James Franklin on Sean Clifford, Drew Allar, Penn State's path forward: Notebook

Penn State head coach James Franklin stepped to the Beaver Stadium podium on Tuesday afternoon ready to move on. Coming out of a 41-17 loss at No. 5 Michigan on Saturday, his Nittany Lions had evaluated the performance and understood a few key elements.

The effort, Franklin explained, wasn’t an issue. But, against a Wolverines outfit prepared to capitalize on errors, Penn State provided all the fodder necessary for the lopsided win.

“When you kind of go back and look at the game and watch the tape and meet with the players, I think we played hard. We really did,” Franklin said. “But we did not play nearly as clean as we needed to play. We talked about that from the beginning of this season. Typically the team that makes the least amount of mistakes is going to win.

“And uncharacteristically, I think there were times we lost our poise and composure. I think our kids have a ton of investment and our staff has a ton of investment, and we did not play or handle that as well as we should have.”

Set to face a Minnesota program coming off back-to-back losses, Penn State isn’t yet out of the woods in that regard.

Featuring a strong ground game offensively and a defensive effort that has been comprehensively dominant in six games this season, P.J. Fleck will bring a physical, ball-controlling program to Beaver Stadium for the White Out on Saturday night.

Can Penn State shake off its first setback of the 2022 season? More importantly, can Penn State clean up the issues exploited by Michigan when facing a similarly designed Minnesota squad?

Franklin addressed the state of the program heading into the weekend, including a variety of injuries, during his Tuesday press conference. Here is a look at the most pertinent topics and answers Franklin provided:

James Franklin Tuesday notebook

1) “Nothing is changed”

From the top, Franklin was asked to discuss Sean Clifford’s status following an injury that forced him out of the game at Michigan. Noting that he doesn’t typically announce anything other than season-ending injuries, Franklin said the team hadn’t practiced but “nothing is changed with the plan or the model at this stage.”

The subject wasn’t dead with his response, though. Bringing to Franklin’s attention the growing chorus calling for true freshman quarterback Drew Allar, the head coach offered his response to “people that are calling for a possible change at this point.”

Saying it’s the “wrong message” to send to the team, reading between the lines of Franklin’s next statement is necessary. Saying “Sean has earned the right to be on the field,” and that it “doesn’t mean that Drew hasn’t done some good things,” the message requires parsing.

What Clifford has earned is not a right to play based on seniority or experience or prior accomplishments. Rather, same as at any other position on the field, that “right” is earned by beating out his competition. In this case, that’s over Allar, who the program wants to “continue to grow and develop” for his future, but hasn’t done enough to win the job outright at this point.

Recalling the 2016 season and its 2-2 start, including a blowout loss at Michigan to open Big Ten play, and the response of Penn State football in its aftermath, Franklin insisted that it’s important to “do everything you possibly can to win the next week.”

Subject to health considerations, in the pecking order, that remains Clifford.

2) Injury updates

Franklin doesn’t like the drill but knows it well by now. The media is obligated to ask him about injured players. He isn’t obligated to answer and takes his opportunities to offer that reminder. 

Tuesday, that remained the case in his responses to questions about Clifford and Landon Tengwall, who missed the game due to what Franklin described as an injury sustained in pregame warmups. 

Echoing his comments about Clifford, Franklin acknowledged that Tengwall’s setback isn’t considered a season-ending injury. Then, he proceeded to offer some level of insight into how Tengwall has progressed since Saturday.

“We’re hopeful. He was in getting treatment on Sunday, getting treatment on Monday, and we’ll see kind of where he is at end of the week,” Franklin said. “He’s also a guy that played a lot of the football for us, so hopefully if we can get him some practice reps this week then he has a chance to go. I don’t have a whole lot of information on Tuesday when it comes to injuries unless they’re season-ending injuries.”

James Franklin full press conference video

3) Offensive identity crisis

Beyond Clifford and Penn State’s thought process at quarterback, this was one of the major themes of the press conference. And, not without good reason.

Continuing a trend of diminishing offensive returns since the third week of the season, scoring 33 points against Central Michigan, 17 against Northwestern, and just 10 offensively at Michigan, Franklin was asked point-blank to define Penn State’s offensive identity. And, to follow, he was asked if the Nittany Lions have achieved it. 

This was his answer:

“I think there have been times where I think it’s been pretty obvious what our identity is, which is run and play-action pass and be efficient in the passing game,” Franklin said. “We really haven’t been explosive in the passing game this year like we had last year and previous years, but I think when we have been at our best we have been able to run and pass the ball in play-action pass and spread the ball around. That’s I think when we’re going to be at our best. 

“When we can sprinkle in some explosive passes like we did on Saturday, those things would be helpful, no doubt about it. I think it’s when we are able to run and throw the ball consistently and keep people on their toes, not being able to predict what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.”

Acknowledging that the passing game hasn’t hit enough deep passes, or taken enough of them, Franklin said that balance is a delicate one to achieve. Understanding the program’s season-long quest to find an explosive third receiver to stretch the field and complement Mitch Tinsley and Parker Washington, then, Franklin later was asked to assess the performance of Mike Yurcich in adjusting to the personnel on Penn State’s roster this season including its strengths and weaknesses.

Recognizing the change from Yurcich’s prior stops, Franklin said the veteran offensive coordinator has made adjustments necessary this season to best accentuate the roster as it’s presently built.

“I think the change in use of our tight ends and formations and running the ball and things like that, I think is a change and is an adjustment that puts us in the best position to play to our strengths,” Franklin said. “We got to go out and execute consistently across the board. But I think there has been a pretty dramatic change. If you look at Mike and who he’s been over his career and who we are right now based on our personnel, I think it’s pretty significant.”

4) The path forward

Flatly refusing to entertain some of the specifics of a few big-picture questions asked during the press conference, Franklin’s last answer was revealing in the intent he has brought to the program this week.

Coming off a tough loss, with frustrations mounting externally, BWI’s T. Frank Carr asked Franklin how much he feels that pressure and how to know when to pivot if something hasn’t been working.

To that, Franklin laid out what he hopes to provide to the players and staff in the program from a leadership perspective this week as the Nittany Lions attempt to rebound from the loss and maximize their remaining opportunities this season. 

“I’m not going to look too far ahead. Not going to look too far behind. I think there were six undefeated teams that lost last week. Where I probably am concerned… it’s hard for me to insulate the players and the staff from it,” Franklin said. “So what we want to do is, okay, let’s watch the tape, make the corrections. Let’s learn from it, and then let’s move forward and find a way to be 1-0 this week.

“Winning is hard to do at this level. That’s our focus. What I’m trying to do is everything I possibly can to control the Lasch Building and the messages and the vibe that’s in that building so that the Lasch practice fields are the way they need to be. And then Beaver Stadium is the way it needs to be, so then we got a chance for 110,000 or 107,000 fans or whatever it is fans coming out of that stadium Saturday night at sometime around 11:50, 12:00, happy.”

Penn State football and Franklin will get that opportunity in four days.