Urban Meyer: Michigan game presents huge opportunity for James Franklin, Penn State

This weekend, Penn State will host Michigan in a massive Big Ten East game. That game, as former head coach Urban Meyer explained, is going to be massive for James Franklin and the Nittany Lions.

During Urban’s Take with Tim May, Meyer explained that Penn State and Franklin need to get a major win to get beyond third in the East and live up to the team’s potential.

“It’s huge,” Urban Meyer said. “They won the Big Ten Championship in 2016, and really since then, he’s had so many close calls. It’s interesting, the fanbase at Penn State, they are incredible. You know how I feel about the White Out and the student body and all that. But it’s almost like, have they accepted the fact that in the last few years, they’re number three in the Big Ten East?”

Penn State has finished no better than third in the Big Ten East since 2019 when the Nittany Lions were second. Penn State won the conference once under James Franklin, in 2016. Before that, the last time Penn State won the Big Ten was in 2008, when the Nittany Lions were co-champions with Ohio State.

“That’s not Penn State and I don’t believe Coach Franklin has, but they have to at some point — first of all, it’s one of the top programs in college football history, Penn State. It’s got all the resources. It’s got everything. He’s got an excellent team. That team is loaded with NFL talent and I made the comment, this is the most talented Penn State team I’ve seen in 15 years.”

At the end of the day, Urban Meyer is putting Penn State’s success or lack of success against Michigan on the shoulders of Drew Allar. It will be Allar who goes up against a relatively untested Michigan defense and could spark the Nittany Lions.

“But it all falls on this quarterback, Drew Allar. He did not play well against Ohio State and really has not played well all year as far as downfield passes are. They really forced it last week against Maryland. I mean, they were really throwing it downfield. The best throw of his career was over the left side for a touchdown, about 30 yards, beautiful pass,” Meyer said.

“So, they’re fortunate to become that quarterback that everyone thought he was when they recruited him.”

James Franklin focused on film, not investigation surrounding Michigan

Michigan is currently embroiled in an investigation involving stolen signs. However, James Franklin isn’t focused on that. Instead, his focus is on Penn State’s film.

“I know these questions are gonna come this week,” Franklin said. “I’m gonna focus on the things that we can control. We always have to have a plan and I think I’ve already kind of covered this and talked about this in terms of what we do and how we communicate to our players and how we communicate to our team during games. But I’m gonna leave it at that because less is more.”