This is really the only answer pic.twitter.com/SjmNkwTK83

— Ben Jones (@Ben_Jones88) December 1, 2024

James Franklin is a real one for covering the Over on the last play of the game

— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) November 30, 2024

Maryland's Mike Locksley was not happy with Penn State's James Franklin after taking a 44-7 loss at Beaver Stadium. pic.twitter.com/NGl8TrO43k

— Mark Brennan (@MarkXBrennan) December 1, 2024

Not a great PR year for James Franklin. He's turning into the Dan Hurley of college football. Perpetually angry and prone to blowups with anyone standing near him.

Hotsauce said:

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Not a great PR year for James Franklin. He's turning into the Dan Hurley of college football. Perpetually angry and prone to blowups with anyone standing near him.

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One of the most amazing coaching feats I've seen in college football in the last 25 years was how Franklin turned around a perennial 2-9 Vanderbilt program. It didn't take long after he left for it to return to the dumpster. It was an amazing tenure that he had there, and he was a no nonsense stand up guy then. He hasn't won a natty yet at Penn State, but after years of irrelevance, he has made it a perennial top 5 -10 program. He is a program builder.

It's not like this was Penn State playing some low-level program with minimal resources.

These are supposed to be big time programs in a P4 conference. If Maryland wasn't ready for the big-time, then they should have remained in the ACC, where they had been for decades.

At the end of the day, folks have got to stop complaining about everything.

If Franklin still had the starters in throwing bombs, that's one thing.

But if he had his backups in (which apparently he did), then just let the other side know you are gonna keep playing until the clock hits zero.

At that point, the opposing team can decide whether they want to keep playing hard or feel sorry for themselves.

**** that ***** Franklin.

They were up 38-7 and had the ball with about a minute left. Instead of just kneeling it 1-2 times and ending they game, they ran 4 plays, including a play on 4th down which scored their final TD.

That's some serious bush-league BS there and he deserves any and all flak for it.

100% behind Franklin. He may not win big games, but he is right here.

You leave your starters in, he's gonna score with his backups. He's battling for CFP position. Perception matters.

IowaBear said:

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Franklin is a *****. I guarantee they take an L next week vs Oregon. Has Franklin ever won a big game?

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I would consider it a gift of karma if Oregon thrashed Penn St. I don't think they will, but would love if they did.

Not a fan of running up the score, but I can't demonize Franklin for this. Like they say in boxing, "protect yourself at all times!" It is the offense's job to score and the defense's job to stop them. Less whining! More defense!

I sympathized more with the idea of sportsmanship and not running the score up before players demanded to be paid salaries commensurate to a degreed professional on top of all the other benefits a P4 athlete gets in college. And don't coaches still make millions? If you don't want the score ran up on you, play better and coach better. No one on here cared when Aranda did it to Oklahoma a few years back

It's a coach's choice and either way should be fine. He's right about playing guys. Don't get upset because your team literally got its butt whipped and quit playing defense. Players want to play, but they don't want to lay down when they finally get a chance.

Just play better. Or if you want to quit, let them score then lay down and run out the clock when you have the ball ball. The other way is a decent way to be, don't rub it in. But there's more to it than that, and nobody should be insulted because the other team decided to play football in a football game.

I think Franklin is exactly right.

It's BS to tell the backups to not score.

You don't want to get scored on, play better.

Letting your guys play full speed is certain nothing like having your captains refuse to shake hands at the coin toss.

Daveisabovereproach said:

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I sympathized more with the idea of sportsmanship and not running the score up before players demanded to be paid salaries commensurate to a degreed professional on top of all the other benefits a P4 athlete gets in college. And don't coaches still make millions? If you don't want the score ran up on you, play better and coach better. No one on here cared when Aranda did it to Oklahoma a few years back

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No one cared? Part of the B12 tiebreaker was based on point differential so it would have been dumb not to kick the FG.

vanillabryce said:

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Daveisabovereproach said:

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I sympathized more with the idea of sportsmanship and not running the score up before players demanded to be paid salaries commensurate to a degreed professional on top of all the other benefits a P4 athlete gets in college. And don't coaches still make millions? If you don't want the score ran up on you, play better and coach better. No one on here cared when Aranda did it to Oklahoma a few years back

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No one cared? Part of the B12 tiebreaker was based on point differential so it would have been dumb not to kick the FG.

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Exactly. When our coach does it, people understand it to be a strategic move, so I don't see why anybody would be upset when another coach does something similar

Style points no longer matter. PSU is/was getting in regardless. They'll get beat again on Saturday and the following week in the 1st round of the Playoffs because that's what James Franklin does. Loses big games. Luckily for him he now only plays 1 big regular season game a year.
The most overrated coach in the country.

I remember talking to my dad about our rout of SMU in 2014 to open McLane Stadium. The score was 45-0. He thought it was in bad taste that we were still scoring well into the 4th quarter. I pointed out that we put our backup quarterback at halftime, and that we were using a walk-on running back, Silas Nacita. We were putting in our 3rd and 4th string guys against their starters. I am fine with taking a knee here, and I am fine with them playing. As a previous poster put we didn't complain when Aranda trotted out the kicking team against OU because it would impact the tiebreakers for the Big12 Championship.

It's simple, if you don't want the opponent to score, stop them. I don't give a crap how bad your team is compared to "Mine" if you are a power 4 opponent I'm trying to beat the piss out of you for 60 minutes with my first string, second string, 3rd string.

IowaBear said:

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Style points no longer matter. PSU is/was getting in regardless. They'll get beat again on Saturday and the following week in the 1st round of the Playoffs because that's what James Franklin does. Loses big games. Luckily for him he now only plays 1 big regular season game a year.
The most overrated coach in the country.

