After another heartbreaking loss, will James Franklin and Penn State ever get over the crisis?

After another heartbreaking loss, will James Franklin and Penn State ever get over the crisis?

MIAMI GARDENS – James Franklin seemed destined to break the skid.

Be Skid, to be more precise: 12 straight losses to top-five opponents, a miserable eight-year losing streak.

But the 11th-year Penn State coach was well on his way to ending that streak. He was on his way to ending the bad phase, calming the critics and ending the debate.

Here in South Florida, at Hard Rock Stadium, against, of all things, one of the sport’s biggest brands, Franklin’s gaffe appeared to be over. His team led 10-0 in the second quarter, 24-17 in the fourth quarter and maintained offensive possession in the final seconds of a tied game.

And then, in a nightmarish play, his quarterback, Drew Allar, threw one of the costliest interceptions in College Football Playoff history.

Skid continues. Strike extended.

A few seconds after that late-game turnover, Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard field goal split the uprights, sending Notre Dame to the national championship game in Atlanta – 27-24 winners of a tough battle of a football game.

The skid is now 13.

And this one — in the national semifinals, one step away from the national title — perhaps hurts the most.

Afterwards tears flowed. The voices broke.

MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA – JANUARY 9: Head coach James Franklin of the Penn State Nittany Lions leaves the field after defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 27-24 in the Capital One Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium on January 9, 2025 in Miami Lost Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA – JANUARY 9: Head coach James Franklin of the Penn State Nittany Lions leaves the field after defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 27-24 in the Capital One Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium on January 9, 2025 in Miami Lost Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

James Franklin’s team appeared to be in control late in the Orange Bowl before falling to Notre Dame. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

Allar explained his brutal interception. In a tied game with 33 seconds left and at his own 28-yard line, he danced around in the pocket. His first reading was covered. His second reading was covered. And then he threw a pass from his back foot to receiver Omari Evans.

He intended to throw it even further at Evans’ feet. Instead, the ball floated high and wide into the arms of Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray.

A top selection of all picks.

An interception for eternity.

A game-winning, stunning turnover – no less in the original home of the “sales chain”.

“Should have thrown it away,” Allar said through tears.

The game is a microcosm of Penn State’s offensive passing game in general. It was a fight. Allar attempted to complete his first pass to a wide receiver on this play.

That’s not an exaggeration. It’s real. The Nittany Lions did not complete a pass to a wideout in four quarters of play and 23 pass attempts.

Liam Clifford, Harrison Wallace, Evans, none of them were able to assert themselves sufficiently against the Irish’s brutally tight man coverage. They were pushed around and overwhelmed.

This wasn’t the first time either. Penn State failed to complete a pass to a receiver in a loss to Ohio State in November.

It’s a bugbear for the program under Franklin’s leadership — not enough game-changing wideouts at the rim, not enough speed, not enough playmakers.

Franklin didn’t hide from it: “That’s one of the storylines of the game,” he said afterward, attributing the fights more to press coverage of Notre Dame than anything else.

“We tried some early on and couldn’t execute — hard-fought coverage,” he said.

Allar distributed his 12 completions among three tight ends and two running backs. Opposite the receivers, he at times missed high and low shots, underthrew balls and knocked them over. In fact, he threw two interceptions in the end zone, both of which failed due to Notre Dame penalties (holding and pass interference).

It’s time to give Allar more weapons on the outside. Just as an NFL franchise spends money in the offseason, the Nittany Lions must spend on wideouts in this new era of revenue sharing in college football. Enter the portal. Get out of the checkbook.

That seems to be the plan.

During an interview in November, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft acknowledged that Ohio State and others had a head start during that dismal NIL era. But, he said, in the coming era of direct compensation, Penn State will go “on par with them.”

“I think it’s our time,” Kraft told Yahoo Sports at the time.

Penn State was so close, oh so close, to a title game appearance.

A few seconds away. A few points behind.

And now, in another offseason in State College, the criticism of Franklin’s streak will continue.

He has lost 11 straight games to teams named Ohio State (8) and Michigan (3).

This skid against top-five teams dates back to the Buckeyes’ only win over his 11 seasons: a 24-21 victory over No. 2 Ohio State in 2016. The skid also includes a loss to Iowa and the loss in the Big Ten championship game against Oregon.

It’s one painful defeat after another. Of the 13, six only achieved a single result.

Those close to Franklin describe him as calculated and smart, a fiercely competitive individual who over the years has flirted with other jobs at big brands — think USC and Florida State — in exchange for more resources at Penn State to compete with them Ohio States and the Michigans and the… Notre Dames.

He is very aware of his surroundings and is sometimes shocked by headlines and comments directed at him and his program. But his team’s culture is elite, people in Happy Valley say. He cares about his players. He is passionate about them outside of the field – academics, future development, etc.

As his players left the postgame press conference, Franklin rose to hug them, wrapping his arms around running back Nick Singleton and Allar.

“Proud of you,” he told them. “Love you.”

Not long after, Franklin remembered a little about how he suddenly became the “old” guy in college football, the “dinosaur,” as he called himself. He spoke in particular about the development of college football and the professionalization of the industry.

He made a long, meandering and impassioned comment about how he wants to maintain old-style relationships at Penn State. It’s about people, he says. It’s about players.

“We have a retro program with retro uniforms,” he said. “It’s about the boys. I understand that the transfer portal and NIL are part of college football and we will embrace those things, but I want this to be more than just a transaction. I want it to be transformative.”

He began to cry before the press conference moderator saved him from choking.

It wasn’t easy to come to the press conference after a game like that, he said. It’s not easy to talk about such a troubling defeat, about losing a big lead.

It’s not easy to talk about this skidding.

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