James Franklin has been the head coach at Penn State since 2014, and pretty much since he stepped foot on campus, the knock against Franklin is that he can’t win the Big Game.
We all know the numbers. Franklin is 3-17 against the AP Top 25 and 1-12 against top-5 teams. Whether at home or on the road, favorites or underdogs, Franklin’s disappointments under the brightest lights have tainted his otherwise impressive resume. Too often those losses have led to even uglier moments.
All of which is to say absolutely no one faced more pressure on Saturday at Beaver Stadium in the first round the College Football Playoff than Penn State’s head coach. Lose to No. 11 seed SMU at home — with 100,000 fans and another iconic whiteout — and it’s fair to believe Franklin’s job status would be in question, to say nothing of the absolute roasting he’d get from college fans online.
Thankfully for Penn State, Franklin’s team went out an absolutely throttled the Mustangs, 38-10, with a near-flawless performance. This should’ve been a moment for Franklin to finally receive some flowers. But nope! College fans were far too busy continuing the nonsense debate over whether or not SMU and Indiana even deserved to be in the playoff field.
Even when James Franklin wins, he can’t win, man. It’s quite likely the second-funniest possible outcome on Saturday aside from a Penn State loss.
Think about it. The Nittany Lions held SMU to 253 yards total, stopped the Mustangs from converting all but three of 14 third downs and didn’t allow a touchdown until there were seven minutes left in the game. Even with SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings throwing three interceptions (including two pick-sixes), this was a dominant performance by Franklin’s defense, as his offense meticulously worked the clock and took care of the ball. And seemingly no one cared.
College fans are absolutely ruthless. It feels like Franklin is Squidward waiting for his applause only for SMU’s SpongeBob to steal all the attention with the mess it made.
Now Franklin and Penn State will get ready to face No. 3 seed Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, and all the talk of whether or not Franklin can win the Big Game will surely bubble back up and likely ignore the fact he literally just did.
There may have been bigger matchups during his tenure, but there have never been higher stakes than what Franklin faced on Saturday. It seems he’ll have to keep waiting for most fans to notice.
