As season collapses, would Penn State fans rather Franklin stay or leave?

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- James Franklin promised to make Penn State elite. Three years later, it's clear he has failed.

The Nittany Lions are miles away from that goal.

Penn State is an above-average football program. Good enough to beat a lot of teams, and good enough to hang close in losses to the likes of Ohio State and Michigan.

But Penn State has a lot of issues. And while, yeah, the Lions hung tough with No. 6 Michigan and were in position to win in the fourth quarter, they couldn't finish the deal.

The Wolverines got a 47-yard TD pass with 3:26 remaining to come away with a 21-17 victory Saturday afternoon at Beaver Stadium.

Penn State was the No. 4 team in the country after starting 5-0. It has lost four out of five since then to fall to 6-4.

Franklin is 10-9 over his last 19 games, going back to the start of last season.

What do Penn State fans have to hang their hats on? Moral victories and recruiting.

It's just not good enough.

That should never be good enough at Penn State.

I wrote the moral victory angle after the 33-24 loss at Ohio State a couple of weeks ago. I'm not writing that column again here after a close loss to the No. 6 team in the country.

If you think any of this is being too hard on Franklin, then ask yourself: Is 6-4 good enough? Is 10-9 over two seasons good enough? Is going 1-4 since reaching No. 4 good enough?

If you're angry at me for pointing this stuff out -- "There goes Giger hating on Penn State again" -- then you're angry at the wrong person.

My takeaways from the game and the current Penn State situation:

1. Do Penn State fans want Franklin to stay, or would you rather he leave?

I am NOT talking about firing Franklin. Not in any way, shape or form. He has done a lot of good things at Penn State and has four years left on his contract.

What I'm asking is if fans would rather he take the job at USC or LSU (if he's even still a candidate) so that Penn State can move on and find another coach.

But ... but ... but the great recruiting class???

Like I said earlier, is that really what being a Penn State fan has come down to? Keeping a coach who has been losing a lot of games just so the recruits who are committed will come? What is this, Indiana or Purdue?

Even if all of those recruits do come to Penn State, they won't make a huge impact on the field for two to three years. And keep in mind, this year's team loses a bunch of key pieces -- likely Sean Clifford, along with Jahan Dotson, Jaquan Brisker, Brandon Smith, etc. -- and there's a good chance next year's team will be worse.

Worse than 7-5, which is where this team appears headed if it loses the finale at Michigan State.

I asked Franklin after the game if going 10-9 and battling and playing hard and losing close games is good enough at Penn State, and to analyze the job he's done as head coach.

"No," Franklin said. "I get it. I get it. But I'm proud of those guys in the locker room. I'm proud of the coaching staff. We'll find a way to get a win next week."

2. Would other schools still want Franklin at this point?

The collapse this season could be very costly to Franklin. If he did want to go to USC or LSU, why would those schools want him now? if Penn State finishes 7-5, can those schools really go to their boosters and convince them to fork over a ton of money for a coach with a 10-9 record over two seasons?

My guess is no. And if that's true, then Franklin will be staying at Penn State -- likely for many more years. Because, frankly, he may never get another opportunity to find himself being mentioned for those kinds of jobs, depending on how things turn out at Penn State in the coming years.

Franklin can recruit. He can turn a program around. That's what USC and LSU want. But he can't take the next step to contending for a national championship. And ultimately, that's what those schools want.

It's very likely that Franklin has played his way out of contention for those jobs, while also turning off a lot of Penn State fans in the process. So he's gone from being a hot commodity at other other places and extremely desired by his own fan base, to now being somewhere in the netherworld of not being truly wanted anywhere.

All in a span of a month and a half.

3. Penn State somehow had a chance to win ... until it didn't.

The Nittany Lions played a lackluster offensive game and trailed 14-6 midway through the fourth quarter. The defense had done its job to that point, but points were hard to come by. A highly questionable fake field goal cost the Lions at least three points, and maybe even seven had they gone about things differently (more on that later).

