From booing to bell-ringing: How James Franklin, Penn State reclaimed momentum with win over UW
When James Franklin was announced as Penn State’s head coach during his team’s warmups Saturday night, the 110,233 in attendance made their voices heard, as they usually do. But instead of the cheers that came with the announcement early in the season, there was boisterous booing.
Yet, after the final whistle, there were no boos to be heard. Franklin proudly made his way onto the field following his team’s 35-6 win in the White Out over Washington, and searched out anyone he could to celebrate. He wore a broad smile as he jokingly pretended to punch Tyler Warren following the tight end’s postgame interview. The former East Stroudsburg quarterback threw a small foam football to a staffer’s son. He greeted recruit after recruit who was in attendance as a guest of the program.
But then he made his exit.
Franklin bee-lined toward the tunnel, ringing the victory bell that hangs by it before jogging past the fans that line his usual exit.
Franklin, as his team did during the week, blocked out all of the noise that comes with being the head coach of a program that has yet to get over the hump. And that helped him bounce back from his team’s only loss of the season.
That loss, a 20-13 defeat at the hands of Ohio State, was an all too familiar one for the program, which made the response even more important.
The head coach, to his credit, had his team in a position to move on quickly.
“In our locker room, in the Lasch facility and on our practice fields, we’ve got a ton to be proud of,” Franklin said. “We focus on that; we focus on making corrections. I’m proud of my guys, I’m proud of my staff and how we go about our business. We value winning. ... We respect winning and what it takes. And we get back to work on Sundays in the Lasch Building and the Lasch practice fields.”
It would have been easy for him and his players to stay hung up on the defeat. It was one of 10 such losses against Ohio State since Franklin arrived in Happy Valley. The Buckeyes have been the proverbial boogeyman for the Nittany Lions — consistently being part of the reason their seasons fall apart.
But there was some indication that, while they didn’t let the noise become a distraction, they used last week’s game and what came with it to refocus themselves.
“I think this week’s point of emphasis was just, not redeeming ourselves, but making a statement,” linebacker Kobe King said. “Because we didn’t do that last week, and today we did. I definitely feel like we made a statement today, and we showed what type of team we are. ... It was just important for us to really kind of get where we’re trying to go.”
The Nittany Lions proved quickly how focused they were. They shut out the Washington offense in the first half and scored touchdowns on all four of their offensive possessions during the same time period.
They didn’t just say they were refocused; they looked like they were too. While Franklin will underplay the impact one game can have on another — he’s constantly preaching a “1-0” mentality that focuses on each game as important — it was clear the team had something to prove against the Huskies.
And, sure, Washington is not the Buckeyes. But the Nittany Lions will not face a team of that caliber until the College Football Playoff — something they’re well-positioned to reach for the first time.
All they could do Saturday was show what they’re capable of against Washington. And show that last week’s poor performance doesn’t change the big picture.
“It’s just a confidence boost to us,” right tackle Anthony Donkoh said. “We always care about us, internally. So just that feeling to go out there and make the point and prove the point that we’re still the team that we are. And we’re going to continue to improve off what mistakes we make.”
That doesn’t guarantee that suddenly Penn State is a team better positioned to knock off an Ohio State or a Texas or an Oregon. The Nittany Lions under Franklin have lost the benefit of the doubt in those big games, and beating Washington won’t earn it back.
But Saturday’s win is still a step forward. And an important one. Too often one loss has turned into two and Penn State has spiraled under Franklin. That wasn’t the case on Saturday — and probably won’t be in the team’s next game, a matchup with lowly Purdue. Now the Nittany Lions can move forward. They can be the team they were prior to Ohio State and take care of business against their final three opponents before taking on the playoff and whoever comes with it.
Maybe it’ll be Notre Dame, as it was set to be in the first playoff rankings, or maybe it’ll be Alabama or some other historically great program. Either way, that will be the team’s next real test.
And then, and only then, will Franklin and this iteration of his program have a chance to truly silence some of the doubt that continues to loom over their success.
