ALTOONA, Pa. -- This is what we've come to expect from James Franklin. It just is. And no matter what side of the debate you fall on with his massive new 10-year contract, you'd better be honest with yourself as a Penn State fan.
Franklin has a hell of a lot of improving to do as a head coach, particularly on game days, when it matters most.
Don't give me facilities. Don't tell me about a good recruiting class. Don't talk endlessly about needing a better commitment from the school. Don't fall back on how it's about the other 364 days a year.
With this coach, it's about one day.
Saturday.
Plain and simple.
Because Franklin is exceptional at his job all the rest of the days in the year. That's why Penn State gave him 10 years and $85 million -- for that stability.
But now that Penn State has forked over all that time and money, it's time for Franklin to realize something.
He needs to do better. And to stop making excuses about facilities and everything else.
Facilities didn't lose the game to Michigan State, 30-27, in the Nittany Lions' regular-season finale at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Mich.
Facilities didn't cause the Lions to go 7-5 this season. Or to lose five of their final seven games after reaching No. 4. Or to finish ninth in the Big Ten. That's right -- NINTH. Or to go 11-10 since the start of last season.
All of those things are as much a result of poor coaching as anything else.
And ALL of it falls on Franklin. Even my No. 1 takeaway:
1. Mike Yurcich should be fired. He won't be because of Drew Allar. But he should be.
Yurcich's offense has been an unbelievable disappointment all season, and Saturday he called a terrible game. Absolutely terrible.
Yes, it was snowing. Yurcich surely was trying to account for that. And yes, Michigan State was lining up with only six in the box and daring Penn State to run the ball. So Yurcich kept trying it, getting suckered in and doing exactly what the Spartans wanted him to do.
It's unfathomable how, against the worst pass defense in the country by far, Penn State kept trying and trying to run in key spots. Yurcich's playcalls in those spots was atrocious, and that as much as anything lost the game.
I cannot stress this enough, folks. Michigan State is an absolute embarrassment trying to stop the pass. It was giving up 339.9 yards passing per game, and you could see Saturday when Penn State did throw the ball, that guys were usually wide open.
But Yurcich kept calling for running plays.
On fourth-and-1 deep in scoring territory and down 23-20 with 12:43 left, Yurcich had Keyvone Lee run straight up the gut. He was stuffed. Of course he was stuffed. Penn State's running backs have been stuffed on those plays all season. This is the second-worst rushing attack the Lions have ever had -- EVER -- and Yurcich kept thinking it would magically turn around.
Penn State got the ball back, still down 23-20. Lee was stuffed on second-and-1, then on third-and-1 he fumbled. Michigan State recovered, went in and scored to make it 30-20.
I can only imagine Penn State fans out there screaming at their TVs "throw the damn ball!"
Did I mention yet that Michigan State is horrendous against the pass?
OK, just checking.
I'm not sure Yurcich got the memo.
Franklin pursued Yurcich for several years, and finally hired him after firing Kirk Ciarrocca following last season. By all accounts and statistics, the offense was better under Ciarrocca than under Yurcich, who has tried to make his Big 12 system work in the Big Ten. It hasn't.
But Yurcich isn't going anywhere. He can't.
No. 1 QB recruit Drew Allar is a Yurcich guy, so if Franklin were to fire the offensive coordinator, there's a good chance Allar might decommit. Franklin cannot take that chance.
The bottom line, though, is that Yurcich has been a colossal disappointment all season, and was again Saturday.
Sean Clifford finished 23-of-34 for 313 yards, with a bunch coming on a final desperation drive. If he would have thrown it 48-50 times, he probably would have had 450 yards passing. And Penn State most likely would have won.
WATCH: You can check out Franklin's entire postgame press conference in the tweet below from BlueWhite Illustrated:
With apologies for the sometimes iffy audio, here's James Franklin's news conference following a 30-27 loss at Michigan State: https://t.co/lXahYHokGY
— Greg Pickel (@GregPickel) November 28, 2021
2. Penn State wasn't ready to play this game.
The Spartans were dealing with a massive flu outbreak on the team, and also a bunch of injuries. None of that was apparent on the field.
Michigan State went right down the field twice on Penn State's defense in the first quarter for a 14-0 lead. That changed everything, because it showed the Spartans were ready to come out and punch somebody in the face after getting humiliated last week by Ohio State, 56-7.
Maybe Penn State heard all the flu news and was expecting some kind of softer performance by the Spartans. Who knows?
But the home team showed right off the bat that it was ready to play, while Penn State clearly showed it was not.
Again, that's coaching. Slow starts have been a problem throughout Franklin's tenure, and yet he still seems incapable of fixing that problem.
Penn State had its flu game last week against Rutgers, a 28-0 win over a bad opponent.
