On Saturday I wrote a column describing what I believe a perfect Penn State program under James Franklin looks like. A place where talent is the reason the Nittany Lions win rather than a program that is driven by the Xs and Os of a 60 minute chess match.
While both are required, it certainly appears that the preferred recipe is to have two parts talent and one part coaching. Saturday was an example where the tables needed to be turned, where coaching was going to help guide the Nittany Lions to a win rather than overwhelming talent.
As a result it would be easy to come to the conclusion that I’m trying to suggest Penn State is better off when James Franklin and company don’t have to coach. Or rather, Penn State is better off when the Nittany Lions have to rely on the talents of Saquon Barkley instead of the decision making of John Donovan.
Some may argue that this is already the case, I do not. Penn State might be a talent first program, but this staff did not turn around an awful Vanderbilt program simply by telling players good luck and watching them work their magic.
In fact, Penn State has gotten on relatively solid footing thanks to some good coaching, add in a bit more talent and the story may sound far less dreary than some fans are wanting to tell it. If nothing else the Nittany Lions are a single play from being 8-2 despite a lot of reasons that they shouldn’t be. If you want to talk about failure, go talk to the early 2000s.
Consider this, in fairness.
James Franklin came to Penn State and inherited a roster that didn’t even have enough depth to hold the kind of practices where first team players were challenged. Championship teams aren’t created by first string players, they’re created by entire team depth. That’s on the practice field and that’s when someone needs a break in the third quarter. Penn State’s defense doesn’t lead the nation in sacks because of a few players, it leads in the nation in sacks because Carl Nassib doesn’t have to play ever drive and “second team” players an come in and play just as well.
James Franklin came to Penn State and inherited a roster that was one of the youngest and most inexperienced in college football. While that excuse doesn’t last forever, it is still no less true. Where Bill O’Brien had a team of veterans, Franklin has a team full of players learning on the fly. In the case of Troy Reeder that has been a positive, for Paris Palmer it has been an emotional up and down season.
In 23 games at Penn State, Franklin has lost nine, the same number that O’Brien lost in 24 games. Of those nine losses O’Brien fell just three times by a touchdown or less, so far Franklin has lost five games by seven or fewer points.
Franklin has lost three times to Top 15 teams, five total times to Top 25 teams. Twice to Ohio State, once on the road at night in the Big House. Three times in the game’s final minute of regulation. All in all Penn State is usually beating the teams it should and losing to the teams it shouldn’t beat. Not a horrible starting point. Franklin hasn’t been perfect, but that’s a high bar to begin with.
And so every fan and onlooker is forced to make a choice. Are five losses by less than a touchdown the sign this staff can’t get over the hump or close out games? Or is Penn State really the program everyone says it is. One recovering and building, one that can’t just flip the switch over night?
The answer is somewhere in between. If you’re winning in the final minute of regulation it shouldn’t be impossible to survive another 59 seconds. Time management has to improve, saying things haven’t been an failure is not the same thing as saying they’ve been perfect.
At the same time nearly all of James Franklin’s big losses in the box score have come against teams that should have done exactly that. In some circumstances, like this year against Ohio State, the final score fails to tell the tail of how long the game was truly still a game.
Assuming that Sandy Barbour isn’t going to fire Franklin after Year 2 – which spoiler alert – she isn’t Penn State fans are left waiting for the variables to change.
The talent and the assistants. One of those things is guaranteed to improve. The other can only be speculated on.
Whatever the case might be, Penn State isn’t far off from something better.
And in fairness, all things considered, Franklin and company haven’t been that bad in the first place.
