Golik: Ironing It Out With James Franklin

I typically iron out my issues that I have with others over a beer or meal because the atmosphere is conducive of reconciling differences.

While I am probably not even on Penn State coach James Franklin’s radar, I guess this column will have to serve that purpose.

It’s known that college football coaches take time to read stuff written about them and Franklin is no different. 

Let’s start with the issue at hand. 

My Sunday morning column questioned the fortitude that Franklin and his players lacked in Los Angeles. 

I even suggested both had glass jaws that were split into two by a lackluster UCLA Bruin team.

While it is a problem, college football has plenty of upsets.

In 2010, Vince Mullins rated the best Joe Paterno coached teams and had the 1991 team rated the eighth best Paterno team, a team that finished No. 3 in the nation behind eventual national champions Miami and Washington.

If you remember, Penn State ranked No. 5 in the nation, took a long trip into The Coliseum and faced an unranked USC team that was dangerous and played with nothing to lose. 

USC blitzed with abandon and forced five Penn State turnovers that led to a 21-10 upset.

That USC team finished 3-8 with their other two wins over a three-win Oregon and four-win Washington State teams. 

In Paterno’s distinguished tenure at Penn State, it won only once in four regular season visits to Los Angeles against UCLA and USC. Currently, Franklin is 1-1.

My biggest issue with Franklin is this defeatist, resigned, lack-of-interest attitude he has demonstrated at the last four press conferences from Oregon postgame to Monday’s Northwestern primer – where he didn’t even open the press conference with his take on Northwestern, which he always does.

It took long time writer Mike Poorman to burn a question from the media pool asking about it, and even then Franklin’s posture in answering the question seemed he had no interest answering it and just wanted to get it over with. 

This attitude he is demonstrating is not conducive with his own “1-0” mantra.

Everyone knows the front end of 1-0 is you try to go 1-0 every week, but when you don’t you have to close the chapter of that week and start again focusing on 1-0. 

Monday’s press conference seemed when Franklin was pressed on a difficult topic, he employed his customary stonewalling techniques.

Franklin used the word “obviously” 23 times, used a variant of “that’s fair” nine times, talking about total ownership of the organization saying it is “his responsibility” eight times, and acknowledging he “gets it” five times. 

It is one thing Franklin saying he gets it, but make me believe you do, make the rest of the media group believe that you do, make Nittany Nation believe you truly do and not just lip service.

My issue with Franklin is he seems either overly protective of his organization or he isn’t willing to fully take ownership of some of his failures using a generalization to obscure blame.

The subject of blame is a great segue to my defense of Franklin, because it seems there’s a giant pile on to end a successful 12 season run at Penn State. 

Think of what Franklin has accomplished both from a recent perspective and overall perspective.

UCLA snapped Franklin’s 34-game winning streak to unranked opponents.

While streaks of this nature aren’t readily available, it is easy to marginalize it compared to Nick Saban’s 100 consecutive unranked victories at Alabama or Steve Spurrier’s 72 when he coached at Florida.

Both men will tell you the difficulty of winning a football is difficult.

Paterno’s longest streak of defeating unranked opponents was 33 games between 1970-1974.

His streak was ended by a Navy, who won 7-6, that finished their season 4-7.

Paterno had four other unbeaten streaks of 20 or more games:

• 1967-1970: 28 games (27-0-1) ended in Camp Randall against Wisconsin who finished 4-5-1.
• 1985-1988: 28 games (28-0) ended at home against Rutgers who finished 5-6 under former offensive line coach Dick Anderson.
• 1991-1995: 20 games (20-0) ended at home against Wisconsin, who snapped the nation’s longest overall winning streak, who finished 4-5-2.
• 2005-2008: 27 games (27-0) ended in Kinnick Stadium against Iowa, where the Hawkeyes finished 9-4 spoiling a potential bid for a national championship.

These are all upsets, there is nothing positive by the very word of it. 

Franklin has other superlatives that you cannot overlook.

Just last season, Franklin oversaw a team that set a program record in wins (13) and achieved their very first College Football Playoff berth that saw them within minutes of the National Championship Game  since 1986.

Over the last three seasons, it has been the most successful three-year stretch since 1980-1982.

Penn State won 87 games over a nine-year period between 2016-2024 is the second winningest nine-year stretch in program history. The best nine-year runs was 88 done twice under Paterno from 1973-1981 and 1991-1999.

The recognized “Golden Era” of Penn State football between 1978 and 1986, where the Nittany Lions played for four national championships and winning two, the program only won 87 games – the exact win total Franklin achieved from 2016 to 2024.

The draft success has been there as Penn State is seen by recruits as an elite draft exporter. The Nittany Lions are one of three programs to have five or more players drafted in the last eight seasons, joining Alabama and Georgia.

The biggest problem Franklin has set himself up for and why Paterno was forgiven for his upsets, while Franklin hasn’t, is Paterno won his fair share of big games – he is second all time to Nick Saban with 86 ranked wins.

Franklin has conditioned Penn State fans that they will never win the big one but will always win the ones they should.

It is the latter why Franklin is in the center of a maelstrom of hysteria that is calling for his job.  When you don’t win enough big ones, the forgiveness isn’t there.

I would also say to those that continue to lament the big game woes, aren’t they all big games? Look at everyone’s hysteria losing to a winless UCLA team? If it wasn’t a big game, why is everyone as upset as when they lose to Oregon, Ohio State, or Michigan?

Franklin needs to take these defeats less to heart, regain his confidence, and demonstrate he is the right coach for Penn State.

If he doesn’t do that, he doesn’t deserve to be here and the critics are right.

I’ll close this column with this, Franklin and everyone needs to remember this Paterno quote because it seems everyone has forgotten about it. 

“Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy.”

James, the next beer is on you.