The worst loss of the James Franklin era at Penn State

If you thought giving up 10 sacks to Temple or coughing up late leads to Ohio State and Michigan State were bad, Penn State added another dreadful moment for your consideration of the worst loss of the James Franklin era.

Penn State has lost a total of 30 games under the leadership of head coach James Franklin. On Saturday, fans witnessed the worst of them all as Penn State’s offense was unable to punch a hole in a piece of tissue paper in a nine overtime loss to lowly Illinois. In the same week Illini head coach Bret Bielema ripped the talent on his own roster, the Nittany Lions were unable to bury a team at home off a bye week in four quarters, let alone nine overtimes.

The word inexcusable doesn’t feel salty enough to describe the result of this performance by Penn State.

Penn State was favored by more than three touchdowns against a team that came into this week with just two wins, against Nebraska and Charlotte. even with sean Clifford back on the field, Penn State’s offense managed to score just 10 points in four quarters against an Illini defense that ranked 12th in the Big Ten in scoring defense, allowing 24.6 points per game. And Penn State didn’t score a single point in the second half of the game until dragging itself into overtime.

This loss doesn’t suggest James Franklin’s job is in any jeopardy in Happy Valley, nor will it calm down any speculation he could pack his bags and leave for another opportunity at a school like USC or LSU. But it does bring up some brand new questions to throw Penn State’s way.

For starters, what the heck was going on in the bye week that led to this team looking so unprepared to take care of business at home?

“Obviously we did not have our guys ready to play,” Franklin said in his postgame press conference with the media. “I think there was a difference between playing Iowa on the road and having that type of loss with the type of injuries we had going into our bye week. But at the end of the day, all that matters is that we get the job done, and we did not today.”

Franklin also noted that many players were used without getting the proper practice reps, including Clifford. That adds to the idea that Franklin and the staff didn’t have the team ready to play.

Once again, credit should be given to the victors for taking advantage of the situation, just as Iowa did two weeks ago against a banged-up Penn State, Illinois found a way to hang in there and seize a game that had no business being theirs to win.

Clearly, there is a lot of work to do before Penn State’s next game, next week on the road against the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Follow Nittany Lions Wire on Twitter and like us on Facebook for continuing Penn State coverage and discussion.