With Thursday night’s loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Penn State Nittany Lions coach James Franklin could not win the big game. It’s becoming a tough shadow to avoid.
Notre Dame will move on to the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 20, while Penn State is left picking up the pieces.
“Big Game James” Loses Another Important Game
Franklin has been the head coach of the Nittany Lions for 10 years and is the second-longest-tenured head coach in the Big Ten. He’s already fourth in Penn State coaching history in victories and has finished four seasons with teams ranked in the final AP Top 10.
However, Franklin’s performance in big games has come under scrutiny, and for good reason.
Penn State was driving late in the fourth quarter with the score tied at 24. They were running the ball really well,controlling the line of the scrimmage — and then all of a sudden, they stopped.
Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar threw an interception to Notre Dame’s Christian Gray, which could come to define his four years at State College.
“I was going through my progressions, got to the backside, and honestly I was just trying to throw it at his feet, but I should have just thrown it away,” Allar said in the postgame press conference. “Just looking forward to continuing to grow, learn more about myself, get better any way I can, on the field, off the field.
“I’m just looking for the opportunity. Definitely got to learn from this, but just got to learn from it and move on and take it on the chin right now.”
The main problem is Allar should have never thrown the ball. However, the question remains — why did Franklin abandon the run when it was working so well?
“In game like this at this point of the season, everybody wants to pick out a specific play,” Franklin said. “There’s probably 8-12 plays in that game that if we could have found a way to make more plays in that game, we’re that close.”
Franklin was very complimentary to the Notre Dame defense.
“They had a good plan. Give their coaches a ton of credit,” Franklin said after the game. “Their players made plays at specific times.”
Franklin also gave credit to Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden, who is a former Penn State tight end.
“You’ve got to give Notre Dame a ton of credit. Al Golden, Penn State grad, you’ve got to give him a ton of credit. We watched them on tape. We had so much appreciation for how they played defense, and they make you earn it, and we had some opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on.”
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