The theoretical “other 364 days” have already started for James Franklin and Penn State football – just one day after continuing their recent streak of performing poorly on the 365th day.
Penn State’s most recent Day No. 365 ended in defeat…again…on Saturday in Tampa, where Penn State lost 24-10 to No. 22 Arkansas in the Outback Bowl after going scoreless in the second half.
It was Penn State’s fifth-consecutive loss to a Top 25 team in the 2021 season – after opening with wins over ranked Wisconsin and Auburn – and dropped Franklin’s record at Penn State against Top 25 foes to 11-21.
Franklin’s bowl record at Penn State is now 3-4 and his record in PSU games played after a bye week – including the 2021 nine-overtime debacle that was Illinois – is 3-6. Added together, Franklin is 6-10 in games when given more than a week to prepare, not counting season-openers.
Time is money. Much depends on how you spend it.
Franklin, more than anyone, knows the importance of the work that is done on non-game days – not just X’s and O’s and game planning, but also program- and internal coalition-building (a forte of his). He has used the 364 Day Mantra frequently over the past few months as he and his new agent, Jimmy Sexton, negotiated a new contract behind the scenes.
(To be clear: Franklin hired Sexton last summer, when he had five full seasons remaining on his Penn State contract, was coming off a 4-5 Covid season and his latest PSU extension was all of 17 months and nine games old. Franklin clearly was thinking 364 days in that regard.)
Here’s how Franklin put it shortly after his new 10-year, $85 million guaranteed deal was announced in November: “We are fighting for small margins to try to take that next step as a program, whether that is the playoffs, an opportunity to compete for national championships. And that’s really going to take place the other 364 days a year and allow us to be successful on Saturday.”
Right now, Franklin is having problems with those successful Saturdays. The Outback Bowl loss was Penn State’s sixth in its last eight game days, as it rode that 2-6 stretch to a 7-6 final record for 2021 and a two-year record of 11-11.
That’s the worst 22-game string of Penn State football games since a Jan. 1, 2002 Capital One Bowl 13-9 loss to Auburn, a 3-9 2003 season and the subsequent first nine games (2-7) of the 2004 season, resulting in a horrendously combined 5-17 at the tail end of what were termed as the “Dark Years” of the Joe Paterno era.
But…
Those Nittany Lions then won their final two games of the 2004 season, and embarked on a remarkable run of several seasons, including a 25-5 record over its next 30 games, part of a stretch when they went 53-13 with two Big Ten titles, and AP rankings of No. 3, No. 8 and No. 9. That, in of itself, is an exemplary body of work that is not too far removed from present day.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Can Franklin & Co. produce the same remarkable bounce back and turnaround?
The head coach is certainly getting paid to make it happen. Beginning on Saturday, Franklin’s salary (counting an annual $1 million loan against his life insurance and an annual retention bonus of $500,000) jumped to $8.5 million, which equals $23,287.67 per day — about $1,000 an hour.
And while the task at hand may seem urgent to many, the situation for Franklin is not untenable. He’ll have time to right the ship, even if he produces another 7-6 record next year…and the year after that. Under Franklin’s new contract, Penn State will have to pay him $64 million if it wants to fire him without cause (losing games is rarely considered “cause”) at this time next year; $56 million to do so on Jan. 1, 2024; $48 million on Jan. 1, 2025; and so on.
So, the work begins — and continues — as Penn State works toward its next game, which is Sept. 3, 2022, on the road against gaining-traction-as-formidable Purdue in West Lafayette.
That’s 244 days from now. Not quite 364, but it will have to do. The Boilermakers will certainly be tough. Jeff Brohm is a coach’s coach; disciplined, prepared, hands-on. The Big Ten version of Arkansas’ Sam Pittman. Speaking of which, I loved Pittman’s line in his pre-game interview with ESPN2’s Stormy Buonantony minutes before kickoff of the Outback Bowl, when Pittman underscored his team’s physical style of play: “We do our talking with our pads and not our mouths.”
Brohm’s Purdue resilient squad went 9-4 in 2021, going 6-2 down the stretch (the opposite of PSU) while beating the likes of No. 2 Iowa and No. 3 Michigan State, and overcame a 14-point deficit despite a spate of injuries and opt-outs to defeat Tennessee 48-45 in OT in the Music City Bowl. Not a bad trio of wins for a school from the West Division.
