Sometimes, when you’re incorporating a lot of moving parts into a new offense, chances are it’s not always going to look nice. While on paper, that could be the case for the Nittany Lions, it’s not quite all put together yet on the field. This was evidenced in Saturday afternoon’s slow start against the FIU Panthers, where Drew Allar looked the most unlike himself he ever has and there was very little success in the passing game outside of Devonte Ross’ highlight-reel touchdown catch and Kaytron Allen’s 68-yard TD. As a result, James Franklin did not seem very pleased with the slow start. Nevertheless, he had to acknowledge that the team still has to find its true identity.
“We started out sluggish. We did not execute the way we needed to early on for a number of reasons,” Franklin said during his postgame press conference. “Obviously, third down was a factor in that. We missed some throws; we dropped some passes. We allowed them on defense to stay on schedule too often. I think it was a combination of all those things. I would have liked to see us start stronger and faster.”
Advertisement
While he certainly seemed to understand his team’s current standing point, he also acknowledged that hopefully in the future, the positives will continue and eventually outweigh the negatives. It still feels weird however, to hear coach Franklin call out a player of Allar’s caliber. Penn State fans know Allar is prone to shaky outings, but Franklin has always defended his QB no matter what. This year feels different, and it’s significant that Franklin is now starting to hold Allar accountable. These postgame comments highlight the hunger everyone in the Nittany Lions organization has for a national title. Franklin is just stating the facts.
Still, Franklin seems to remain optimistic that everything will work out in the end.
“I don’t know if you necessarily know at the end of training camp what your identity is going to be. You have an idea of what you think, but it’s an evolution until you get to the games and start doing it,” he said concerning building an identity. “I don’t know if we’re there yet. I still think we’re trying to figure that out. But I would also say this, we’ve gone into these first couple of weeks with a philosophy of things we were trying to get done in terms of building chemistry and confidence in certain aspects of the game, rather than just going to do what we got to do to win games and score points.”
Penn State fans must hope that the team’s overall chemistry is figured out soon.
Advertisement
Big Ten squads such as Ohio State and Oregon will punish slow starts like what Penn State had in the second game of the season. Needless to say however, it’s good to understand Franklin is addressing it candidly and knows what’s at stake.
This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: James Franklin not pleased with slow start by Penn State offense
