Jim Harbaugh vs. James Franklin? Why this Penn State football failure hits new low

STATE COLLEGE — The Michigan Machine, ultimately, did not need its head coach on Saturday. Suspended Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines beat Penn State football the way it was prepared to do no matter the time, place nor national sports controversy.

Even without the Harbaugh on the premises — suspended for the second time this season, this time for allegedly stealing opponents' signs — No. 3 Michigan's victory was precise, unrelenting and absolute. It shifted and adjusted, as expected, to win for the 20th straight time in Big Ten play, downing No. 10 Penn State, 24-15.

And as they say, it wasn't that close.

Even while Harbaugh has reached a special level of college football super-villain status, it wasn't clear — as Penn State's James Franklin walked off the field to boos and catcalls from some of the 110,856 at Beaver Stadium — who was in fact the most embattled coach at the moment.

For the second straight time against a top 5 opponent, Franklin's team, particularly his offense, looked unprepared and out coached. Last month it was at current College Football Playoff No. 1 Ohio State. Saturday it was against a cornered Wolverines team with a newfound us-against-the-world mindset in pursuit of their third-straight CFP semifinal appearance.

Harbaugh and Michigan, penalized by the Big Ten for its alleged sign-stealing scheme, simply plowed ahead. The Wolverines didn't seem to be necessarily galvanized in any form or fashion. They just did what they've done all fall, bludgeoning the Nittany Lions with a profound and punishing ground attack to the tune of 227 yards.

Michigan played like a team built to win a championship. Harbaugh won without even being in the stadium.

Penn State, once more, played like a team unable to capture its best when it matters most. Franklin may have lost even more than another singular defining moment.

What's become so commonplace in his 10-year run here — losing to Ohio State and Michigan — has become so commonplace, so frustratingly expected, that it finally boiled over like never before.

Penn State fans and supporters booed Franklin as he walked the last of his team into the locker room. They are fed up with losing 17 of their past 20 to Top 10 teams — mostly to Ohio State and Michigan.

It comes down to perception and circumstance. Penn State routinely takes care of its business, exceptionally so, against inferior opponents. Franklin hasn't lost to anyone the past two years who isn't Ohio State or Michigan.

But that's not good enough for the second-largest Beaver Stadium crowd on record. Nor should it be. Not with his most talented group he's ever assembled. Not like this.

Not losing because of a stunningly inept defense (at Michigan, 2022). Or because of repeated, crushing turnovers (Ohio State, 2022). Or because of a shockingly neutered offense (at Ohio State, Michigan 2023).

Franklin took questions for just eight minutes after Saturday's game, his shortest press conference of the season.

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How to move on, Coach?

"By (being) honest, be transparent with ourselves as a staff and with the players," he said. "Address it head on and then move on to the next opponent and get ready to get another win next week. We’ve lost to the No. 1 and the No. 3 teams in the country. That’s not good enough. We got to find ways to win those games."

Your young quarterback's struggles? (Drew Allar was just 10-of-22 passing for 70 yards and lost a fumble). Franklin blamed his offensive staff, which certainly starts with himself and coordinator Mike Yurcich.

“We got to do a better job of calling a game to allow a quarterback to get into rhythm," Franklin said. "That is critical. We got to find easy completions to allow a quarterback to get into a rhythm, that’s what everybody does."

His players seemed to smolder in their postgame frustration and offered little in terms of reasons or explanations for such struggles.

As in, how the defense couldn't affectively stop the one thing it knew was coming. Michigan ran the ball on more than 30 consecutive plays from the middle of the second quarter to the final gun. Wolverines quarterback J.J. McCarthy didn't throw a pass for the final 36 minutes and 14 seconds of the game.

Or, how Penn State couldn't do much of anything on offense except simple inside runs early by Nick Singleton and later by Kaytron Allen.

Aside from a season long 34-yard burst by Allen, the Lions' most exciting play was Allen's fourth-down, trick-play pass completion to Allar that helped give Penn State a glimmer of hope heading into halftime.

Drew Allar, Theo Johnson take blame

Allar, now painfully ineffective in his two biggest games as a starter, stayed composed. He teared up and choked up after the loss at Ohio State.

"I'm not the type of guy who's going to put blame on anyone else," Allar said. "To me it's always looking yourself in the mirror at the end of the day, seeing what you did good and bad. Just learning from it ..."

"Personally, I feel I didn't play well enough to win the game today, so that's what it is."

Tight end Theo Johnson, a senior leader, did not hold up. He sobbed at one point in the interview room. He knows this was Penn State's shot to prove their worth to the nation by finally winning a big game.

That they could do what no Penn State team has been able to do in 15 years — finish a regular season with just one loss.

To have a shot at qualifying for a playoff spot it has frustratingly missed over and over again.

"Nothing I could say is going to make anybody feel better," Johnson said. "We've got a lot more football to play, so keep playing for each other and keep getting better."

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Which means, at best, 10-2 again.

And some kind of bowl game that won't feel as it once did.

Which just isn't good enough. Not when you build and prepare and talk as if you should be more.

Which, honestly, you need to be.

So, while the absent Harbaugh cast the largest shadow over Saturday's game, it was Franklin who walked an elephant into the room.

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at  fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Penn State football James Franklin new low vs. Harbaugh-less Michigan