Franklin, as CEO of PSU FB, Inc. has a full plate. Here’s a look at what’s coming up on his calendar in the next few months, part of those 364 days. It includes his birthday – the Big 5-0 – on, appropriately, the second signing date for the Class of 2022.
1. The Transfer Portal – Wide receiver Mitchell Tinsley of Western Kentucky (87 catches, 1,402 yards, 14 TDs, 16.1 ave.) was a great portal find for Penn State. Expect more players to come and go; among that group, you have to think that at least one current PSU RB transfers, right? Otherwise, the LawnBoyz room has six members on scholarship.
2. The NFL Draft – The run of PSU players who declared for the NFL will continue. Expect kicker/punter/passer/receiver Jordan Stout to be the next to declare. There’s also the chance that PJ Mustipher, having a terrific 2021 season when he was injured against Iowa, could go pro. Deadline to declare for the 2022 Draft is Jan. 17, with players have 72 hours to reconsider after officially declaring. (The Combine begins March 1 in Indy and the Draft April 28 in Las Vegas.)
3. The Coaching Staff – It looks like specials team Joe Lorig, Franklin’s old roommate when they coached together at Idaho State, is headed to Oregon. Franklin will have to make yet another new hire. If Lorig leaves, eight of Franklin’s 10 fulltime assistants will have been at Penn State for three years or less. And, you ever know; Franklin could make other changes as well. He fired offensive coordinators and O-line coaches after seasons that were more productive that what PSU had in 2021. Penn State’s running backs performed at historically low levels. Plus, an assistant or two could leave of his own volition, a la Lorig.
4. The New DC – Manny Diaz adds a lot of value of as the new defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, but he’ll have his work cut out for him, beginning with his depleted LB corps. PSU will be a significant adjustment for the charismatic Diaz, who was a bigtime head coach with his own show the past three years and has never coached – or lived – north of the Mason-Dixon line, and that certainly includes the Big Ten.
5. The American Football Coaches Convention – Literally thousands of coaches will converge on San Antonio on Jan. 9-11 for a chalk talk, networking and interviewing frenzy. Franklin picked up former PSU O-line coach Matt Limegrover here in early 2016. Franklin will also be busy as chair of the AFCA Ethics Committee.
6. The Second Signing Period – Penn State signed 23 recruits on Dec. 16, the first of two national letter of intent signing dates, and also added Tinsley from the portal. There’s a second signing day on Feb. 2 – Franklin’s birthday. Right now, there are no reports of any more signees. But, these days, anything’s possible.
7. Facilities – Construction continues on the massive Lasch Building addition, with the extension of the team’s weight room, and construction of new offices, a quarterback lab and more.
8. The 11-11 Backlash – Not a shock, but Penn State football fans are not the happiest lot these days. That impacts the social media conversation, of which Franklin keeps close tabs, and even more critical, the impact on ticket sales and donations. Franklin is a PR pro, so don’t be surprised to see Penn State develop a plan to accentuate the positive – a great recruiting class, Diaz, etc.
9. The New Big Boss – Penn State president Eric Barron’s contract is set to run through June 30, 2022. But look for his successor, Neeli Bendapundi, to start before that, likely at least two months early. Given her reported hands-on approach to intercollegiate athletics at her previous stop, the University of Louisville, and the high-profile nature of football at Penn State, she’ll be having substantial discussions with – and input and eventual direction to – Franklin and PSU AD Sandy Barbour. They’ll have to explain 11-11 and $85 mil guaranteed.
10. The Offense – In 2021, Penn State scored 175 points and averaged 22.0 points over its last eight games, since Iowa. In John Donovan’s final eight games as OC at Penn State before getting fired at the conclusion of the 2015 season, Penn State scored 179 points and averaged 22.4 points.
There’s a lot of work to be done.
11. The New QB – Along with nine other early enrollees, The Chosen One – top-rated quarterback signee Drew Allar – arrives to campus in time for the start of spring semester classes, which begin next Monday, Jan. 10. That means he’ll take part in official strength and conditioning, meetings, informal team throwing sessions and then spring practice.
