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Penn State's Loss to Pitt Proves that James Franklin Isn't The Coach He Claims to Be

But maybe it's time to realize that James Franklin just isn't a good coach, no matter how often he tells us he is.
Those headphones are piping in a whole bunch of sadness. Photo by Charles LeClaire—USA Today Sports

Heading into today's game against Pitt, Penn State coach James Franklin faced a predicament. His team is not good, nor has it been since he got there, going a pedestrian 14-12 in two years.

Pitt is better than Penn State, just as we predicted. Pitt is, at the very least, a pretty good team. And despite the fact that Pitt has had roughly the same amount of success in the past decade-and-half as Penn State, Nittany Lions fans still, laughably, think they're too good to be Pitt's rival.

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That's a problem for Franklin, who has never beaten a great team—nor has he beaten a good team, for that matter. He beat one ranked team in three years at Vanderbilt, and since arriving in the Big Ten is 0-8 combined against anyone with a pulse that he's played each of those two years—Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Northwestern.

Knowing that, Franklin had a built-in excuse ready to go in case his team suffered a blowout loss to the Panthers.

"Pitt is not going to feel sorry for us that we're a young football team," Franklin said.
— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) September 8, 2016

Oh yes, the youth. This is what James Franklin does. He can find an excuse out of anything. His first year, despite having a 5-star quarterback? NCAA sanctions! We don't have depth! This year, now that the sanctions were lifted? We're young!

Penn State fans have bought into those excuses, because fans want some sort of optimism, but the truth is, Franklin just isn't that good of a good coach, and the loss to Pitt was more evidence to support that.

The Nittany Lions were known for having porous offensive lines in their first two years, and really a mediocre offense in general. So this year, Franklin hired a new offensive coordinator, Joe Moorhead. This year, things would be different, right?

So far, not much looks different.

Poor Saquon Barkley. https://t.co/fb0JcI81WQ
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) September 10, 2016

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Throughout the majority of the game—barring the late comeback—Penn State was gashed by Pitt in pretty much all the ways we expected. The Nittany Lions gave up 341 rushing yards on the day, and were absolutely demolished in the trenches. This is the second year in a row PSU has been embarrassed by an in-state rival—last year, it was Temple who destroyed the Nittany Lions with a two-man rush. This team has shown absolutely no discernible progress in the past three years. So any hope Penn State has of competing in the Big Ten East with Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State is pretty much gone.

Don't worry, though. Franklin has an excuse for that, too—his opponents are hurting him with negative recruiting.

"I think one of the things that's a challenge is as Penn Staters, we're so proud and we know what we're all about and who we are. The people we're competing with—Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame—this is just not something they have to deal with. Although we want to move on, those other schools are not letting us move on."

Penn State lost to Pitt because Pitt is a good team. Penn State will also lose to Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Iowa, because those are good teams. In all likelihood, the Nittany Lions will go a pedestrian 7-5 this year, and Franklin will talk about how next year will be different—and just in case it isn't, he'll build in an excuse, too.

But maybe it's time to realize that James Franklin just isn't a good coach, no matter how often he tells us he is.