It happened again. James Franklin lost a big game. Now in his 11th year leading Penn State and still bearing the unflatteringly sarcastic nickname “Big Game James”, the veteran head coach lost another one, this time and for the first time, in the College Football Playoff semifinal, falling to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl 27-24 on a last-second field goal.
James Franklin is now 1-15 vs. AP top-five opponents as the head coach at Penn State.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) January 10, 2025
The Nittany Lions squandered a 10-0 second-quarter lead, and in the fourth quarter, allowed a game-tying touchdown just seven plays after going ahead 24-17. Then, after a crucial stop near midfield to force a punt with under a minute left in the game, the big decision came. All season, Franklin has played late-game situations aggressively and his team, and most importantly, quarterback Drew Allar have consistently come through. Allar led a fourth-quarter game-tying touchdown drive against USC before beating the Trojans on the road in overtime, and a fake punt sealed a late-season win over Minnesota. On Penn State’s path to a program-record 13 wins and the CFP semis, Franklin has lived dangerously, so he did it again on Thursday night in Miami.
The drive started at the Penn State 15, but Frankin, Allar, and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki were emboldened by a 13-yard run from Nicholas Singelton that moved the ball to the Penn State 28-yard line with 40 seconds left. So, Allar dropped back to pass on the very next play, and after his first read was taken away, like a veteran he got to the backside of the progression. Then, like the 20-year-old he still is, Allar threw an ill-advised pass into tight coverage, was picked off, and gave Notre Dame excellent field position to set up the game-winning kick.
Franklin could have sat on a tie game, run the clock out, and played for overtime. Backed up in his own end, that may have been the right decision, but if you can’t trust your quarterback to make a play with an appearance in the national championship on the line, you probably don’t deserve to play for a national championship. Allar is the one who threw the interception, not Franklin, who Penn State fans will predictably want to fire despite finally getting the Nittany Lions over the hump and onto the very stage where they disappointed on Thursday night. James Franklin didn’t James Franklin, his quarterback just had a horrible game in the biggest possible spot.
Allar finished 11/22 for 135 yards with no touchdowns and the worst interception imaginable. Aside from two screen passes, he connected on just two of his first 10 attempts, and on Penn State's first scoring drive of the game, missed Nicholas Singleton wide open in the flat for a walk-in touchdown and forced the Nittany Lions to settle for a field goal - a four-point swing in a three-point loss. So, it was fitting that Allar’s last pass attempt was a lateral that sailed over Singelton’s head and out of bounds as time expired. It was a truly disastrous performance for a former five-star who was generating first-round NFL draft buzz, but will now certainly be returning to school for the 2025 season.
Still, despite how poorly Allar played the entire game, Franklin was right to put the ball in his hands and go out on his sword. His offense had moved the ball all game to the tune of 48% success rate, and Allar had come through in similar situations all season long. Overtime in college football is a crap shoot at worst, a coin flip at best. To willingly accept that fate when you have the ball and two timeouts, is the type of cowardice that would have driven Penn State fans to call for Franklin’s job if Notre Dame had pulled it out in OT.
It may have taken 11 years, but considering the circumstances of the program when Franklin took over for Bill O’Brien over a decade ago in Happy Valley, a perennial contender is nothing to scoff at, even if it hasn’t filled the trophy cases in the Lasch Football Building with meaningful hardware. Fortunate path to the semifinals or not, James Franklin built Penn State into a national championship contender in 2024, and with Allar coming back, his program should stay in the mix next season.
While his gameday decision-making shouldn’t have Franklin on the hot seat, he did make one huge mistake that’s impossible to overlook, it just happened 12 months ago. Following the departure of leading receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Penn State’s only wide receiver addition in the transfer portal was veteran Ohio State castoff Julian Fleming, and with the season on the line, Notre Dame held Nittany Lion wide receivers entirely out of the stat sheet. No Penn State wide receiver caught a pass in the Orange Bowl, and that you can blame Franklin for.