these past two weeks. I'm not into "fuzzy warm smoke". The on-field results represent themselves.
Woeful.....just woeful. That said....what does it take to get "James out of State College"?
I'll happily donate.
First, notwithstanding what happened last night, which, granted, is tough to swallow, Franklin is an outstanding coach with a track record of success against the odds. He was a winner at Vandy, of all places, and he's been a winner here.
Second, Franklin isn't going anywhere until or unless he wants to. The people who pay his salary remain thrilled with his coaching performance and justifiably so. There would have to be some sort of epic collapse, lasting over more than one season, before his job was in any kind of jeopardy.
Third, if he left here tomorrow, he could have a job by next Friday. He'd be the hottest hire in college football, and schools would line up to outbid one another for his services.
All that said, yeah, five 4th-quarter losses over the last three years, all of them with leads late, all of them where either a single first down on offense or a single stop on defense would have clinched a win, will put a bit of a chink in any coach's armor, regardless of how outstanding he is.
Honestly, in three of those games, I think the issue came down to line play on both sides of the ball -- the opposing offensive and defensive lines were simply on average better, and that factor proved decisive in the end.
In the other two games, both against Michigan State, more than anything I think the problem was psychological. Last year, a huge emotional letdown after Ohio State. This year, a certain uncharacteristic lack of confidence, which affected McSorley and some others, along with a kind of defeatist feeling where the players, and maybe even the coaches, were almost expecting to blow it at the end -- and did. Funny how that works.
One thing for sure: after starting this year with visions of potential playoff bids and conference championships, the season now seems to be hanging by a thread. Because Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan are certainly as good -- and probably even more physical -- than Michigan State. And Maryland is far from a gimme at this point either.
The guys have to suck it up and rally behind Franklin and the staff. OK, no national championship. No playoff. No conference championship. But 10-2 and a nice bowl would be fantastic. This team has the potential to achieve that -- but not unless everyone comes out of their funk and gets their heads back totally in the game.
Yeah, a new wrinkle or two from the offensive and defensive coordinators wouldn't hurt either. ;-)