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That's what Harbaugh did too until he broke through with a championship last year. Harbaugh and Franklin have been winners and program builders their entire coaching careers.

James Franklin isn't in the same stratosphere as Harbaugh…
When Franklin actually wins a big game I'll give him credit. But he doesn't, he chokes every single time. Congrats to him, he regularly beats the B10 cupcakes. When he beats a big dog in a meaningful game I'll entertain him as a top tier coach.
I don't disagree that Franklins a winner. He's built an entire career out of beating lower tier B10 teams. I just don't see him as a top tier guy like some apparently do

IowaBear said:

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James Franklin isn't in the same stratosphere as Harbaugh…
When Franklin actually wins a big game I'll give him credit. But he doesn't, he chokes every single time. Congrats to him, he regularly beats the B10 cupcakes. When he beats a big dog in a meaningful game I'll entertain him as a top tier coach.
I don't disagree that Franklins a winner. He's built an entire career out of beating lower tier B10 teams. I just don't see him as a top tier guy like some apparently do

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Ok, maybe Harbaugh was a bad analogy. He may be at the very top of the food chain as he's built winners everywhere he has gone in college and pro football.

Franklin is a recruiting machine and has his teams on the cusp of the conference championship most years (he's in the title game this year, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they beat Oregon). He just needs to be a little more imaginative on offense.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this his 1st time playing in a B10 title game? In a decade nonetheless? I'm a firm believer that Dan Lanning is a much better coach than James Franklin so I'll side with the Ducks Saturday. Like I said Franklin needs to actually win a meaningful game against a big dog to get credit imo. If he wins Saturday I'll gladly come on here and give him his earned credit.

IowaBear said:

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Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this his 1st time playing in a B10 title game? In a decade nonetheless? I'm a firm believer that Dan Lanning is a much better coach than James Franklin so I'll side with the Ducks Saturday. Like I said Franklin needs to actually win a meaningful game against a big dog to get credit imo. If he wins Saturday I'll gladly come on here and give him his earned credit.

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I honestly dont know, but probably not since they were in the same division as Ohio State. I agree he hasn't been able to win the big one, but his teams have finished 12 or better in the final CFP rankings 7 out of the 11 years he has been there. He hasn't gotten Penn State over the final hump yet, but he's been so close for a long time.

2016

Won the Big Ten Title by beating Wisconsin in the title game (38-31).

But despite winning the head-to-head matchup against divisional rival Ohio State, was still passed up for a CFP Berth (for that same Ohio State team no less).

So he basically missed out on a chance to compete for a national championship because a head-to-head win wasn't valued.

Sound familiar?

vanillabryce said:

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100% behind Franklin. He may not win big games, but he is right here.

You leave your starters in, he's gonna score with his backups. He's battling for CFP position. Perception matters.

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There is no difference in perception whatsoever between beating a terrible Maryland team 38-7 and 45-7.

This was bush league, plain and simple.

If James Franklin really wants to change the perception of himself and his program, he should try beating a top-10 team for once. Any score would do in that case.

RightRevBear said:

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I remember talking to my dad about our rout of SMU in 2014 to open McLane Stadium. The score was 45-0. He thought it was in bad taste that we were still scoring well into the 4th quarter. I pointed out that we put our backup quarterback at halftime, and that we were using a walk-on running back, Silas Nacita. We were putting in our 3rd and 4th string guys against their starters. I am fine with taking a knee here, and I am fine with them playing. As a previous poster put we didn't complain when Aranda trotted out the kicking team against OU because it would impact the tiebreakers for the Big12 Championship.

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I don't have a problem with backups running the ball or throwing short passes between the 20s. Those guys deserve the opportunity to run some plays, and if the other team can't stop the run with reserves in the game, that's on them. But throwing touchdown passes in the final minute of a blowout win is bush league. And that kind of **** usually catches up to coaches sooner or later.

Dia del DougO said:

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Letting your guys play full speed is certain nothing like having your captains refuse to shake hands at the coin toss.

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little Matty?

lol at bush league

I don't have as much of a problem with it as many here seem to. Locksley still had his first string defense in the game and was blitzing every play against PSU's backups. You want me to call off the dogs? You call yours off, too.

Could Franklin have been the bigger man and taken a knee? Absolutely. But football games are 60 minutes, and I have no issue with him playing his backups at full go for the garbage time minutes of those 60.

That's a perfect analogy.

Had Maryland indicated they were calling off their dogs…then perhaps one considers calling off theirs.

But if you are still blitzing the backups with your first teamers, then you absolutely have no leg to stand on when you get burned.

Penn St. can thank Michigan for having a chance to show us what they've got.
But against Oregon?
Good luck with that.
I would be shocked if Oregon doesn't pummel Penn St. within an inch of their lives.

Hell, a crappy USC played a #3 Penn St. to a final score of 33-30, Nittany win.

I understand anything can happen in any game. And what you see on paper doesn't always indicate the truth.
USC was a mediocre team at best. PSU probably thought it would be a shoo-in. And we know what happens when teams get complacent. PSU was almost upset by a mediocre team.

Michigan upset tOSU in a squeaker. Which happens with big rivals.

I remember a season when we were at the top of our game and we lost to a pi## poor ucla team by a score of 13-9.

Again, anything can happen. And a final score, be it an upset, or a close win, isn't indicative of who the better team, overall, is.

I just don't see PSU upsetting Oregon.

When someone runs up a score I think about '74 when UT put up 84 points against TCU. When questioned about it DKR said it would have been a bigger insult to punt on 1st down.