James Franklin's Got an Excuse
The Penn State coach has struggled against ranked opponents, so will this Saturday night's White Out against No. 6 Oregon be any different?
Last Thursday night, in Montrose, Pennsylvania, the highest-paid state employee was given a police escort to a high school football game.
No, this wasn’t Gov. Josh Shapiro, one of the early leading candidates for the 2028 Democrat presidential ticket. Rather, it was the head football coach for Penn State University, James Franklin.
Pennsylvania is often described as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between. So why, you might ask, the week before playing No. 6 Oregon, was Franklin in the northeast parts of the Alabama section of Pennsylvania?
Franklin was in town on his team’s off week to watch 3-star recruit Tavian Branch, a lineman from Riverside High School, who recently committed to the Nittany Lions after decommitting from Rutgers a few weeks ago.
Franklin, the consummate salesman — known for hugging moms, kissing grandmas and fist-bumping little brothers — was in his natural environment under the Friday Thursday night lights.
It’s this exact salesmanship recruiting that has made Penn State one of the top programs in college football during Franklin’s tenure, in which he’s compiled a record of 104-42.
It’s also what’s made Penn State one of the top programs to underperform in college football during Franklin’s tenure, which includes a record of 1-10 against rival Ohio State, a loss to Notre Dame in last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal, and bowl losses that include blowing a 14-point fourth quarter lead to USC in the 2016 Rose Bowl and a 24-17 loss to interim Georgia head coach Bryan McClendon, in the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl.
Georgia, just to remind you, went on to hire Kirby Smart and has won three SEC championships and two National Championships since that game.
This Saturday night, James Franklin leads his Nittany Lions (3-0) into Beaver Stadium in front of 100,000-plus fans, all of them clad in white, to take on one of the most explosive offensive teams in college football this season, the Oregon Ducks (4-0).
It was just last December when Penn State and Franklin faced off against Oregon, led by head coach Dan Lanning, in the Big Ten championship game. In essence, the game didn’t mean much, as both teams were basically assured one of the twelve spots in the first expanded CFP.
The Nittany Lions lost 45-37. Just like they’d lost 20-13 to No. 4 ranked (and eventual national champions) Ohio State back in November.
Just like in 2023, when they’d lost to No. 3 Ohio State 20-12 in October, and No. 3 Michigan 24-15 in November, and No. 11 Ole Miss, 38-25, in December in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl.
Through the 2024 season, Franklin’s record against Top 10 teams is 4-20. Against Top 25 teams, his record is 13-27.
Against elite competition, he loses more than he wins.
Despite his pedestrian record, Franklin continues to rake in money.
He is currently signed through the 2031 season thanks to a 10-year contract signed in 2021 that is worth $85 million, with up to $1 million in annual performance incentives. In 2024, the contract was amended to include incentives for the expanded CFP.
This after he was given a six-year extension in August 2017, after Franklin’s name popped up in coaching searches and/or he flirted with other schools.
And at the end of the 2019 regular season, when the board of trustees unanimously approved an extension for Franklin after rumored interest from USC and Florida State.
Franklin rewarded Penn State with an 0-5 start during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season. Then a 7-5 season in 2021, after starting 5-0.
Before last season’s expanded playoff, the excuse-makers always pointed out, if there was an expanded playoff, Penn State would routinely be one of those teams playing.
Last season proved their point.
Franklin and his Nittany Lions then went on to beat SMU at home in the opening round of the CFP, Boise State in the VRBO Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal, but lost to Notre Dame, 27-24, in the Capital One Orange Bowl.
This proved once again, that while Franklin is an excellent salesman, he’s not a very good football coach. In fact, he may be one of the worst in-game tacticians I’ve witnessed in 40-plus years of watching football.
After every loss to a ranked team, Franklin spews the same tired coach-speak phrases:
“Everyone wants to look at a specific play, but there's probably eight to 12 plays in that game that could have made a difference. I'm not going to call out specific plays or specific players. There are a ton of plays where we could have done better.” — Loss to Notre Dame, January 10, 2024
“I own it all. We did some things that were good enough to win, other things we did not.” — Loss to Ohio State, November 2, 2024
“We’ve lost to the No. 1 and the No. 3 team in the country, that’s not good enough. We have to find ways to win those games.” — Loss to Michigan, November 11, 2023
“I’m not sure if we didn’t just watch the two of the best teams in college football, specifically on the defensive side of the ball. The story of the game came down to third down. We weren’t able to stay on the field, which was the biggest difference in the game.” — Loss to Ohio State, October 21, 2023
“The game starts and ends with the turnovers. They’re explosive on the offensive side of the ball, they’re explosive on the defensive side of the ball. We played our tails off, just made too many mistakes.” — Loss to Ohio State, October 29, 2022
I could go on, but you get the point. His team’s are good. Close to winning. It’s just these teams he’s playing are really good. Just a little bit better.
Excuses, as they say, are like a**holes — everyone’s got one. If true, Franklin has a case of verbal diarrhea.
And while you’re at it, how about a contract extension?
I have no doubt in my mind that Penn State and James Franklin will lose on Saturday night to Oregon. I hope they can keep it close. I also have no doubt we will hear another lame excuse similar to those above coming from the mouth of James Franklin.
I also have no doubt that Penn State will lose at Ohio State on November 1st.
And after the Penn State “faithful” are done selling their season tickets and parking passes on Facebook, I’m not convinced they don’t lose to Indiana, currently ranked No. 11 in the AP Poll, the following week in Happy Valley.
Which makes me wonder when Penn State fans, the board of trustees, and the Nittany Lion players and future recruits, will grow tired of losing big games and listening to excuses?
We’ll know soon enough, this Saturday night, whether Franklin should have [INSERT LAME EXCUSE HERE] during this past off-week, rather than making a sales call to a 3-star recruit’s high school football game.