I’d like to congratulate Kyle Pagan on Michigan’s Saturday afternoon win. As a Temple Owl, his football season now centers on Penn State losses, so it was a big day for him.

For PSU fans, or neutrals, it was another predictable loss. Michigan was just better than Penn State in Happy Valley. They didn’t need Jim Harbaugh on the sideline because they ran the ball 46 times and threw it only 8 times en route to a 24-15 win with a couple of late scores that made it look like there was more offense than there actually was.

In the aftermath, offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich was fired:

James Franklin has now had five offensive coordinators in his ten Penn State seasons. John Donovan was fired. Joe Moorhead was hired by Mississippi State. Ricky Rahne went to Old Dominion. Kirk Ciarrocca was fired, and now Mike Yurcich is done-zo.

If three of those offensive coordinators were fired, then it begs the question of whether they were the right hires. And who is doing the hiring? Oh yeah, James Franklin! The biggest underachiever in Pennsylvania, who had this exchange with a reporter after the loss:


We knew exactly what Penn State was going to be before this season began. 10-2 with losses to Michigan and Ohio State, followed by a Peach Bowl berth. Most programs would love to have a season like that, and only ever experience it once in a blue moon (looking at you, Pitt and WVU), but the standard is different and the expectations are higher at Penn State. This team always has the talent, atmosphere, and schedule. They’ve got the NIL money and recruiting. They should be competing for the college football playoff year-in and year-out, but not once have they made it.

The thing that’s weird about Penn State is that you sense this frustration with the program from people who didn’t even go there. I didn’t go there. I don’t even particularly like Penn State. But watching James Franklin fall continually short makes me want to pull my hair out. Imagine being an alum and watching the same thing happen every single year. You tear through the non-conference, take out the trash in the B1G West, then lose to Ohio State and Michigan again. The ceiling and the floor are basically at the same level right now. 10 wins, a great bowl berth, but that sinking feeling of knowing you just can’t get over the hump.

For all of the good things PSU has done in 10 years, this is really the only thing that sticks out now: