James Franklin's Big Game Problems

As Penn Staters pick up the pieces after another heartbreaking, gut-wrenching loss to a top-tier team

and no national championship this season again, the question becomes, will anything change if James Franklin returns

Let's answer that question right now and how much responsibility he has at his feet for the loss to Notre Dame

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If you watched Thursday night's Orange Bowl, you can't walk away from that and say that's James

Franklin's fault. I mean, Drew Aller has to throw a bad pass into coverage at the end of the game that gets

intercepted to set up the game winning field goal. None of those things James Franklin did

But there are things you can point to and ask, when will Franklin get out of his own way

Let's start with a piece from the athletic. Because this one, this was eye-opening, I got to admit

The press conference on Wednesday, where both coaches were on the podium

we had James Franklin take a shot at Notre Dame for not being in a conference

That's the headline that went viral that everybody talked about, including on my show

but there was another moment in that that apparently fueled and informed what happened at the Orange Bowl on the football field

This is from writer Pete Sampson. Before Mitch Jeter's 41-yard field goal sent Notre Dame to the national championship game

Marcus Freeman stood before his team inside the diplomat hotel on Hollywood Beach Wednesday afternoon

Notre Dame's head coach had just returned from a final news conference before kickoff

the kind of throwaway media gathering usually forgotten before the last ball trophy photo can be snapped

This wasn't one of those times. Not for Freeman, Notre Dame's head coach, whose youth had cut against the grain of what it takes to succeed in this sport of old guards and vintage attitudes

James Franklin decided to make a point about his counterpart. Franklin playfully asked Freeman how old he was, complimenting his hairline

he might as well have padded the 38 year old on the head and told him what a good job he was doing because that how freeman heard it gritting his teeth throughout And now Freeman was going to give that energy to a new source

His players could heartily believe it. Here's what Irish safety Xavier Watts said

He was angry. He was angry with the press conference. Whatever was going on between that, he was mad about that

All of that anger went towards us and that anger went on to the field

You know, Franklin's so glib when he speaks. He is so emotional on the sidelines

He oftentimes kind of says the wrong thing at the wrong moment

And I think that helps build this reputation of not ready for prime time that this incident

which happened kind of under the cover of everything else within the press conference

about conferences and independence and all that type of thing, is somewhat indicative of the James Franklin problem

the little things that it takes to win a national championship, the little motivational tactics

the mind games it takes, the in-game adjustments. The fact of the matter is

this winter has been full on in Marcus Freeman's camp and not James Franklin

Freeman clearly on the same football field as Kirby smart a guy with two championship rings under his belt

how coach Kirby. And yeah, Notre Dame went up against a backup quarterback. But you saw multiple moments where it looked like

Notre Dame was actually out coaching Georgia, specifically on the will they won't, they fake

punt in the fourth quarter and got them to jump offside. You could see how hard on every play

Notre Dame played. And even when their starting quarterback went out, Riley Leonard, their backup

QB came in and was kind of the jolt of offense they needed at the end of the first half

then Riley coming out of halftime was a catalyst to help drive the field

punch it into the end zone and tie the ball game up. All the little things that happen from an energy standpoint

from a momentum standpoint, from a motivational standpoint, it feels like Marcus Freeman has won the day so far in the college football playoffs

I remember when Franklin was at Vanderbilt and the college football people that I know really well

especially in the SEC raved about James Franklin and what a good guy he was and how he ready for the big time and that Vandy can keep him for long He ends up going to Penn State and everybody figures this is a great hire And overall it been a good hire But how much of the rooting for Franklin happened because he a great talker

He's a great conversationalist. And his attitude when he's doing press conferences, especially when there's no pressure like at Vandy

gives you the vibe that this guy knows exactly what he's doing

that he's almost outkicking his coverage by being at a school like that

But as the pressure built in state college, it feels like he's wilted

And that with every big loss, he becomes more tight. He becomes more constricted

What the benefit of basically kind of poking fun of the youth of Marcus Freeman is

Maybe it's just a conversational guy like James Franklin again, give you a nougie

Hey, we're all big brotherhood here. But didn't come off that way to a guy in that brotherhood

A fellow head coach thought it was condescending, patronizing, and fueled that anger into his locker room

Fighting Irish players said they didn't believe that Penn State respected them

And maybe that was conjured up. But you can understand how Freeman heard that shot from James Franklin and said, he doesn't respect me

He doesn't respect us. You saw how hard that team played. I mean, they got a running back with a knee brace, battling through every tackle

on his feet bursting through the line and absolutely taking on every defender in his way

That was the spirit that you saw from Notre Dame. The record of James Franklin against top five and top ten foes

We all know the numbers. They're flash in front of us at every waking minute here

Do these two wins in the college football playoff erase the big game stigma of James Franklin

No, they don't. Because let's be honest, with an expanded. 12 team field. If you were to seed right now, the 12 teams that made the college football

playoff, where would SMU and Boise State rank? The fact is SMU and Boise State were not the

equals of Penn State. And the Niddy Lions don't have to apologize. That was the road that

was handed to them. That's how this bracket fell because of the seating this year. However, the

question is not whether Penn State under James Franklin can beat teams they're superior to. They do

that every year in the Big Ten. The question is can they beat teams their equals to or inferior to And the answer is still no Hey Franklin won a lot of football games in State College He 101 and 42 as head coach of Penn State In 11 seasons with the Nittney Lions

he's won double digit games six times. They've gone to a bowl game every season except the COVID

year and including this season, they'll have finished in the top 10, five different times

But one thing that I think hurts James Franklin is that Penn State never has a dynamic quarterback

The QBs under James Franklin and State College? Christian Hackenberg, Trace McSorley, Sean Clifford, Drew Aller

None of those guys are going to take your program and raise it to the next level

Throughout the game, it's really about game management. Don't screw it up

And yeah, there's a certain place for that of the Big Ten, but when you match up against the elite of the elite in big playoff games

in Big Ten championship games, and competing for national titles, you're going to have to have a quarterback make a big play

unless your head coach is going to out-scheme circles around everybody else

Guess what? Franklin's not that guy and the Penn State quarterbacks haven't had that guy

So the combination of the two has left Penn State weakened in terms of competing at the very highest level

Franklin can stick around, but nothing's going to change unless, they have elite quarterback play

With under a minute to play and deepen your own end at a tie ball game play for overtime

is it possible that James Franklin should have said no, we're not throwing the football here

Sure, that's Aller's decision and Aller's throw. It's just a bad one on both accounts

But what you can say about coaching is how Penn State lined up to try to defend slash block

the game winning field goal. There are nine nitty lions on the line ready to block this field goal

there are two set back. The season comes down to this. And instead of having 11 guys on the line to block this field goal

you've got nine. It just leaves you scratching your head, which is I think how a lot of Penn State fans feel

about whether they'll ever win a national championship under James Franklin. Hey, before you go, remember to subscribe to the channel

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deep dives like this one and reactions Sunday nights when we go live throughout the football postseason

Keep it locked right here. I'm D.A. Damon Mandelaar. See you next time, everybody