‘What can we do?’ Penn State football players in search of answers after demoralizing loss to Maryland
Pat Freiermuth just doesn’t have the answers.
During his past two years in the Penn State football program, his — and the team’s — process has been the same. The same weekly structure on game weeks, the same practice routines, the same method overall for preparation. And in both years, it’s yielded positive results: a 9-4 campaign in 2018 and an 11-2 season in 2019.
So after Saturday night’s 35-19 loss at home to underdog Maryland dropped Penn State to 0-3 for the first time since 2001, Freiermuth couldn’t quite put his finger on what root of the problem was.
“It’s the most frustrating thing, because you just keep asking yourself like, ‘What is it?’” Freiermuth said after the game. “Like, ‘What can we do?’ As players of this program, you want more to do. … At the end of the day, we just don’t know. That’s the most frustrating thing.”
Though Freiermuth doesn’t know what the core of the Nittany Lions’ issues are, the miscues seem obvious at the surface level.
Against Maryland, Penn State once again came out flat. The Terrapins scored less than three minutes into the game on a 42-yard pass from quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa to receiver Rakim Jarrett. After not scoring a touchdown against the Nittany Lions since 2016 — getting outscored in the teams’ last three matchups 163-6 — the Terrapins managed to find the end zone three more times before the first half came to a close. Penn State found itself in a 28-7 hole at the break.
Redshirt junior quarterback Sean Clifford said he and his teammates have often talked this season about “extra buy-in” and “what type of football team” they are. But for the third consecutive week, those conversations didn’t lead to an encouraging performance on the field.
“It’s very apparent what type of football team we are,” Clifford said. “We are an 0-3, poor performing football team currently.”
It didn’t take long for the Nittany Lions to continue digging themselves into a hole in the second half, either. On their fifth play of the third quarter, Clifford lost the ball on a strip-sack by Terrapins defensive back Nick Cross and linebacker Chance Campbell ran the ball back 34 yards for a touchdown.
Penn State didn’t score again until there were only about 10 minutes left in the contest. At that point, it was pretty much garbage time.
In the locker room after loss, head coach James Franklin emphasized the importance of “living in the present” to his team. Junior receiver Jahan Dotson said Franklin told the players to focus on the right now and take things day by day. And according to Dotson, that’s not happening at the moment.
“There’s a lot of different things going on,” Dotson said. “There’s distractions, basically, that’s how I could name it. There’s just distractions that we shouldn’t be focused on right now.”
Dotson wouldn’t elaborate on what those “distractions” are, but he said the Nittany Lions aren’t “a unit” right now.
Whatever it is, Penn State’s leaders — Dotson, Freiermuth and Clifford included — know they need to figure things out quickly. A season that began with a top-10 ranking in the AP Poll and College Football Playoff aspirations has become historic for all the wrong reasons.
Now, Freiermuth said it’s time for players to hold each other accountable.
Freiermuth took some time after the game to think about remedies for the group’s issues. He even had a conversation with Clifford and redshirt senior offensive lineman Michal Menet. Still, he couldn’t get a grasp on what it is that’s holding the Nittany Lions back.
As fans and others around the program watch Penn State, they scratch their heads. Many can’t find the answers to why a team pegged as one of the nation’s best before the season began is struggling the way it is.
Right now, neither can Freiermuth or his teammates. And that may be the most aggravating part for them so far.
“I’m thinking about it right now — I just don’t know what to do,” Freiermuth said. “And it’s very frustrating, but we’ve gotta come in together tomorrow and watch the film and hold each other accountable and try to fix this thing.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2020 at 11:33 PM.
