Penn State Football Dollars & Sense: Before/After Iowa, vs. the SEC, On the Road, Cliff the Graybeard & Franklin’s $1.2 Million Payday

The following is a quick read. Promise. So, please, don’t opt out.

In the next seven minutes, I dive into the dollars of James Franklin’s next payday, as well as sharing a sense of how the Nittany Lions have done on the road lately and vs. the SEC since joining the Big Ten. (Both about 50/50.)

For good – and then bad – measure, I also did the math to show the age discrepancy between Penn State’s oldest and newest quarterbacks, and finally offer up some real numbers behind the debate about what happened to Penn State A.I. — after the Iowa first quarter.

$1.2 Million: James Franklin Gets Paid

His team may be 7-5 with only two wins in the last 85 days, but Franklin is looking ahead to a big payday of nearly $1.2 million on Friday, when The Pennsylvania State University pays its employees on the last weekday of the month.

Franklin will get his last monthly paycheck under his old contract, which will be $495,833 (1/12th of $5.95 million). Then he’ll get an additional $500,000 as a retention bonus for being employed by PSU on Dec. 31. And he’ll also get another $200,000 as a bonus for Penn State playing in a bowl game.

In total, that’s $1,195,833.

6-7: Against the SEC

Since Penn State joined the Big Ten Conference in 1993, it has played a Southeastern Conference opponent 13 times, compiling a 6-7 record. Arkansas will be No. 14 and the Outback Bowl will mark the first time PSU has played the Razorbacks.

In September, Penn State defeated Auburn of the SEC, 28-20, in a Beaver Stadium Whiteout. The 2021 season will mark the second time Penn State has played two SEC teams in one season in the Big Ten era. The first came in 2010, when Penn State lost 24-3 to Alabama in Beaver Stadium, then lost 37-24 to Florida in the season-ending Outback Bowl.

Franklin, who coached at Vanderbilt in the SEC for three seasons before coming to Penn State in 2014, is 1-2 against SEC foes while at PSU. His Nittany Lions lost 27-24 to Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl and 24-17 to Georgia in the TaxSlayer Bowl. Overall, Franklin is 0-1 vs. Arkansas; Vandy fell 31-28 to the Razorbacks, No. 8 at the time, in 2011.

Joe Paterno was 5-5 against SEC opponents during the Big Ten era as Penn State’s head coach, having lost to Alabama twice in the regular season (2010, 2011). The remainder of the matchups came in bowl games. His wins vs. the SEC came in bowl games against Tennessee (Citrus, Outback), LSU (Capital One), Auburn (Outback) and Kentucky (Outback). His other two losses came in bowl games vs. Florida (Outback) and Auburn (Capital One). Paterno’s teams were 3-1 in the Outback Bowl.

Penn State defeated Auburn, 43-14, in the inaugural Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 1996. From 1985-1995, the postseason game was called the Hall of Fame Game.

9-9: On The Road Again

Things have not gone all that well for the Nittany Lions when they’ve been away from Beaver Stadium since Nov. 3, 2018 – the day they were hammered 42-7 on the road against Michigan in The Big House. Counting that game, they have been just 9-9 away from the friendly confines of their home turf.

There have been some big road wins in that 18-game stretch – notably, the 53-39 Cotton Bowl victory over Memphis on Dec. 28, 2019, which was Penn state’s last appearance in a bowl game. So much has changed since then – no Micah Parsons or Journey Brown, two new contract extensions for Franklin, and eight new assistant coaches (counting the axed OC Kirk Ciarrocca).

In that time, Penn State also won at Michigan State (2019), at Iowa (2019), at Michigan (2020), at Wisconsin (2021) and twice each at Maryland (2019, 2021) and Rutgers (2018, 2020). So, nearly half of PSU’s road wins in that time have come against the downtrodden Terps and Scarlet Knights.

The Nittany Lions have also lost an equal number of road games in that time span, including a bowl appearance against a SEC squad – that Citrus Bowl against Kentucky on Jan. 1, 2019. Other road losses in that stretch came at Michigan (2018), Minnesota (2019), Indiana (2020), Nebraska (2020), Iowa (2021), Michigan State (2021) and twice at Ohio State (2019, 2021).

24 vs. 18-1/2: Age Old Battle

Penn State’s next game after its next game (Saturday’s Outback Bowl) is Sept. 3, 2022, against Purdue in West Lafayette. It will mark the sixth season in a Penn State uniform for quarterback Sean Clifford and safety/linebacker Jonathan Sutherland, both of whom declared their intent to take advantage of a pandemic-plus season and return for 2022.

Clifford and Sutherland were the first three-time captains in Penn State football history in 2021; it is very likely they’ll be the first four-time captains in 2022 as well.

Clifford was the first verbal commit in Penn State’s Class of 2017. Here’s how long ago it was: At the time, John Donovan was Penn State’s offensive coordinator and Ricky Rahne was the QB coach (the first of two such stints for him) when Clifford committed on July 13, 2015 – the day before his 17th birthday. Drew Allar was 11 years old at the time.

In a nice touch of irony, Allar – the big fish recruit at quarterback who officially signed with Penn State in December – verbally committed to Penn State on March 8, 2021, which was Allar’s 17th birthday.

The day of the ’22 opener at Purdue, the (very) veteran Clifford will be 24 years old. Allar, the rookie phenom, will be 18-1/2. That’s a huge gap of 2,065 days. To give that further perspective, the difference in age between Clifford and Penn State tight ends coach Ty Howle, a 2013 PSU grad, is 2,519 days.

At six years each, next season Clifford and Sutherland will be at Penn State longer than every coach on the Penn State staff except for Franklin and cornerbacks coach Terry Smith, who both begin Year 9 in the fall. When Penn State opens spring practice in March, seven of Penn State’s assistant coaches will be on staff for three or fewer seasons.

Before & After the Iowa First Quarter

The line of demarcation for Penn State’s 2021 season came early in the Iowa game, in Kinnick Stadium. Penn State was 5-0 and ranked No. 4 entering the nationally-televised game against No. 3 Iowa.

After the first quarter, despite two Clifford interceptions, Penn State led 14-3. On the first drive of the second quarter, Clifford completed 3 of 7 pass attempts for 13 yards and ran once for 22 yards. He exited the field with the rest of the offense after back-to-back failed passes to tight end Brenton Strange. Clifford was hurt during the drive and never re-entered the game.

Jordan Stout subsequently kicked a 32-yard field goal and Penn State led 17-3. Iowa scored on its next possession to pull within 17-10, and eventually won in tortuous fashion, 23-20.

The Nittany Lions were never the same.

The chart below details Penn State’s key stats through the end of that first quarter vs. Iowa and in the subsequent quarters and games. You know the narrative. I just provide the exact numbers.

No big surprises, though it is interesting that both wide receiver Jahan Dotson and linebacker Ellis Brooks, the Nittany Lions’ leading tackler, upped their games bit as things got tougher. Not a surprise, tough; both are top-notch and mature, on and off the field. And despite his injury challenges, Clifford threw only one interception over the final seven games. Just as telling, though, is how Clifford’s yards per carry plummeted from 3.5 yards to nearly minus a yard — due in part to the large number of sacks and exacerbated by Clifford’s health woes.

Even in defeat, Penn State was in every game — losing its five games by a total of 21 points (3, 2, 9, 4 and 3).