’s 41-17 at No. 5 Michigan and 44-31 to No. 2 Ohio State in 2022, and that deceiving 20-12 loss to Ohio State last week. They are the foundation of Penn State fans’ unhappiness on Saturday. (Speaking of Michigan: The photo below of a Michigan “spy,” taken by Onward State’s outstanding photog, Mikey DeAngelis, was the best Halloween costume of the day.)
9. Penn State’s 2023 schedule ranks as the 12th toughest in the country, with a combined winning opponent winning of 64%, according to the NCAA. That includes past games and future foes. Poor Michigan State is No. 1, at 71.7%. Ohio State — with games against Notre Dame, Penn State and Michigan — is No. 7, at 65.2%.
9a. Delaware is 7-1, West Virginia is 5-3 and UMass is 2-7, but did beat Army, 20-14, on Saturday at West Point.
10. Which is which? It’s been 1,856 days since Franklin’s ”good, great, elite” speech following Penn State’s 27-26 loss to Ohio State in 2018, and in 2023 we have seen enough determine that the offense — despite the much-ballyhooed five-star QB that is Allar and his TD toss vs. the Hoosiers — is not elite. And against the elite opponent that was Ohio State, it wasn’t even good.
10a. Drew dinking and dunking: Penn State’s passing game is 115th in the country in passing yards per completion (10.68) and No. 82 in passing yards per game (217.6). Allar is No. 64 in passing efficiency.
11. Then there’s Penn State’s defense. I’d call it elite, Saturday’s performance notwithstanding. The secondary had communications issues on Saturday, but I think more than anything its relatively poor performance and lapses in coverage were the result of a mental letdown after the loss to Ohio State.
11a. The PSU D has an NFL mentality, which is not a surprise given its usual across-the-board maturity, athleticism, leadership and Manny Diaz-led aggressiveness. Much more than the offense, I think Penn State’s defensive players see/saw themselves as College Football Playoff caliber players. So the fall from the undefeated ranks hit the defense harder.
11b. The loss of Chop Robinson, who did not suit up, didn’t help. But the loss of wide receiver Harrison Wallace (shoulder injury) is even bigger, if he is out for an extended period.
12. Penn State’s defense is in the Top 3 nationally in a multitude of categories: second in team sacks and total defense (234.5 ypg); and third in rushing defense (74.2 ypg) and scoring defense (11.5 ppg).
13. Rutgers ran for 276 yards on 55 carries, an average of 5.0 yards per carry, vs. Indiana last week in a 31-14 win. Penn State ran for 132 yards on 43 carries, an average of 3.1 yards per carry, against Indiana. What?
14. Last season, Franklin stopped commenting on the play of the Nittany Lions’ O-line, confidently saying, “You’ll tell me how we’re doing.” Here goes:
14a. Penn State sorely misses OG Landon Tengwall, who had to quit football in August, on and off the field. Highly-touted OT Olu Fanasha has had a few issues lately. OG JB Nelson has been in and out the lineup. And on Saturday OT Caedan Wallace left the game with an injury and did not return.
14b. Out of 148 college running backs ranked by the NCAA, Penn State RB Kaytron Allen ranks No. 101 in average yards per carry (4.59) and RB Nick Singleton, the former Gatorade national high player of the year, ranks No. 121 (4.07).
15. Singleton had five receptions on seven targets on Saturday, but for a paltry total of 31 yards. Take away his longest reception of 28 yards and the other four catches went for three yards. (Not a misprint.) Singleton’s fall from budding superstar status is an under-reported theme of the 2023 season. But props to him; he comes out to talk to the media after every game and says the right things, with a large measure of maturity.
15a. Singleton’s running totals for the eight games of 2023 vs. the first eight games of 2022 are not good; Kaytron Allen’s output over the same time has not fallen off as much:
15b. Singleton, 2022: 96 carries, 606 yards, 6.3 ave.
Singleton, 2023: 113 carries, 460 yards, 4.1 ave.
Allen, 2022: 90 carries, 472 yards, 5.24 ave.
Allen, 2023: 105 carries, 482 yards, 4.59 ave.
16. Before an interception on his 29th pass attempt of the game, Allar had 311 passing attempts without an interception to start his career. That is an FBS record, bettering Baylor’s Robert Griffin III’s 209 attempts in 2008. Allar finished the day with three TD passes — to Lambert-Smith, Theo Johnson and Khalil Dinkins — on 20 of 31 passing.
17. Allar started the 2023 season with 251 pass attempts without an interception. Since 2000, that is the sixth-most to start a season, trailing only Louisiana Tech’s Colby Cameron (428; 2012), Oregon’s Marcus Mariota (285; 2013), Western Kentucky’s Tyrrell Pigrome (278; 2020), NC State’s Ryan Finley (274; 2017) and West Virginia’s Geno Smith (273; 2012).
18. Entering the day, Allar was the only FBS quarterback with 150-plus pass attempts and no interceptions in 2023. His 57-yard touchdown pass was Allar’s second-longest completion of 2023, after his 72-yarder to KLS in the season-opener against WVU. His second-longest was a 35-yarder to KLS at Northwestern.
19. Despite Allar’s pick, Penn State leads the nation in turnover margin (+1.62 a game). Jaylen Reed’s interception set up a Penn State 50-yard field goal by Alex Felkins to end the first half, and KJ Winston’s recovery of an Indiana muffed punt set up Allar’s TD toss to Dinkins. Reed led the Nittany Lions’ defense with eight tackles, seven of them solos, while secondary mates Daequan Hardy and Johnny Dixon both had sacks, along with DDS.
19a. “Johnny Dixon,” said Franklin, “I think is having a phenomenal year. I don’t know if he’s getting talked about enough locally or nationally as a blitzer. Being able to finish sacks, being physical on the perimeter, making plays on the ball. He’s having a really good year.
20. Look out Maryland: Franklin, who was once coach-in-waiting for the Terps but then left for Vanderbilt, seems to like to score in a big way in College Park; Penn State won by 66-3 in 2017, 59-0 in 2019 and 31-14 in 2021. The current Maryland staff includes former CJF co-workers Mike Locksley (Terps HC) and Josh Gattis (OC). Former Nittany Lion linebacker NaVorro Bowman, a first-team All-Big Ten selection, is a defensive analyst for the Terrapins.
21. The Terps are reeling. They started 5-0, including a resounding 44-17 victory over Indiana. The next week they were tied 10-10 at halftime with Ohio State in Columbus, but ended up dropping that game, 37-17, and have subsequently lost to Illinois (27-24) and Northwestern (33-27). ESPN gives Penn State an 83.1% chance of winning.
22. Time and channel: The Maryland game will be Penn State’s second 3:30 p.m. kickoff of 2023. And it will be Penn State’s fourth appearance on FOX. (The starting time and network for the Nov. 18 home game vs. Rutgers have not been announced.)
22a. 2023 games by kickoff time: Noon (5), 3:30 p.m. (2), 7:30 p.m. (3), tba (1). And by network: FOX (4), NBC/Peacock (2), CBS/Paramount+ (2) Big Ten Network (2), Peacock only (1), tba (1).
