By Kyle Golik
During the last two weeks, two of college football’s biggest coaches Penn State’s James Franklin and LSU’s Brian Kelly continued their known issues in big games leaving each fan base beside themselves of the results.
For Penn State two weeks ago, the Nittany Lions blew a 10-0 lead and was outscored by Ohio State 20-3 the rest of the way. To add insult to injury, Penn State had two possessions within the Ohio State five-yard line and did not come away with points in either situation.
Following Penn State’s 10th loss in 11 tries against Ohio State in the Franklin era, he stated:
“There’s nobody that’s looking in the mirror harder than I am. I will say this, and I’ve said it before, 99 percent of the programs across college football would die to do what we’ve been able to do in our time here. But I also understand when you’re in a place like Penn State, there’s really, really high expectations. When you’re in a place like Ohio State, there’s really, really high expectations. I get it. So we’ve looked at all these things really hard. We’ll continue to look at these things really hard.”
For LSU, Saturday was a continuation of misery against Alabama. Much like how Penn State took on a vulnerable Ohio State at home and with a perceived talent advantage, you could have said the same thing with LSU. It was at Tiger Stadium at night, when LSU defeated Alabama in the last encounter there in 2022. You saw Alabama had an overreliance on quarterback Jalen Milroe and a team completely undisciplined squad under first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer.
Add in the fact LSU had two weeks to prepare for this Alabama team, you figured LSU in this playoff elimination game would have looked better than it did.
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LSU came out flat and got dominated by Alabama in a 42-13 loss where quarterback Milroe had 294 yards of total offense (109 pass, 185 rush) and four rushing touchdowns.
Kelly was melancholy during the Alabama post-mortem:
“Well, I’ll begin by saying what we thought would be an exciting evening turned out to be a disappointing evening. I told my team I was certainly excited coming into the game about their preparation, and the way that they thought about this game and what they needed to do physically, mentally, and all the things we talk about. I was excited about their preparation. They were ready to play. I take ownership in not getting our guys in the right position tonight, and we just did not make the best of the opportunities that we had, and then certainly a lot of things didn’t go the right way tonight with not being able to get off the field on third down, turning the ball over on offense, and it just seemed there were at times some key things in the game that didn’t go our way.”
With fans at both programs scratching their heads, who is in the better situation?
The Case For James Franklin
Since Penn State’s 2016 Big Ten Championship season, Franklin has won only a single Top 10 matchup and that came in the 2023 Rose Bowl against Utah. The caveat in that matchup is Utah lost to injury quarterback Cam Rising.
The loss to Ohio State stings Penn State’s College Football Playoff resume because it has to finish their 2024 season perfect or be put on the chopping block as an at-large.
West Virginia was seen as a dark horse Big 12 contender and is currently at 5-4. Southern California started the season with high hopes, especially after defeating LSU in Las Vegas but has since gone winless in true road games and is under .500. Minnesota, who Penn State plays in two weeks, has been a “Jekyll and Hyde” team this season. Illinois may be Penn State’s signature win and Penn State hopes it can win out to at least have a win against a team with nine wins.
If Penn State finishes 11-1, they will be in the College Football Playoff and should host a playoff game where Franklin would have an opportunity to change the narrative of his big game woes. In postseason games, Kelly is winless in five New Year’s Six bowls in his career (forfeiting two more opportunities due to coaching changes), in comparison to Franklin’s three wins in five opportunities.
The Case For Brian Kelly
Kelly will have to wait until 2025 to attempt to get LSU back into the College Football Playoffs because sitting at 6-3, the Tigers would need a lot of help and significant chaos to make it in this year.
The hope is since Nick Saban set the tone and blueprint for the LSU program each succeeding coach since him, Les Miles (2007) and Ed Orgeron (2019) each won national championships with Kelly guiding Notre Dame to a BCS National Championship appearance in 2012 and two more College Football Playoff appearances in 2018 and 2020.
Kelly has guided LSU to an SEC Championship game appearance in 2022, and had the nation’s top-scoring offense a season ago fueled by Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels at quarterback with two elite receivers in Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas.
What is still in play for Kelly is if LSU wins out? It would mean the Tigers win 10 games for a third season in a row, something that has only happened twice before in LSU history both under Les Miles (2005-2007 and 2010-2013).
I Would Rather Deal With… James Franklin
One of the things that has progressed in Franklin’s time at Penn State is the let-down games are fewer and fewer. Penn State dominated a Washington team that had a Top 25 grade from Pro Football Focus based on talent. It was an easy trap game for Penn State to fall through, but Penn State started out to a 28-0 lead and was a penalty away from making it 35-0 on a Nicholas Singleton kickoff return.
A statistic that is even more alarming and much an indictment on Kelly is his successor, Marcus Freeman, is 10-4 against ranked opponents. Even with horrible losses to Marshall and Northern Illinois, Freeman has gotten it done on the biggest stages.
With the perception Kelly was held back at Notre Dame, and the resources at LSU should only enhance Kelly hasn’t been seen. Over the same period of time, Kelly is 4-8 against ranked opponents.
To me, it is only a matter of time for Franklin to break through, and he really can do it this season. Kelly had a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback and couldn’t get it done, Franklin hasn’t had a quarterback even remotely as talented as Daniels, and this is with great respect to Drew Allar, yet has achieved more than Kelly recently.
Franklin should make his first playoff this year, and don’t be surprised if he gets a win or two to change his image along the way.