But lo and behold, Penn State's offense came up with a key drive after taking over at its own 47 and tied the game. Clifford threw a TD pass to Tyler Warren on fourth-and-goal at the 2, then connected with Dotson on the 2-point conversion to even things up at 14 with 7:35 to go.

Seconds later, Arnold Ebiketie got a strip sack on Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara, and Penn State got the ball on the Wolverines' 13-yard line. The drive didn't go anywhere, and Jordan Stout kicked a 31-yard field goal with 5:55 remaining.

After getting outplayed for much of the game, Penn State found itself in position to beat the No. 6 team in the country.

We all would be feeling a lot different about this team and this program had the Lions held on to win.

But they didn't.

The defense, which has been so good all season, had a bad play when defenders Kalen King and Daequan Hardy collided, allowing Erick All to take a short pass all the way to the house for the winning 47-yard TD with 3:29 left.

Here's what Ebiketie had to say about how disappointing it was to lose such a close game.

"Very," he said. "Knowing that you're that close to accomplishing the goal and getting the W and falling down so short. Looking back, you can count probably two or three plays we could have had."

4. What's with the throws to Cam Sullivan-Brown?

The veteran wide receiver has caught four passes this season, for a total of 44 yards. But with the game on the line in the closing minutes, Penn State threw two passes his direction, both incomplete.

On first down after Michigan's go-ahead TD, Clifford tried to connect with Sullivan-Brown deep down the left sideline. The ball was slightly overthrown, and the receiver couldn't pull it in. It was a very close play, and by no means a drop by Sullivan-Brown

Still, Penn State has the best wide receiver in the country in Dotson, so why not call his number on that route? It just didn't make much sense.

Dotson got drilled trying to make a contested catch on third down, and he had to come out of the game. Since he was shaken up, he had to sit out one play. (Update: Dotson could not have come back into the game even if Penn State had called a timeout, per the rules).

The Lions didn't have their best receiver, and the pass on fourth-and-2 from the Lions' 33 went to Sullivan-Brown. It was incomplete, and that was the ballgame as Michigan ran out the clock.

OK, so if Dotson wasn't available, why not target No. 2 receiver Parker Washington or No. 3 receiver Keandre Lambert-Smith. It's no knock on Sullivan-Brown, but he just hasn't been a big enough factor to warrant two throws going his way with the game on the line.

5. Another game with a ton of passes

Clifford threw 43 passes, after throwing 99 in his previous two games. So that's 142 passes over his last three games. He completed 23 passes for 205 yards and one TD.

Running back John Lovett had two costly drops that could have changed some things during the game. Those are the kinds of mistakes you just can't have against a top 10 team.

Dotson finished with nine catches but for only 61 yards, as Michigan kept him bottled up and allowed only shorter routes. He now has 80 catches with two games left in the regular season, 17 shy of the program record set by Allen Robinson. With a bowl game, as well -- presuming Dotson does play -- he has a strong chance to be the first Penn State receiver with 100 catches.

6. What in the world was that fake field goal play?

Let me state up front that I don't really have a problem with trying a fake field on fourth-and-goal at the 2 late in the first quarter. I've said this time and again, I try to judge a coach's decision based on the DECISION and not the outcome. Because as Franklin has pointed out, sometimes coaches can make a good decision on a controversial play, and if it works, great, but if not they'll get criticized.

I try not to do that, if I agree with the original decision to try a fake or going for it on fourth down, etc.

That said, the play Penn State ran trying to score on the fake field goal was hot garbage. I mean ... this is terrible, pitching wide to the kicker and trying to let him run it in.

Now, if you're in the camp of criticizing the decision to try a fake, then you cannot also be in the camp of praising the fake punt earlier in the first quarter that saw Stout throw a pass to Curtis Jacobs for a first down. This play was gorgeous.

