ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- This will be the most interesting week of the season for Penn State. Especially James Franklin.
The 41-17 disaster that unfolded against Michigan on Saturday is over. It was bad. Really bad. And the Nittany Lions lost.
Now, they can't let what happened against the Wolverines beat them twice.
And anybody who follows Penn State football at all knows that this team, this program, this coach have had a big problem with that.
For whatever reason, Franklin has failed to figure out how to consistently get his players, his coaches and probably even himself regrouped and refocused after a loss. Particularly the first loss of a season.
Five times in his first eight seasons at Penn State, the first loss was followed by another.
More importantly -- and why so many fans are concerned right now -- the bleeding from the first loss has turned into a death spiral each of the past two years.
The Lions started 5-0 last year, then fell to Iowa and couldn't recover, losing the next two against Illinois and Ohio State on the way to a 7-6 collapse.
In 2020, a season-opening loss at Indiana ignited an 0-5 start.
With a solid Minnesota team coming to Beaver Stadium this week, followed by a juggernaut Ohio State squad in two weeks, the fear of a three-game losing streak is real. Hey, the Lions aren't beating the Buckeyes, so it's at least going to be two losses in three weeks. But Penn State is better than Minnesota, it's at home, it'll be a whiteout and there is NO reason the Lions should lose that game.
Unless the Franklin curse strikes again.
All of this mess first showed up in Franklin's very first season at Penn State, as he started 2014 with a 4-0 record, then lost the next four. Now, the 2014 roster was severely limited because of the sanctions, so we have to take anything that year with a grain of salt, but still, the disturbing trend with Franklin started then and has never been solved.
It's why one of the obvious themes of the postgame interviews Saturday was about how the team would regroup from the loss and not let it sink their season.
Here's what Franklin said when asked how to get the team mentally focused for the next game after this loss:
"Like everybody else in the country knows, you get a tough defeat, you learn from it, you make the adjustments, you make the corrections and you get back to doing what you gotta do to be 1-0 next week.
"This game can't linger. Talking about games in the future doesn't matter. We got to find a way to be 1-0 next week. We're going to need everybody in that locker room and everybody in Happy Valley and the Penn State community to stick with us and rally around us. We're 5-1. And that's what we are. Very clearly. That's where we are, 5-1. That's what we are. The losses aren't bigger than what they are, and the wins aren't bigger than what they are."
Franklin is right in all of that. It's part of his 1-0 mentality, to treat each game separately and try to forget about the last game, good or bad.
But this is clearly one of those topics where Franklin's words mean nothing more than lip service. Because while what he said makes sense, until he backs it up by finding a way to stop the bleeding after a loss, then everyone has every right to doubt him in these situations.
And boy howdy, everybody sure seems to be doubting Franklin right now. The 5-0 start and rise to a No. 10 ranking had the fan base fired up, but the colossal disappointment that took place against the first good opponent of the season has led to a renewed feeling in the fan base once again that Franklin just can't get the job done in the biggest of situations.
Now, on top of keeping everyone motivated to bounce back -- which will be tough enough in itself with a whole bunch of young players -- Franklin has to make a huge decision with his quarterback this week. That would challenge any coach and any team because of the importance of the position, and he'll be judged strongly one way or the other on whatever decision he makes.
Sean Clifford was lousy again Saturday at Michigan, completing 7-of-19 passes for 120 yards, although he did have a big 62-yard run. Then the senior QB injured his shoulder late in the game and gave way to prized freshman Drew Allar.
This week very well could turn out to be a seminal moment for the Penn State program with regards to Allar and his future. Or, Clifford and his present.
First of all, will Clifford even be healthy enough to play? If so, does he automatically just get the start? Or does Allar get strong consideration for his first-career start? Either way, does Allar play a lot as part of a true, meaningful quarterback competition going forward?
Whatever Franklin decides will have a huge impact on the rest of the season. To his credit, the coach made a tremendous decision at the beginning of the season to make Allar the backup, when everyone thought it would be Christian Veilleux, and that move put Allar in position to where he could potentially be the starter at this stage depending on what happened.
Pretty much the entire Nittany Nation wants to see Allar get his shot. But would making that kind of move, after a loss, be seen by the rest of the players on the team as a panic move by Franklin? Or, just the opposite, as a bold, decisive, positive move that inspires the entire program?
This is what college coaches get paid big, big money for -- to make decisions like this.
Franklin hasn't made enough good decisions in these kinds of situations during his career to be trusted very much. And this week will be another test of his ability to grow as a coach and prove he's up for this kind of challenge.
It won't all fall just on the coach, either. The leaders on the team have to do everything they can to keep the squad together and focused throughout the week, which can be a big challenge after such a humbling defeat.
"Domino effect," defensive tackle P.J. Mustipher said, finishing a question from a reporter about the potential fallout.
"Coming back into work today," Mustipher added. "I gotta sit on this loss for a little bit, get my mind right, because I know tomorrow, we got to come in and get back to work. We can't let one loss turn into another loss."
Now, Mustipher is a senior who's been around a while, so he's been through this. Not all the players have, such as freshmen running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, or Allar. What do the veterans have to do in order to help the young players rebound?
"I remember being a young guy, and you look up to the older guys and the veterans who have been there," Mustipher said. "So, that really falls on us. We've been here for a while, we've played a lot of football, and it's our job to help them out and be able to get them to do what we need them to do as a defense and as a team. So, that falls on us. Young guys don't have that much experience. We do, and it's our job to help them out there on the field."
Will they be able to pull it off this week?
Will Franklin?
It's gonna be awfully interesting to find out.
CORRECTION
An earlier version of this story had Franklin's career record after a loss as 15-28-1. That is incorrect, and was instead mistakenly based on a reference from an outside story on the coach's record against the point spread during his career.
POINT SPREAD
The Lions are favored by 4.5 points over Minnesota, according to lines released Sunday. The Gophers likely will be without starting QB Tanner Morgan, who was injured in their loss Saturday to Illinois.
PENN STATE IN THE POLLS
The Lions dropped six spots from No. 10 to No. 16 in both the AP poll and the coaches poll Sunday. Some might have expected them to fall even further after such a bad loss, but that didn't happen.
