We come to praise Penn State coach James Franklin, not to bury him.
Give the guy credit for taking the mystery out of the PSU football seasons. You know before the first kickoff that Penn State will beat the riffraff of the Big Ten, dispose of nondescript nonconference opponents (this year West Virginia, Delaware and UMass), and then be beaten by Ohio State and Michigan.
The only mystery is how demoralizing and emphatic those losses to the Buckeyes and Wolverines will be.
Saturday’s 24-15 Michigan win at Beaver Stadium was a particularly telling example of the Franklin shortcomings, which prompted booing of him during the game and some heated commentary directed at him as he left the field that was captured and relayed on social media.
The Big Ten tried to gift wrap this one for Penn State, sneakily deciding to suspend Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh Friday.
Anyone in the media knows these late Friday afternoon news dumps are specifically designed to minimize coverage. In this case, as alleged by Michigan hierarchy, it also was timed to leave little legal recourse since it was a court holiday.
For those living under the proverbial rock, Michigan has been accused of illegally scouting opponents before games to steal their play signals. I have read stories that Harbaugh is said to have been cleared by the NCAA of knowing about this act, which supposedly was performed by a rogue staffer.
Said staffer has quit and the NCAA investigation continues. But the Big Ten, appearing to bow to whining from the conference masses, decided to frontrun the NCAA and suspend Harbaugh from coaching games for the remainder of the regular season.
Many neutral observers felt this action was heavy-handed at best. That included college football analyst Booger McFarland.
Speaking on the halftime show of a Clemson-Georgia Tech game, being broadcast at the same time as Michigan was running Penn State into the turf, McFarland said, “It sure seems like they are coming down really harsh on Michigan right now, especially timing a Friday news dump, late on Friday, the team has already flown to Happy Valley, on a holiday, knowing the court system quote-unquote can’t get involved, just seems like they’re kind of out to get Michigan.”
You think?
As one social media wag noted, Franklin was outcoached by a team without a coach. Actually, Michigan did have an acting head coach, Sherrone Moore.
Moore presided over a Michigan offense that didn’t have an official pass attempt in the second half (one pass try resulted in interference by Penn State, which negated the attempt statistically).
Michigan became the first Big Ten team to go an entire half without a pass attempt since 2013.
The Wolverines didn’t need to pass. All the they did was torch the Penn State run defense, which had been ranked first nationally, for 227 yards and three touchdowns in the game.
Maybe PSU defensive coordinator Manny Diaz should have been toughening up his guys instead of taking to social media to post a video of him using hand signals telling fans to show up and be loud, an obvious dig at Michigan’s alleged signal stealing.
During the game, at least one PSU defender was seen feigning using binoculars and then writing down something on an imaginary notepad.
Again, maybe that effort would have been better put to use manning up in the second half and not allowing Michigan to run the ball down the throats and out the rectums of Penn State’s defenders.
In the final analysis, Franklin lived down to his coaching reputation. No surprise there. His Penn State teams are 4-16 combined vs. Ohio State and Michigan, have lost 13 of their past 14 games vs. AP Top 10 teams, are 3-17 vs. such opposition in his career at Penn State and are just a puny 2-8 in those games when his Penn State teams also were in the Top 10.
Someday, Franklin, who seems to have a lifetime job guarantee, will again coach Penn State to victory against either Ohio State or Michigan and the chrome dome can be counted on to celebrate madly. All he would need to do after that would be win 11 more consecutive matchups with them and he’d be back to .500 vs. the Big Ten powers!
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