James Franklin stood motionless, watching as Ohio State celebrated on his own turf. He looked defeated, searching for something in the air. It looked as if he couldn’t believe Penn State’s 20-13 loss against the Buckeyes, who danced with arms around each other as Franklin stared blankly. Reality must have set in. Franklin hasn’t beaten Ohio State in eight years.
Eight long years. Top-10 finishes, New Year’s Six bowl game appearances and not a single win against the Buckeyes. Assistant coaches have been fired and hired almost exclusively because of games like these, games that have proven too difficult for Franklin to overcome, even when his team holds all the confidence and momentum.
The opportunity for a College Football Playoff debut is still alive, which should add meaning to the second half of a season the Nittany Lions desperately need to win out. Sure, the year isn’t over, but a major chapter has concluded. Franklin has already lost, for another year, in what measures his coaching trajectory: overcoming the Ohio State hump. When will he, if ever?
“There’s nobody that’s looking in the mirror harder than I am,” Franklin said. “I will say this, and I’ve said it before: 99% of the programs across college football would die to do what we’ve been able to do in our time here. And that’s we, that’s all of us. But I also understand, when you’re at a place like Penn State, there’s really, really high expectations.”
When Franklin looks in the mirror he likely sees a coach that has found great success at a level of college football that it’s extraordinarily difficult to succeed in. Half of his teams have finished the season ranked in the top-12 nationally, some have won major bowl games and have almost annually been a consistent threat against the Big Ten’s greatest tier.
The expectation hasn’t changed for eight years, or at least since Franklin made an infamous promise after a 27-26 loss to the Buckeyes in 2018: that he’d carry the Nittany Lions into the same tier, becoming an elite program. Another year and Penn State remains on the outside looking in, despite what opportunities could present themselves in the postseason.
Everyone is dissatisfied. As Franklin walked off the field postgame, he caught an earful from two Penn State fans, outraged over the play-calling on four failed goal-line tries that all but sealed the loss. “What’s your name?” Franklin snapped back at one of the hecklers. “If you’re gonna be man enough to talk, what’s your name?”
The fan dashed away before Franklin sarcastically rang the victory bell and walked into a tunnel of boos and “Fire Franklin” chants. The loss came on a day that saw 111,030 fans pack into Beaver Stadium, setting an attendance record.
“I understand their frustration. Guys in the locker room are just as frustrated, if not more. But college football has changed, and we have an opportunity moving forward to right some wrongs from today, and that’s what we’re going to focus on,” Franklin said. “I get it. We get an unbelievable crowd here. We get unbelievable support. You don’t do that without passion. And there’s great things that come from that and there’s hard things that come from that. That’s part of the job. That’s part of the job, and I own it all. I own it all.”
Franklin cares. There’s no doubt about that. He cares enough to push Penn State’s administration for various improvements within his program and enough to call out heckling fans. He’s established a relentless culture within his facilities that is built on family and character and playing the right way — all of it, in the name of winning.
But when the wins don’t come, at least those that matter most, frustrations can settle in. Defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas, who’s in his sixth year with the Nittany Lions, knows that better than anybody. He was there when a loss to Iowa turned into five consecutive. There’s no room for complacency, especially in a year of such novelty.
“This year is different than other years just in terms of it doesn’t mean it’s the end of our season,” J-Thomas said. “This doesn’t mean that we’re just going to win out the rest of our games and play in a good bowl game. It’s different in the sense that there’s a lot of games left to be played, and there’s more on the table than just the Big Ten Championship.”
It could have been on the field as he watched the Buckeyes’ postgame celebration. Or the moment his daughter hugged him and sang the alma mater by his side. Or, perhaps, it was in the locker room, surrounded by one of the most talented teams of his coaching career, that Franklin realized that the front door to a playoff appearance remains wide open.
Penn State’s chance to go far still remains despite falling so close. Eight long years and another loss to Ohio State, but Franklin’s search for elite status isn’t done yet. There’s a whole new world on the horizon, whether his fans have realized it yet or not.
“The reality of college football is everything is still ahead of us, and we got to do a great job of making the corrections, eliminating the things that were unforced errors that happened today and then, and then we got to find a way to get a win next week at home,” Franklin said. “Everything is still in front of us.”
