Paul Finebaum placed the blame on James Franklin for Penn State’s latest Big Ten shortcoming.
The Nittany Lions suffered a 24-15 home loss to Michigan on Saturday. Franklin’s offense mustered just 74 passing yards and punted five times.
Appearing on Sunday’s SportsCenter, Finebaum said that Jim Harbaugh’s suspension felt like a “negligible loss” to Michigan on Saturday. He was let down by Franklin’s game plan rather than impressed by Michigan defeating a top-10 opponent.
“It doesn’t look great, but Michigan really didn’t have to do anything for one reason: James Franklin is one of the most unimaginative big-game coaches in the history of the game,” Finebaum declared. “I don’t know what he was trying to do, but it didn’t look to me like he was trying to win the game, and that’s what you’re supposed to do. His record in these big games against Ohio State and Michigan is abysmal, and I think that’s one reason why Michigan played it close to the vest and won fairly easily.”
Drew Allar completed just 10 passes, none of which went for 20 yards or more. Meanwhile, Penn State had no answer for Michigan’s ground game.
The Wolverines ran the ball 32 straight times to end Saturday’s win at Beaver Stadium. One would think Franklin and Co. could have eventually detected a pattern.
Penn State has now lost to Ohio State and Michigan for the third straight season. The Nittany Lions haven’t fallen to any other opponent, but they appeared to have hit a ceiling
Franklin said beating everyone besides their two biggest conference rivals is “not good enough.”
“We got to find ways to win those games,” Franklin said after the game, per ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren. “But, address it, be honest, be transparent, go after it head on and then move on to the next opponent so we can find a way to get a win next week. And we’ll finish this thing in a positive direction.”
Penn State will close the regular season against Rutgers and Michigan State.