At the core of James Franklin’s strategy and, by extension, Penn State’s performances in the CFP until the Orange Bowl had been simplicity. They showed up in both previous rounds and got the job done. Sans much flash, averting undue risk. An allegory for a game-manager archetype of quarterback. Sticking to the Xs and Os and coloring inside the lines, so to speak. This is actually how QB1 Drew Allar largely played. Within himself, if you may. But the big semi-final, to go to the Natty, required a big performance. What followed was anything but.

Heart goes out to James Franklin. It really does. The loss in the Orange Bowl certainly shouldn’t all be attributed to him. His fingerprints though were yet again at the site of a proverbial crime scene involving Penn State and a fellow top school. His now infamous record against Top 10 opposition ascended yet again. But the latest wrinkle in this condemnable 3-20 record came in large parts due to Drew Allar. Allar is a good football player, that much is apparent. However, he has the tools to be great. Which is what causes the frustration reverberating across State College and beyond. Josh Pate, the voice of the sport in the mainstream, did not absolve Drew Allar of his wrongdoings. In fact, he’s putting the (Nittany) Lions’ share of the blame for Penn State’s loss on his shoulders.

Guesting on the Lions247 YouTube channel, Josh Pate was stern in his feelings about how Allar let himself and his team down in the south of Florida that fateful evening. “It was bad decision-making,” he said. “I mean, I am never going to say one person won or lost a game. [However] a quarterback has a disproportionately higher contributing factor to winning or losing a game. So a lot of it is on him. It should be on him.”

Not to induce PTSD on the Nittany Lions faithful. But remember those last 38 or so seconds? A rather perfect microcosm of Drew Allar’s evening. Threw a pick when the scores were level at 24-a-piece. When all he needed to do was take care of the football and at least take it to OT. Then, threw a lateral out of bounds as the very last action of the game. When Josh Pate says “bad decision-making,” he’s referring to that interception at the crux of it. He proceeded to speak about Allar’s own psyche after the loss.

“The question is not whether that [loss] affects [Allar]. Of course, it affects him. It affects him more than it will ever affect any fan. The follow-up is, how does it affect your preparation? How does it affect you mentally?” asked Josh Pate rhetorically. He also spoke about what perspective Drew Allar needs to keep going forward. What he said is translative to his life as a young adult outside football too. “If you suffer that kind of setback, whether it be in sports or in life, and all it does is negatively impact you, then it’s been wasted. But if you can harness it for good, then it wasn’t totally wasted. You never waste a failure. A failure is inevitable. If you waste it, that’s when you yourself have failed.” 

Coming from Pate, this wouldn’t fall on deaf ears. Drew Allar is returning next season, alongside the CFB variants of Sonic and Knuckles. His two running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen. Allar and his guys do have an opportunity to make amends. So does James Franklin, whose leash keeps getting shorter. 

James Franklin isn’t absolved of all the blame for Penn State’s continued Championship drought

On the one hand, we can preach continuity and experience. Those are two things James Franklin has in heaps. Experience is a precious commodity at the collegiate level where a player’s lifespan is a handful of years. Keeping the spine of his offense intact with the QB and two-star RBs shows players are bought in on James Franklin. Conversely, he’s been in Happy Valley for over a decade now. After a Big 10 championship relatively early, it’s been a sub-par tenure. This tendency to fall short on the most important downs and drives cannot be a mirage anymore. It’s very real. His big game record has a large enough sample size now.

If coach Franklin really wants to get this monkey off his back and win a big game, better QB play is requisite. There is a growing feeling that a juncture where something’s gotta give beckons. It seems like PSU will always be bridesmaids with Franklin at the helm- never quite the bride. That said, this failure in particular can’t quite fall on him. In hindsight, you could say he shouldn’t have let Drew Allar throw that pick in the first place. That he should’ve been pragmatic and let the game get to OT. But all he did was trust his quarterback. Which he’ll have to continue doing if he wants to break the glass ceiling and win a National Championship. 

James Franklin has somewhat held his end of the bargain thus far. But the moment of reckoning could arrive soon. 2025 is a massively important year for everyone involved. It’s also true for Drew Allar, who needs to take a senior year leap to boost his NFL chances. For now, learn from the Orange Bowl adversity and channel it into positivity. He needs it, his head coach needs it and the Penn State fans need it too.