I like the creativity there, and timing was good for that type of play.

And again, I believe the timing was good for the fake field goal a few minutes later. It's just that, goodness gracious, there's got to be a better play than the one Penn State ran. If that's what you're gonna run, then just line up and go for it from the 2.

Penn State missed out on at least three points there, and possibly even seven. And of course, coming up empty in that sequence had an impact on the rest of the contest in a tight game.

"I think you guys know as well as me, we have not been great in short-yardage situations," Franklin said. "So, that was our going for it on fourth down. Don't think we had the look that we wanted, but it's about details. We threw the ball to the back hip. He was not the type of guy that was going to be able to catch a ball thrown behind him and still be able to outrun the defense. You just got to clean it up, and the margin of error is really small.

"Obviously, we're playing a bunch of really good teams, especially on this side of the conference. I'd make the call again, but obviously, it wasn't successful. We were going to call the game today in an aggressive way to give us the best chance to win the game. We got to find ways to execute, and we got to do a better job coaching."

Here's what Stout had to say about the play.

"It's a tough situation. I think he did a great job of getting the ball to me. It was a little behind, and I did my best to get it and stay in stride, but I couldn't do it. We just wanted to win today. It worked in practice. Being aggressive was the plan coming into this game and just in general. Not necessarily just this game but it's always in the game plan to be aggressive."

7. There were actual improvements in the running game

The Lions ran for 109 yards, with Keyvone Lee going for 88 yards on 20 carries. Clifford took off and ran a few times for big gains early in the game, but Michigan took that away as the day went on. Still, at least he showed a willingness to run, after not doing so since his injury at Iowa.

"I was just playing," Lee said. "I was so caught up in just making plays and just playing and being me. I wasn't really worried about my touches or how the game was going."

The much-maligned offensive line did a little better in run blocking, but also allowed seven sacks. Center Mike Miranda got injured and couldn't go back into the game, Franklin said, so Juice Scruggs took over for him.

"I think at times we did some pretty good things, but we weren't consistent enough," Franklin said of the O-line. "We got to be able to run the ball to take the pressure off the passing game. We got to be able to protect when everybody knows you're going to throw the ball and we got to be able to run the ball when everybody in the stadium knows you're going to run the ball."

That continues to be the single biggest problem for this Penn State team.

8. Harbaugh avoids the massive criticism that would have come his way had Michigan lost

There's a fine line between winning and losing. See all that stuff I wrote up above about Franklin? We wouldn't be getting into that right now if not for the hugely disappointing finish after the Lions had taken the lead.

One play. One score. One bad loss.

But that play -- the go-ahead 47-yard TD pass -- saved Jim Harbaugh in a HUGE way with Wolverines fans.

"I was really confident they would (come through)," Harbaugh said of his offense delivering the late TD. "This team doesn't flinch. They don't even bat an eye when stuff happens."

Harbaugh told a story of what he said to his quarterback before the winning drive.

"I just said, 'Hey Cade, you were born for this. Born for drives like this.' And he went out and did what he does," Harbaugh recalled.

It's no secret to anyone who follows college football that Harbaugh has underachieved in a massive way at Michigan, getting all sorts of hype and all sorts of money but never winning a Big Ten title as he's in his seventh season.

Michigan already has a loss to "little brother" Michigan State, but it is still No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings with a chance to win the Big Ten and reach the playoff. Not that I believe that will happen, because I see Ohio State beating Michigan yet again (Harbaugh has never beaten the Buckeyes).

If the Wolverines would have lost this game, the same old criticisms of Harbaugh would have come up again -- that he can't win the big game, that he's too conservative, that he still coaches and plays a style from 20 years ago.

I have long said Harbaugh is the most overrated coach in sports. His team did find a way to win this game, so him and the Wolverines credit. But it would have been fascinating to see Wolverines fans bash him left and right had they lost, just like Penn State fans are currently doing with Franklin.