Perched in the booth Saturday night at University of Phoenix Stadium, Ricky Rahne saw Washington’s defense and knew in that moment he was setting up Trace McSorley and Miles Sanders for failure.
“I learned mid-play,” Rahne said Saturday night. “I knew it wasn’t going to go well.”
The play resulted in a team fumble as McSorley’s pitch to Sanders ultimately led to seven points for Washington and resulted in an agitated Rahne who was mad at himself even in a celebratory Penn State locker room because the Nittany Lions’ newly appointed offensive coordinator said he couldn’t verbalize it quickly enough to get McSorley into another play. It was a hiccup of sorts within the win that can be chalked up to a learning experience for a coordinator whose debut minus two play calls he’d like to have back couldn’t have gone much better.
Still, within that moment it was clear Rahne's competitive nature wasn't going to let two plays -- both of which resulted in turnovers -- get washed away in a win.
"That’s on me," Rahne said. "I cant put those kids in that position. They work too hard for me to put them in a position like that so I just gotta do better on that next time."
Penn State posted 35 points and 545 yards in Rahne’s official offensive coordinator debut, providing a jolt of confidence to Penn State that as this offense transitions to next season with a new starting running back, tight end, guard and wide receiver too, the play caller has been groomed for his opportunity for years.
Rahne is certainly James Franklin’s guy, the one who the head coach knew since their time together at Kansas State when Rahne was a graduate assistant and ultimately Franklin elevated Rahne from Penn State's tight ends coach to offensive coordinator when Joe Moorhead left last month for Mississippi State. Franklin knew his top candidate was right in front of him and he’s been all along. They could be together in these roles for years to come.
“I think if you look at a lot of coaches at big-time programs like Penn State they got two or three core guys that have been with them for a long time and Ricky is one of those guys,” Franklin said last week. “When you have talent and you have really good people and you have guys who are loyal, those guys are hard to come by. And then also the fact that there’s value in that Ricky doesn’t want to be a head coach. When you can get a guy who wants to be a coordinator and wants to be the best coordinator in college football and doesn’t want to be a head coach, that’s like finding a unicorn.”
Franklin’s point about Rahne’s career aspirations certainly is noteworthy and Rahne even said before the season started that he had no head coaching aspirations. That’s rare, especially for a coach who Franklin called a "rising star" before the season even started. But, with Franklin signing his contract extension before the season started and Rahne setting up to be his long-term coordinator should everything play out in the coming years – and of course that’s a big if – but if it does, this could be a Penn State pairing for years to come.
“Staff consistency and recruiting are by far the two biggest issues (to sustaining success),” Franklin said. “The other thing is having the ability and being willing to change and adapt over time.”
Franklin hasn’t been resistant to change, parting ways with failing offensive coordinator John Donovan in 2015 after the two-year experiment in State College headed south and took the offense’s production with it. Franklin hasn’t always promoted from within, bringing in Moorhead from Fordham who brought with him a fresh set of ideas and then looping back to hire tight ends coach Tyler Bowen last month who was at Maryland, but served as a Penn State graduate assistant two stops prior.
Sure, Franklin promoted defensive coordinator Brent Pry from within two offseasons ago, another one who certainly would make the cut to Franklin’s 2-to-3 loyal assistant tree, while Josh Gattis, Terry Smith, Sean Spencer and Matt Limegrover have all picked up added responsibilities and titles along the way.
Franklin has one more coaching hire to make this offseason, bringing in a running backs coach to fill the team’s last need. He can make that hire within the next week when all FBS teams are allowed to add a 10th assistant coach, but like every other coaching hire Franklin made since being at Penn State there’s no reason to think he doesn’t already have his mind made up on his top candidate like he did with Rahne's promotion.
Whether or not that coach, much like his offensive coordinator who has been in front of him all along, is already around the program will become clear within the coming days. Finding a balance between hiring future head coaches versus future coordinators is something Franklin will look strike with this next hire.
"You want guys who want to be coordinators one day and guys who want to be head coaches," Franklin said. "But, you better have the balance on the staff as well because you have other guys with other aspirations."
