By Tim Clark / / Penn State, Football, Column, Tim's Two Cents
Two

When I picked Penn State to win it all this year I asked the question, “If not now, when?”

Saturday night James Franklin may have given me my answer.

Never.

This Penn State team is senior laden with a five star senior quarterback. A quarterback who got three playoff games under his belt a year ago. Penn State enjoys a schedule that truly has but one difficult road game at Ohio State. Getting to play Oregon at home —after the Ducks traveled across the country— in the vaunted White Out game should have given the Nittany Lions a gigantic advantage. While Penn State had a veteran team, Oregon was loaded with youth and inexperience. Every time the Ducks made a play, I heard freshman this and freshman that. This, quite frankly, should have been easy pickings for Penn State.

Alas, it was the same old song and dance for both Franklin and Allar in an overtime loss to the Ducks.

Drew Allar simply hasn’t come close to living up to his top billing. Even before this season, many football people suggested that Beau Pribula was the better Penn State quarterback. Pribula is more athletic and fits the college game better. He is now lighting up the scoreboard for Missouri. Allar, on the other hand, has struggled and is dealing with the slings and arrows of his growing number of critics. Now that players are being paid —Allar a lot more than others— the arrows have a lot more vitriol on the tips.

I was wrong on Allar. I thought for sure he would step up this season and meet the high expectations people have always had for him. I even said I hoped the Steelers would get the chance to draft Allar. At this rate they will get that chance…in the second or third round.

Allar was underwhelming in the first three warm up games this season. He was inaccurate, even on easy throws. He was still seen pouting on the sidelines, a giant red flag for a senior. Still, I thought he would finally rise to the occasion in this game. How foolish of me.

Allar was 14-25 for 137 yards and 1 game ending interception. Only 64 yards were thrown to wide receivers. Folks, the wide receivers are legit this year. No more using that excuse. Allar did make some gutsy runs totaling 42 yards. In the end, it wasn’t nearly enough from the senior five star, and added to the list of big games in which he has underperformed.

The worst part of the game for Allar was the game plan his coaches gave him to work with. Penn State spent three quarters trying to run the ball —key word trying— and throwing check downs. It wasn’t until Penn State was down 14 points that Allar was permitted to speed up the offense and throw down the field.

Hamstringing your senior quarterback with a game plan that doesn’t accentuate his strengths seems less than optimal. This is typical James Franklin. In every big game the Nittany Lions play, Franklin is ultra conservative. He plays not to lose. I have seen it first hand as a USC Trojans fan. The only reason USC was able to make a stirring comeback to win the 2019 Rose Bowl was because Franklin took an offense that was scoring at will and put on his conservative shackles. Last year Penn State had a significantly better team than USC, yet nearly(and should have) lost. They won the game only after Franklin allowed Allar to play his game.

Saturday night, in addition to playing ultra conservative on offense, Franklin chose to punt from the Oregon 35 yard line rather than kick a 52 yard field goal. Everyone kicks from that distance now, plus his kicker made a 47 yard field goal with ease earlier in the game. The punt netted 15 yards as it went into the end zone. Again, typical Big Game James.

This is who Franklin is. When you see the play chart in his hands, if you are a Penn State fan, you should become very nervous. He has his team play scared until it is too late. Essentially, he is afraid to lose but it comes off as being afraid to win. And it never works.

The proof is in the numbers.

 

Need more?

 

It starts with Franklin, but filters to his most important player. Here is Drew Allar’s most important numbers.

 

This from a kid who has been touted as a potential high end first round draft choice. As it says in the tweet, Allar shrinks in big games. Couple that with a coach who seems to be protecting him as if he were still a freshman, and you get disappointing loss after disappointing loss in big games.

Franklin and Allar have two thirds of the season to change the narrative. However, there is only one game that will truly change that narrative: Ohio State. There is no way, at this point, anyone could possibly think Allar will step up against the Buckeyes. With the numbers above, is there anyone who thinks James Franklin will suddenly change the way he coaches against Ohio State?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I no longer think Allar is going to shine. I no longer want Drew Allar’s to be the next Steelers quarterback. It is clear that for the second time in recent memory —Clifford over Levis— Franklin let the better of two quarterbacks walk. Beau Pribula was clearly a better fit in Penn State’s offense.

