After Another Loss to Ohio State, Penn State’s James Franklin Says, ‘I Own it All’

STATE COLLEGE | Once again, Penn State coach James Franklin had things he planned to say after a game but held himself back. He has done this before, when Penn State has lost to Ohio State or Michigan, and he intended to make a statement about the Statement his team had just made by winning. But then the Nittany Lions lost, and Franklin bit his tongue — as he did again Saturday after Penn State’s eighth straight loss to the Buckeyes.

“There’s a lot of things that I had planned on saying when I came in here today,” Franklin said Saturday at Beaver Stadium, “but they are not appropriate to say right now, so I will hold them for another time.”

Of course, Franklin could have been referencing officiating, replay or any of the myriad interferences during Penn State’s 20-13 loss to Ohio State on Saturday. The game had five replay reviews, three of which went against the Nittany Lions, and a series of high-intensity moments. Most seemed to spill in Ohio State’s direction.

But just as likely, Franklin wanted to cleanse his team’s history in these games, point to a program forging a new trail, one that led toward becoming elite. Instead, Penn State left Beaver Stadium bitter and frustrated, and that escaped in a postgame moment. Franklin had a brief interaction with a fan as he walked into the tunnel, similar to how he left the field last season wen fans booed him off the field after a loss to Michigan. There were more boos Saturday, during the alma mater, bottles flung to the field and a discernable anger from the stands.

In the Penn State locker room, the frustration was just as palpable. Several players, like defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas and offensive lineman Sal Wormley, have been on six teams that have lost to Ohio State. It doesn’t get easier.

“As you know, not being able to get a win against a team that you’ve been playing against for however many years, it’s always going to be tough,” J-Thomas said. “You put a lot into the game and for you not to yield the results you want, especially recurring results that you want, then it’s obviously going to be hard.”

Added Wormley, “It’s just annoying, it’s just frustrating. We’ve been close multiple times since I’ve been here and we just haven’t got over that hump yet.”

Every loss has a theme. In the past, Ohio State rode individual performances from players like J.T. Barrett, Chase Young, JT Tuimoloau and Marvin Harrison Jr. to victories over Penn State. On Saturday, the Buckeyes wore down Penn State with a line-crashing run defense, a complete shutdown of the Beau Pribula package, tight secondary coverage and a stand-up, four-down defensive series in the fourth quarter.

Penn State had first-and-goal at the Ohio State 3-yard line. Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki called three gut runs to Kaytron Allen, who gained a total of 2 yards. On fourth down, quarterback Drew Allar looked left toward tight end Tyler Warren (whose big plays energized the series), but he was covered. By the time Allar looked back toward No. 2 tight end Khalil Dinkins, the window was closed.

“I think offensively we stopped ourselves more than they stopped us,” said Allar, who went 12-for-20 for 146 yards. “I truly do believe that, even though they are a really talented team. They made a lot of plays across the board like we knew they would, but we can do a better job of executing the techniques and play calls that were called for us.”

The Nittany Lions also lost a stat package they call the “Dirty Dozen.” That encompasses the bad plays and mistakes a team can make: penalties, sacks allowed, dropped passes, “anything that equates to bad football,” Allar said. Penn State’s goal is to limit those plays to 12 percent of its snaps.

“I don’t know what we were today, but it was definitely more than 12 percent of our total plays,” Allar said.

And that, as always, is central to Penn State’s losses to Ohio State. While the Nittany Lions continue upgrading their talent, they don’t have the Buckeyes’ elite playmakers. So they have to win by being more efficient, capitalizing on opportunities, limiting their miscues and playing cleaner. That didn’t happen.

Penn State was flagged for five penalties, but they mattered. An ineligible receiver penalty disrupted a successful first offensive series and led to a field goal. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on cornerback Elliot Washington II gave Ohio State a first down on a third down it did not convert, leading to a touchdown. Another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, after a pick-6 that gave Penn State a 10-0 lead, provided Ohio State with a chance to return a kickoff. The Buckeyes scored on that drive. And a 3rd-and-2 offside penalty kept alive another Ohio State scoring drive.

“Can’t, can’t, can’t do those things,” Franklin said. “It happened last week [the penalty after a pick-6] and happened again this week. That’s on me. We’ve got to be a disciplined football team. We were not disciplined at times today.”

So once again, fans were frustrated, players were frustrated and Franklin showed his frustration in a hot moment after the game. Nothing new for the Nittany Lions. In fact, it all felt very familiar.

“I understand their frustration; guys in the locker room are just as frustrated, if not more,” said Franklin, now 1-10 against the Buckeyes. “But college football has changed, and we have an opportunity moving forward to right some wrongs from today, and that’s what we’re going to focus on. I get it. We get an unbelievable crowd here. We get unbelievable support. You don’t do that without passion. And there’s great things that come from that, and there’s hard things that come from that. That’s part of the job, and I own it all.”

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