Michigan State came out in its flu game and showed it was the tougher, more resilient team.
3. Bad fourth-down decision early sets tone
This decision really bothered me at the time, and still does. Because I think it set the tone for the day. And even though Penn State came back to take the lead and still could have won, this decision still was troubling.
After Michigan State took the opening kickoff and went right down the field for a touchdown, Penn State ran three plays that picked up 9 yards. It left the Lions with fourth-and-1 from their own 47.
Franklin decided to punt.
That's weak, in my view.
This is a coach, mind you, that was trying fake punts with his kicker throwing and a fake field goal with his kicker running the ball a few weeks ago against Michigan. And yet in this spot, early in the game after your defense had just gotten gashed, Franklin decided to punt.
That's the point in the game where you try to establish yourself right off the bat. You know your team has struggled running the ball, sure, but you also know Michigan State is horrible against the pass. A first down there would have instilled some confidence into the team and the offense.
The punt turned out awesome as Drew Hartlaub downed Jordan Stout's kick at the 1-yard line. But as I've said repeatedly, I judge decisions based on the decision itself, not always the result.
Oh, and the result of it all was that Michigan State drove 99 yards for another TD to go up 14-0 midway through the first quarter.
Franklin trusted that his defense would come right back out on the field and do what it's done all season. Instead, the defense got gashed again as the Spartans took control of the game up 14.
Again, yes, Penn State overcame all of that and still had a chance to win. But that decision by Franklin was the wrong one.
Now, just to be clear and fair, I do not have a problem with going for it on fourth-and-1 late in the game when trailing 23-20. The conditions weren't good at all by then, and Stout had already missed a field goal and PAT. So I don't mind Franklin going for it instead of trying a field goal. But the playcall was the problem there as Lee was stuffed.
4. What in the world has happened to Joey Porter Jr.?
He had two more pass interference calls in this one, continuing his really bad run late in the season of getting flagged for key penalties.
After Daequan Hardy had given Penn State a 20-17 lead with a pick-6, Michigan State answered by marching right down the field. The Spartans faced third-and-goal at the 13, and Porter was flagged for PI on a pass into the end zone.
That put the ball at the 2, and Michigan State scored to take the lead for good.
Porter is an amazing talent and certainly a future NFL player. He has all the physical skills you want at cornerback. But he has been a liability back there late in the season, to the point where you really have to wonder if he even should have been playing at times.
This also comes down to coaching, because the young man seemingly keeps making the same mistakes over and over by grabbing receivers.
5. Is this the last time we'll see Jahan Dotson in a Penn State uniform?
The fantastic wide receiver caught eight passes for 137 yards and two TDs. He should have had even better numbers if only Penn State would have thrown the ball a lot more.
Did I mention Michigan State's pass defense is awful?
Anyway, with Penn State now headed to a lesser bowl game, the question of whether Dotson will play will be interesting. He's a sure-fire first-round draft pick, so he could decided to protect himself rather than playing another game that, for him, could seem meaningless.
Although it really isn't meaningless. Dotson now has 91 catches, leaving him six shy of Allen Robinson's single-season school record of 97. Dotson could get that record if he plays in the bowl game.
There's not as much health risk for a receiver to play in a bowl game compared to, say, a running back or linebacker. But Dotson will have a big decision coming up.
6. Where will Penn State go bowling?
If I had to guess, I'd say the Las Vegas Bowl.
For a team that once was ranked No. 4 and had dreams of a College Football Playoff berth, that's a disappointment of gigantic proportions.
7. Last thing on the contract stuff.
I've written extensively about it. I know some fans are tired of reading about it.
But this loss and 7-5 finish only add to my point of why Penn State should have waited before giving Franklin any kind of contract extension right now, let alone the whopping 10-year, $85 million deal. He still had four years left at $7 million per year in his previous deal.
Where was he going to go? Seriously. With the way Penn State has collapsed, would USC or LSU really have wanted him? I can't see it.
Given that, why on earth would Penn State still feel so compelled to give him the massive contract right now?
If Franklin wanted to walk, let him walk. That's IF there was still any place he could walk to, which is highly doubtful. Nine weeks ago there was a good chance he could leave. But after all that's happened since then, I can't imagine he was coveted any longer.
You honestly think USC was gonna give him the kind of contract it would have taken to leave after a 7-5 season and 11-10 record over two years?
I keep saying that I think Penn State ultimately wound up bidding against itself with Franklin. Sure, he was heavily desired a number of weeks ago, but why didn't folks at the school start to realize that his leverage was probably slipping away when it came to other jobs, then adjust their thought process on giving him an extension?
This entire damn process didn't make any sense whatsoever.
I think Franklin and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, played Penn State badly here and wound up winning everything, all while Franklin's team kept losing on the field.
