MIAMI GARDENS – James Franklin seemed destined to break the skid.
Her skid, to be more precise: 12 straight losses against top five opponents, a miserable eight-year drought.
But the 11th-year Penn State coach was about to end that streak. He was on the verge of putting an end to this bad patch, of silencing the critics, of putting an end to the discussions.
Here in South Florida, inside Hard Rock Stadium, against, of all teams, one of the biggest brands in sports, Franklin’s skid seemed to be over. His team led 10-0 in the second quarter, 24-17 in the fourth quarter and held offensive possession in the final seconds of a tie game.
And then, in a nightmare play, his quarterback, Drew Allar, threw one of the costliest interceptions in history. College Football Playoffs history.
The slide continues. Extended series.
A few seconds after this turnover at the end of the game, Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard field goal split the uprights to send Notre Dame to the national championship game in Atlanta — 27-24 winners of a stone fight in a football match.
The slip is now the 13th.
And this one – in the national semifinals, one step away from a national title appearance – perhaps stings the most.
Then the tears flowed. The voices broke.
Allar explained his brutal interception. In a tie game with 33 seconds left and at his own 28-yard line, he danced in the pocket. His first reading was covered. His second reading was covered. And then, with his back foot, he threw a pass to receiver Omari Evans.
He intended to lay it more at Evans’ feet. Instead, the ball floated up and wide into the arms of Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray.
A choice at the top of all choices.
An interception for the ages.
A jaw-dropping, game-ending turnover – in the original home of the “turnover chain,” no less.
“I should have thrown it away,” Allar said through tears.
The play is a microcosm of Penn State’s offensive passing game in general. It was a struggle. Allar was attempting to complete his first pass to a wide receiver on this play.
This is not an exaggeration. It’s real. The Nittany Lions, in four quarters of football and 23 pass attempts, have not completed a pass to a wide player.
Liam Clifford, Harrison Wallace, Evans, none of them could stand out enough against the Irish’s brutally tight man coverage. They were jostled, overwhelmed.
It wasn’t the first time either. Penn State did not complete a pass to a receiver in a loss to Ohio State in November.
It’s a bugaboo for the program under Franklin’s leadership: not enough game-changing wideouts, not enough speed, not enough playmakers.
Franklin made no secret of it: “It’s one of the storylines of the game,” he said afterward, attributing the struggles more to Notre Dame media coverage than anything else. .
“We tried a few early and couldn’t convert them – a very contested coverage,” he said.
Allar spread his 12 completions to three tight ends and two running backs. To receivers, he would sometimes miss high and low, throw balls and knock them down. In fact, he threw two interceptions in the end zone, both of which were overturned due to Notre Dame penalties (holding and pass interference).
It’s time to give Allar more weapons on the outside. Just as an NFL franchise spends in the offseason, the Nittany Lions, in this new era of college football revenue sharing, must spend on expansion. Hit the portal. Get out of the checkbook.
That seems to be the plan.
In a November interview, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft acknowledged that in this troubled NIL era, Ohio State and others had a “head start.” But, he added, in the looming era of direct compensation, Penn State will confront them “head on.”
“I think it’s our time,” Kraft told Yahoo Sports at the time.
Penn State was so close, so close to an appearance in the title game.
In a few seconds. A few shy points.
And now, for another offseason in State College, the criticism of Franklin’s streak will continue.
He lost 11 straight games to teams named Ohio State (8) and Michigan (3).
That skid against top-five teams dates back to the only win against the Buckeyes in his 11 seasons: a 24-21 win over No. 2 Ohio State in 2016. The skid also includes a loss to Iowa and defeat in the final. Big Ten championship game against Oregon.
It’s one agonizing defeat after another. Of the 13, six had a single score.
Those close to Franklin describe him as calculated and intelligent, an ultra-competitive person who flirted with other big-name jobs over the years — think USC and Florida State — only to exploit them and get more resources to Penn State in an effort to compete with Ohio States, Michigans and… Notre Dame.
He is very aware of his surroundings, sometimes rattled by headlines and comments directed at him and his program. But the culture of his team, those at Happy Valley say, is that of the elite. He cares about his players. He excites them off the field: academics, future development, etc.
As his players left the postgame news conference, Franklin stood up to hug them, wrapping his arms around running backs Nick Singleton and Allar.
“Proud of you guys,” he told them. “I love you.”
Soon after, Franklin remembered a little about suddenly becoming the “old” college football guy, the “dinosaur,” he called himself. He was talking specifically about the evolution of college football, the professionalization of the industry.
He made a long, meandering, passionate comment about how, at Penn State, he wants to maintain relationships the old-fashioned way. It’s about the people, he said. It’s about players.
“We have a return program with return uniforms,” he said. “It’s about the guys. I understand that the transfer portal and NIL are part of college football and we will accept those things, but I want it to be more than transactional. I want it to be transformational.
He began to shed tears before the press conference moderator stopped him from choking up.
It’s not easy, he said, to enter a press conference after a match like that. It’s not easy to talk about such a troubling defeat, a big lost lead.
It’s not easy to talk about this slippage.
