James Franklin, Sean Clifford and Penn State Needed That Win, and They Got It

AUBURN, Ala. – The hedges at Jordan-Hare Stadium are a living monument to the games that have come and gone. They are a helpless but well-intended barrier meant to keep fans from the field as the clock runs out, their branches outstretched like arms, holding back a rising tide of sundresses and orange shirts determined to celebrate on a field which has brought them so much joy.

The hedges never win.

And as Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford and coach James Franklin made their way between those same hedges on a small path winding toward the locker room beyond, the crowd of assembled Nittany Lion fans — in the thousands — roared from above, leaning out ever so precariously toward making the plunge. The crowd roared louder as each pumped their fist and smiled in celebration of a 41-12 Penn State victory over host Auburn.

Penn State needed this. Sean Clifford needed this. James Franklin needed this.

Because there have been a lot of survival wins the last two seasons, but not many that have felt like something. Last season’s opener against Wisconsin was about not starting the year with a loss. Auburn a year ago was a chance to prove Beaver Stadium could defend itself from southern advances. And that was it. In 2020, an 0-5 start rendered the season’s final four games an opportunity to steer the ship in a direction of hope rather than despair. Winning at Michigan came with an asterisk that the Wolverines weren’t any good while victories over Rutgers, Michigan State and Illinois felt a nice but otherwise meaningless notch on the program’s exceptionally long belt of “necessary but uninteresting” victories.

Saturday though, it felt like something. It’s impossible to say how Penn State’s season will go in the coming weeks and months — impossible to know until the games happen if an absolute clinic against Auburn so many miles from home was the sign of something good or a sign of how bad Auburn appears to be. Whatever the case, the Nittany Lions left the field and made their way through the hedges feeling like it had all finally come together. They played defense, they hit their passes, they ran, they made their field goals. Everything worked — finally — and worked in a moment when it all really mattered. This win wasn’t just survival; this win was something.

For Penn State at large, it was a reminder of what the Nittany Lions can be. Yes, Penn State is still a team capable of dispatching Ohio with ease and surviving Purdue on the back of Clifford’s experience. But a win over Auburn in the heart of the south was something different, a reintroduction to a football crazed part of the world that Penn State isn’t something that once was a few years ago but something that still is. No matter how good or bad Auburn turns out to be, it was a statement. A statement that has escaped the program for the last few years.

Of course Franklin and Clifford — programmed to the core to take everything at an even keel measure — will never openly say this, that Saturday was a breath of fresh air and a moment that meant something more than simply surviving.

Well, maybe…

“Overall, there haven’t been too many Big Ten teams in the history of the Big Ten to come on the road and get a win in the SEC,” Franklin said after the game. “So, we’re very, very proud of that. I also think we’ve had a very challenging schedule to open the season. On the road in Big Ten then a home game and then on the road again. This team here has five home games to start the season. So proud of our guys. We will enjoy this win for a couple hours and then get back to work tomorrow.”

For Clifford it was another moment at his defense. He may not be the one to bring Penn State a national title but he still will have won more than his fair share of games and has proved more valuable than he is often credited for. Through three games, Clifford has been nearly flawless and while his interception against Purdue could have loomed large, his game-winning drive was an immediate eraser. He has otherwise been exactly the quarterback Penn State needs him to be: steady, tough and smart. When he is all three of those things the rest comes together with relative ease and Penn State is a difficult team to beat. While Saturday’s win was as much Penn State’s running backs as it was anything else, Clifford’s poise and touch on more than a few passes proved the guiding hand the Nittany Lions needed exactly when it was needed. Whatever his flaws, whatever his eventual shortcomings, Clifford can add Saturday’s win to a list of moments in his favor, moments nobody can take away from his legacy.

As for Franklin, it’s hard to deny the feeling he has won back some detractors over the past three weeks. Penn State walked into an unfamiliar and hostile environment and dispatched the Tigers with relative ease. Penn State was arguably the better team on paper before the ball was ever kicked, but paper doesn’t play the game and the Nittany Lions were once again the more prepared, disciplined and generally more consistent team. In turn, Franklin was able to get wonder-kid quarterback Drew Allar a series — a continued change in his overall philosophy on the matter of backup quarterbacks — and yet again juggled a talented running back room deftly throughout Saturday’s proceedings.

And there is short- and long-term value in this. In the immediate, Franklin has something to put back in his pocket. Penn State has been treading water as of late, trying to find its mojo as Franklin spent most all of his cache on the past year’s worth of changes, contracts and improvements around his program. By the end he was left with the very binary nature of sports: what have you done for me lately?

Frankly, he hadn’t done much. Now he has, and now he can point at it and say “I’ve done this.” A small victory in the scheme of the ones he is chasing, but a required step toward those bigger and better dreams.

“I think, we’ve been waiting to find out who we are,” said Penn State safety Ji’Ayir Brown, who had an interception and forced a fumble on a strip-sack in the victory. “And I think that you know, that’s why you’ve seen a lot more enthusiasm today and a lot more guys excited because we finally clicked. All that stuff he told me was going to happen is starting to happen.”

The same might be said — that seeing was believing — for more than a few fans, be it at home or in person.

Long term it’s another win in games that actually felt like they meant something. The more you win those games the more you win over the crowds. Franklin, who has nestled himself with fans somewhere in the category of “generally liked but not loved,” certainly won the crowd on Saturday and earned a cheer louder than most he has ever received at home, let alone on the road. And if Franklin is going to stick out any length of his 10-year contract, which is far more favorable toward his self-decided departure than firing, winning over the crowds will go a long way toward that. Especially as a coach who appears to appreciate the appreciation. If nothing else, Franklin will be unlikely to win over the big money the program needs to succeed if the big money doesn’t like him, and nothing makes big money happier than winning, a return on the investment.

In the end Penn State may not end up being destined to win the Big Ten this year as Michigan and Ohio State look to churn up everything in their respective paths yet again, but with Drew Allar waiting in the wings and a host of young talent not far behind, the Nittany Lions appear poised to take a crack at this thing again in the near future.

And achieving those things starts with wins like the one Penn State notched Saturday: victories that win over the crowd, the detractors and put just a little bit of swagger back in the program’s tank. And as the cheers rained down over the hedges, they documented another win among a well-trimmed facade that has heard those roars before.