In Franklin’s case, it is pretty simple. He must start winning some of the big games on his schedule. Otherwise, he will continue to be thought of as a decent coach who can’t get over the hump. And why would anyone think he will suddenly change at this point? He is who he is.

Those Nittany Lions fans yelling for his firing are spitting into the wind. As it stands, Franklin regularly wins 10 games, is an elite recruiter, packs the stadium, and keeps Penn State in the conversation year after year. Unless he leaves on his own accord, Franklin isn’t going anywhere.

This year’s team is baffling. Allar should be a star, yet he struggles to be average. Nick Singleton and/or Kaytron Allen should be in contention for All American honors. The receivers are, at the very least, solid. The offensive line is awful. The experts sold me on this being the best offensive line in the conference. They aren’t even close. This is the one position where I definitely question the coaching. This unit just doesn’t maximize its potential. The defense is good, and the kickers seem excellent. Put it all together, mix in some James Franklin poison and you get a team that falls short in the biggest moments.

For now, my Penn State pick to win it all doesn’t look like a very smart choice. The combination of Allar and Franklin are way more suited for Charmin commercials than winning big games.

Tweet of the Week

In the modern world of sports, you don’t see true professionals much anymore. Andrew McCutchen has always been a true professional, and so has Charlie Morton. This was a really neat moment over the weekend in what is most likely Charlie Morton’s final game of his career.

 


The Weekly Shiny Penny

Baker Mayfield is consistently great with fans and goes out of his way to be good to them. Here is his latest.

 


A Penny For My Final Thought…

Why can we never find a middle ground?

The Ryder Cup —I will discuss the outcome on my podcast this week— showed us a very ugly side in our country. Of course the American crowd was going to be cheering for team USA and booing the European team. However, it devolved into a bunch of “tough guys” hurling personal insults at the European players and, worse yet, their wives.

These kinds of things started ramping up right about the same time Donald Trump took center stage and essentially made boorish behavior popular. Through his words and actions he emboldened these fake tough guys to do and say whatever they want without repercussions.

The behavior of the crowd at Bethpage was reprehensible. Of course, it was the old “a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch” scenario. Most of the crowd was behaving appropriately. It was pretty apparent that players like Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas were uncomfortable with the situation. A great event was overshadowed by a group of fans that decided cheering and booing wasn’t enough. Instead they took their lead from their leader and turned it into a group of infantile sixth graders who think they are tough and/or funny by personally insulting players that could make them eat a nine iron in two seconds flat.

It was ugly.

It was unfortunate.

It probably shouldn’t have surprised anyone.

In the interest of fair play, let me give you the flip side of the coin.

My local school district put out a memo for all schools to inform the students that booing the opponent at the football game would not be tolerated. I assume this may be a Mid Penn league wide policy and not strictly a school district policy.

Booing.

The opponent.

Oh, how very woke of them.

What are the fans supposed to do? Should they give a polite golf clap when the opposing team makes a nice play or scores a touchdown?

When you play a road game at the high school level and above, you fully expect to be booed by the crowd. First of all, usually the only booing that occurs is when the team runs on the field. I get that you don’t want kids yelling inappropriate comments like what happened at the Ryder Cup. But no booing?

Once you reach the high school level, one of the fun things in sports is going into hostile territory and shutting up the home crowd. Oh wait, can I say hostile or is that too aggressive?

I am all for sportsmanship, and it certainly should be emphasized at the high school level. But opponents are the enemy who you want your team to beat. Booing is part of sports when you reach the high school level. It is another chance to teach kids to handle adversity.

This policy seems like a bit of an overreach.

Once again, there is no middle ground. One group feels like there should be an anything goes mentality and has total disregard for decency and respect. The other group feels like everything should be rainbows and butterflies.

I don’t suppose some of you would like to join me in the good old happy medium.

Just my two cents…