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As the Penn State football team lost to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, it adds another big loss to head coach James Franklin's resume. There have been Penn State football team fans saying that Franklin should be fired due to his inability to win big games consistently as this was talked about by analyst Paul Finebaum.
Penn State football's James Franklin gets reality check
The college football analyst was on “The Matt Barrie Show” where he said bluntly that Franklin “can't win a big game” and that “he's not going to do it any year.” He would even bring up the playcalling on the Nittany Lions' last drive which ended in a turnover as Finebaum said he did not want to “play the odds of overtime.”
“Let’s just be honest James Franklin can’t win a big game, he didn’t do it this year, he’s not going to do it next year, and he’s not going to do it any year because that’s just who he is,” Finebaum said. “That doesn’t make him a bad coach, it just makes him a jinx coach in these situations. People will say well what are you talking about can't win a big game he’s in the semi-finals, he had SMU and Boise State. Nobody’s ever had a luckier draw and that doesn’t qualify as signature wins from my book.”
“I think James Franklin is thinking to himself, I’ve got to do something different, I just can’t play the odds of overtime,” Finebau continued. “Listen when your record is as bad as his is, it’s like in golf, every time that you go for the flag on the left side of the green at 11 at Augusta and you knock it in the water, so you say oh I’ll just try to turn the ball this time and then you over hit it. I think that’s him, he can’t win.”
Penn State football AD spouts confidence on James Franklin
Though Finebaum hesitates to give Frankin credit, they did beat Boise State and SMU to get to the semifinals against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff (CFP). The narrative of being unable to win games even cited a response from the Penn State football AD Patrick Kraft saying they have confidence in Franklin according to ESPN.
“I'm not going to give credence to the criticism, because I see it differently,” Kraft said. “When I got here, I was really surprised where just the infrastructure and how everything was set up, how behind we really were. Yes, wins and losses are what we are all judged on, but I will tell you, the culture of that building and the young men he brings in and graduates are second to none.”
“You don't see behind the curtain as a fan or just someone watching,” Kraft continued. “That's really how it's built, but the infrastructure behind it wasn't matching that culture and we still have a ways to go. So yes, we want to win every single game — that's the expectation for every program, but to see what he has done and that consistency is what's remarkable to me.”
The Nittany Lions finished the season at 13-3 as they look to silence the doubters in the hopes of being back in the CFP next time.
