‘Hindsight is 20/20.’ James Franklin talks Ohio State’s goal line stop, introspection after loss
The after effects of a difficult loss were on full display Monday afternoon in the Beaver Stadium media room. Penn State head coach James Franklin, sporting a fuller beard than his usual goatee, sat down at the table at the front of the room and for 42 minutes took questions about his team’s 20-13 loss to Ohio State — not its upcoming White Out matchup with Washington.
The loss is his eighth straight to the Buckeyes, giving him a 1-10 overall record against the program.
And in this one, his team had a shot to tie the game late, but came up short on a goal line possession.
There has been plenty of discussion about that particular set of downs, especially because Tyler Warren — the team’s best player and versatile offensive weapon — didn’t get the ball on any of the four plays.
With the benefit of hindsight, Franklin agreed with the sentiment that Warren should have been involved, although he also mentioned the lack of push up front impacted the team’s success, too.
“I also think there is a piece where you can say in critical moments you got to think players not plays,” he said. “Maybe in one of those three downs at least you got to make sure Tyler Warren touches the ball, however that is, whether it’s wildcat, in the passing game, or whether that’s as a ball carrier. ... So obviously hindsight is 20/20, but at the end of the day you got to create movement and score when you need one yard. Whether that’s picking up a critical fourth down or whether that’s goal line. We got to do some things better scheme-wise, but also we got do little bit better job fundamental and technique-wise to make sure we get the movement we need.”
That sequence, one that started on the three-yard line after a 33-yard Warren run, brought into question the play-calling of offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.
There has been consternation about the lack of creativity — something Kotelnicki usually utilizes better than most — and the decision to run the ball up the middle three straight times.
On Monday, Franklin said the decision-making there would have drawn criticism as long as Penn State didn’t score, regardless of the calls. And while some have criticized Franklin in the past, making claims that he is putting his thumb on the scale with the play-calling, he re-affirmed the process the team goes through on play calls.
“There is really no discussions on a headset during a play call,” Franklin said. “Those things lead to second guessing. Those things lead to delay of games. Those things don’t typically lead where you want to go. So what will happen though is, like I’ve mentioned to you guys before, after a play call there could be, hey, you may want to think about this. We haven’t pushed the ball down the field enough. Not talking obviously on the goal line, but those types of things.”
Franklin’s self evaluation
Franklin said after the game that nobody would be looking in the mirror harder than he would after the team’s loss, and on Monday he expanded on that. The Penn State head coach said he and his staff had approached the game week differently than in the past, and that they would look into further changes down the road.
“This game and this week I feel like myself and the coaching staff handled it very different than how we had in the past,” Franklin said. “There was a ton of time spent on that in the off-season. Ton of time spent on that during the week — being very intentional about how we approach this game. Talked to the players about that in the off-season. Talked to the coaches about that in the off-season. Talked to other coaches about it as well. At the end of the day we did not play well enough against a very, very good opponent to get the W. Obviously needs to be more time spent on it and more discussions spent on things that we have to do outside of what we did that game week. There is a lot of things.”
Some of that will have to be of benefit to the team moving forward. The Nittany Lions still have four regular season games left and in all likelihood will play in a College Football Playoff game in December — potentially in Beaver Stadium. But to guarantee that they will need to win their final four matchups and do so in a way that impresses the playoff committee.
That starts Saturday against Washington in Beaver Stadium, but despite the team being heavy favorites, it’s far from a guarantee that it bounces back after the loss to Ohio State. Plenty of Franklin’s teams have allowed one loss to turn into two and push the team out of playoff contention when the field consisted of four teams rather than 12.
The Penn State head coach said that’s going to be a point of emphasis as the Nittany Lions continue their preparation the rest of the season.
“We got to make sure that one loss doesn’t turn into two, and that’s controlling the things we can in our building and flushing it,” he said. “Although whether it’s on campus or in the community or social media, that makes it more challenging specifically for our players to do that. We got to make sure we moved on.”
Quick hitters
- Franklin said he did not regret how he handled an interaction with a fan who was screaming at him as he walked off the field. The head coach asked the fan for his name, before the fan then walked away without responding.
- The head coach said the receivers have improved from last year’s group, but still has work to do to get the team where it wants to be.
