Penn State Football: Franklin’s Plan is Ahead of Schedule

James Franklin isn’t surprised his plan to resurrect Penn State football has been successful.

But, truth to be told, he likely didn’t expect a 9-2 record and a shot at the Big Ten title game the week of Thanksgiving, either.

At least Thanksgiving 2016.

“It’s hard to say that,” he said on Tuesday. “But I did believe there was a foundation laid, that we would make significant progress this year.

”I think I also said, ‘What does that equate to in terms of overall record? I don’t know.’

“To say in the beginning of the year that I expected to be where we are right now — I don’t know if that’s accurate to say. But I was very confident that we would take a significant step.”

How’s this for significant, especially after back-to-back 7-6 seasons?

Penn State is riding a seven-game winning streak during which it’s beaten No. 2 Ohio State 24-21 and has outscored the opposition 278-130 — per game, that’s an average score of 40-19 — on its way to a 7-1 first-place tie in the Big Ten East with Ohio State and Michigan State.

And how’s this for context, as Penn State heads into its 301st game against a Big Ten Conference team (dating back to its 1912 game vs.  Ohio State)?

Back in July 2012, Penn State was barred by that very same conference from playing in its title game from 2012-15 (a penalty that was rescinded in September 2014). Not to mention that in November 2011, the conference took Joe Paterno’s name off of the championship game trophy.

Now, Penn State is a contender. Relevant. In the national discussion. And could very well play in the conference title game from which it once had been barred. If Penn State beats 3-8 Michigan State Saturday afternoon in Beaver Stadium and Ohio State defeats Michigan in The Horseshoe in A Game that is being played earlier in the day, the Nittany Lions are headed to Indianapolis on Dec. 3 to play in the conference title game.

DEPTH OF SUCCESS

The Nittany Lions have played better than almost anyone expected, especially given a double-tsunami of injuries at linebacker and along the offensive line. Through 11 games in 2016, eight different players have started at linebacker and nine different players have started at offensive line. And, at O-line, counting.

Overall, 18 Nittany Lions have earned their first start this season. Combine that with the 15 Penn State players who had their first college start in 2015, and Penn State’s recent fortunes given the triple whammy of youth, injuries and post-sanction challenges are even more impressive.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries, as has been documented,” Franklin said after practice on Wednesday. “And we are young. So it’s kind of a perfect storm, from that standpoint. But again, I think the coaches have done a great job handling those things. I think the players have been resilient. I think we’ve had really good leadership from guys even when they have been out and injured.

“I don’t know if you’ll find something like that again when you’ll have both of those scenarios. We’re such a young team. One of the younger teams in the country. And I would probably say that when it comes to adversity, when it comes to injuries, we’re probably in the upper half of the teams in the country in terms of the number of injuries we’ve had this year.”

ON THE OTHER HAND

There is a silver lining to that as well.

Think of all that experience coming back next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. For example, redshirt quarterback Trace McSorley, making the 12th start of his Nittany Lion career on Saturday, could conceivably have as many as 28 or more starts when it’s all said and done. Tony Sacca has the most careers starts of a Penn State quarterback with 40, followed by Christian Hackenberg, with 38. Todd Blackledge had 33, Chuck Fusina 32, Kerry Collins 28. (If Joe Moorpoints does leave after a season or two moor, McSorley’s experience will be even more valuable.)

Saturday is Senior Day, and Penn State loses only nine seniors who have made a career start at PSU – four on offense: Brian Gaia (36), Paris Palmer (15), Derek Dowrey (11) and Wendy Laurent (8); and five on defense: Brandon Bell (29), Nyeem Wartman-White (24), Malik Golden (14), Evan Schwan (9) and Von Walker (3). Good group of great guys, but only two of them were full-time starters for two or more seasons. Three are injured and won’t dress. Wartman-White has played just five games since Michigan State was last in Beaver Stadium, on Nov. 29, 2014.

“The positive for it, obviously, is just like at linebacker,” Franklin admitted. “It was brutal when we were going through out at the time. But since we were able to get through it, it created depth, by necessity.

“I think the same thing is going to happen with the offensive line over time. Obviously looking forward, which I don’t like to do a whole lot during the season, it’s going to help us in the long run there as well.”

The long run. Back on Sept. 24, when Penn State was 2-2 after losing to Michigan, 49-10, and trailed by as much as 28-0 and 35-3, it seemed more like a long walk off a short pier.

A CHINESE CRISIS

Here’s how JFK put the situation CJF was in:

“When written in Chinese,” John F. Kennedy once said, “the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger. The other represents opportunity.”

Here’s how Franklin put it earlier this week:

“We had a plan and we believed in the plan. It was detailed, it was thorough, it was organized. And it wasn’t like we were just trying to take a plan from School X and bring it to School Z. We had modified it to Penn State. We believed in it. And although there were rough patches and there were tough times and things like that, we stuck to the plan.

“That’s probably the biggest thing. We stuck to the plan. We kept getting better every single day. We didn’t focus on the past, we didn’t focus on the future. We focused on the present. We just kept on grinding through it.”

The grind continues Saturday in Beaver Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Likely, it wasn’t the time or date or year that Franklin thought he’d be playing to get into his first Big Ten title game.

But, it is the place.

“We’re not there. We still have a long ways to go,” Franklin said. “We’ve done some nice things. I’m pleased with the progress. But have a long way to go. I could give you guys a list of 25 things that I think we still need to do to get to where we want to be. But we’re heading in that direction.”

Just earlier than expected.