James Franklin shares how Drew Allar has responded since Ohio State loss

The Penn State Nittany Lions‘ loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes was a big blow to the Nittany Lions’ morale. In particular, head coach James Franklin knows that quarterback Drew Allar needs to respond well to what was his worst game as the team’s starting quarterback.

Halfway through the week, however, Franklin is happy with how Allar has responded to this point.

“Good. He puts a ton into this,” James Franklin said. “As you guys mentioned, he was pretty upset after the game, which a lot of people were but has moved on.”

One thing that James Franklin explained will help the entire team move on from the loss to Ohio State is that there is a new challenge to get ready for right away.

“I think, for a lot of us, when that next opponent comes out and that next gameplan comes, and the film, and the next challenge, and the next opportunity, that helps. Because it allows you to pour all your energy into that next battle, that next challenge.”

The Penn State offense was only able to just 12 points against Ohio State. It was a shocking game for the ninth-ranked scoring offense in the country, which is scoring 39.7 points per game. There are a lot of factors that went into that overall performance, but Drew Allar’s struggles were a big part of that. He finished the game with just 18 completions of 42 attempts for 191 yards and a touchdown.

After the game, a clearly upset Allar said his performance “sucked.” Later, when asked why he was so hard on himself, Allar bluntly said, “Because I did.”

Next week, Penn State will have the chance to bounce back from the tough loss with a game against the Indiana Hoosiers. That’s a game the Nittany Lions will be favored to win, but they need to have mentally responded to the loss.

James Franklin takes responsibility for Penn State’s loss to Ohio State

The loss to Ohio State was tough for the Nittany Lions and, after the game, James Franklin shouldered the blame for the loss.

“It’s always on me when things don’t go well,” Franklin said. “I was going to say in the press conference after getting that win — it was going to be obviously to praise the players. What was the difference this year in being able to get that win. It was going to be about the players and some other things that I wanted to talk about, but that didn’t happen.”