From Feb. 19, 1966 to Nov. 9, 2011, Penn State football — and The Pennsylvania State University — had an identity.
A very good one, in fact. Great, even.
For 16,485 days, from the day he was hired as head coach to the day he was fired as head coach, Joe Paterno was the face of Penn State football — and The Pennsylvania State University.
Then came a crisis.
Followed by an identity crisis.
Then, a new identity emerged. First, the Nittany Lions were a bunch of…uh…f***ers, under Bill O’Brien (call ’em fighters).
Then, they were 7-and-6ers Sanction-Soon-To-Be-Enders with James and Sackenberg. Twice.
Finally, in 2016, an identity with legs emerged.
A very good one, in fact.
Now, in 2017, Penn State seems to have found its own way and has — again — a special (read: positive, maybe even great) identity. For the program, the head coach, the offense and the superstar.
SPEAKING FRANKLY
James Franklin is 28-15 at Penn State, and 12-1 over his past 13 games. And his way is his way. It seems to be working. And these days, he makes no apology for that. It’s his formula for success.
Not for saying Akron = Pitt = Georgia State.
Not for saying Georgia State ≠ Field Goal.
Franklin knows what people — people like Mike Francesa — were saying after he did/did not ice Georgia State kicker Brandon Wright last Saturday. James doesn’t have rabbit ears, but to be honest I think he’s a hair sensitive to what folks are saying. And if he doesn’t read it or watch himself, Penn State football PR czar Kris Petersen clues in.
As CJF himself said on Tuesday:
‘You know, Kris has sent me some things people said that when the score is 56-0, that we should just stand there and let someone kick it through the uprights.’
This what Franklin said at his presser that afternoon, essentially — This is who I am:
‘If that’s how you think and how you feel, then you won’t ever understand me and you won’t ever understand us.’
He drove that point home again later in the press conference, when I asked him if he’s OK if with where his offense is, with Saquon Barkley as more of a receiver and less of a runner, with negative running plays, alluding to deep snaps to Trace McSorley six yards into the end zone when the offense is on its 1-yard line.
If Franklin is ready, as I asked him, to give in and say:
‘That’s who we are.’
James is sure about that.
‘You’re exactly right in terms of what is our identity. That’s our identity,’ Franklin said early into an insightful and expansive 628-word answer that took up almost 15% of his Tuesday presser words. ‘We’re an explosive, big-play offense in the passing game and in the run game. And if you’re looking to watch a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense, then this probably isn’t the scheme for you.’
Again, like his rebuttal to the Georgia State FG, Franklin did his best Popeye: ‘I yam what I yam.’
The difference now, compared to 2014 and 2015 and the first four games of 2016, is that he has the muscle behind him — a No. 4 national ranking, a Big Ten title, those 12 wins over the past baker’s dozen games, a crazy big mega-bucks guaranteed contract — to revel in much more of who he and 21st century Penn State football are.
SORRY NO MORE
And Franklin makes no apologies about it.
‘I would also make the argument that was one of our big off-season studies was how do we get better with four-minute offense,’ Franklin said on Tuesday. ‘You read all the coaching books from the beginning of time and you go to all the clinics, and the four-minute offense is: Run the ball, milk the clock and win the game on your terms. You line up in victory formation with 22 personnel, you take the snap from under center — which people tell me that all the time — and then you kneel it down and flip the ball to the official and the game’s over.’
That’s not the RPO. It isn’t @BallCoachJoeNo. It isn’t CJF. And for better or for worse, it’s not Your Father’s PSU.
Franklin came to that realization over the off-season. Maybe it wasn’t during self-study of the Nittany Lions’ 828 offensive plays from scrimmage in 2016 — a remarkably balanced 424 runs and 404 passes. Or from Penn State football’s preferred statistics vendor, Sports Source Analytics, an Atlanta-based firm built by a Vanderbilt grad. Or even James’ conversations with O-coordinator and new identity builder Joe Moorhead.
No matter. And it doesn’t matter. Not any Moor(head.)
‘One of the mistakes that we made last year is we tried to be a four-minute offense in four-minute situations, and that’s not who we are,’ Franklin said. ‘You can’t say at a critical time of the game that you’re going to now become something that you never are.
‘So for us, it’s not losing our identity in short yardage…Just because it’s third-and-1 doesn’t mean you have to cram it up in there where there isn’t a hole. It doesn’t mean you have to run the ball every play in four-minute Now, you have to throw high-percentage passes and things like that — but I think that’s one of the things I think we looked at, (which) is the point that you’re taking.’
THE RPO IS LIKE SPINACH
Now in his seventh season as a head football coach at a Power 5 school, the 45-year-old Franklin is 52-30, with successful reclamation projects at Vanderbilt and yes, admit it, Penn State. He has six bowl appearances, with victories over No. 2 Ohio State and No. 15 Georgia, and at Florida and at Missouri and in Dublin and against Auburn, and in the Big Ten championship game.
Put that resume on LinkedIn and see who dashes off an InMail message. (Jack Swarbrick? Scott Woodward?)
Franklin knows he has that salesman rap, and the tag of being a CEO and not an X-and-O’er. But like Popeye, he has confidence in himself. And how he sails his ship.
It is really starting to show. He is looser during his Wednesday’s media scrums, sharing anecdotes, laughing and cracking jokes — in a way he’s never done before. And he is much more at ease delivering terse, one-sentence answers to press conference questions he doesn’t like. And he is more visible on both sides of College Avenue than he’s ever been before.
(That’s an issue he disputed with me the other day. ‘I just think people are happier to see me these days,’ he joked. He’s right about that.)
All that aside, it does seem that James is enjoying being James these days.
‘I love the people on the extremes that kind of own who they are and are very comfortable in their own skin,’ Franklin said. ‘I think that’s what we have to do on offense and defense and special teams.
‘That doesn’t mean you can’t identify weaknesses in areas you say you want to get better at, but also, owning who you are. Owning how you’re going to handle situations at the end of games. Owning how you’re going to run your offense, defense and special teams. Owning those things. I think there’s a lot of value in that.’
Owning a 12-1 hot streak that netted a contract extension with an upside of $37 million is a lot better than owning a 16-14 sanction-stymied start that some say earned Franklin on a hot seat.
Now, he — and Penn State are — are simply hot. En fuego.
Again.
BARKLEY UP A NEW TREE
It all means a new identity of sorts for Saquon Barkley as well. In a good way.
As a freshman under an offense run by John Donovan, engineered by Franklin and persecuted by haters of Christian, Barkley averaged 6.12 yards per touch. That was on 182 rushes for 1,076 yards, with 20 receptions for 161 yards. No returns. He averaged 124 all-purpose yards over 10 games, with 20 touches per game, not counting the two games he was injured and his one-carry for one-yard cameo appearance against Temple.
Last season, Barkley averaged 6.5 yards per touch with an average of 22 touches per game. That was on 272 carries, with 28 receptions for 402 yards, with three kickoff returns for 74 yards. He averaged 141 all-purpose yards per game.
Three games into the 2017 season, Barkley is averaging 12.36 yards per touch — over twice that of what he had a freshman — on 17.6 touches per game (remember, he sat out most of the second half vs. Georgia State). He’s already gained 307 yards on 38 rushes, and 241 yards on 11 receptions, with four kick returns for 107 yards.
And he is averaging 218.3 all-purpose yards per game. Those kind of numbers can win you a Heisman, if he and Penn State do well against Ohio State and Michigan. To say nothing of getting Penn State a spot in the College Football Playoffs.
Saquon may be Superman and as honest-to-goodness nice as Clark Kent, but he also has a new identity in 2017. As does Penn State.
In a great Sports Illustrated piece this week about the genesis of Moorhead’s offense, from UConn to Fordham to Penn State, Franklin summed up the offense — and Penn State’s new self-image — best.
‘It’s not just the scheme and the X’s and O’s,’ Franklin said. ‘It’s a mentality. And Joe’s done that, and it’s really valuable.
‘We have an identity now.’
