History has already told the fate of Drew Allar and James Franklin, but the Penn State duo has a chance to rewrite it very soon
The history of James Franklin and Drew Allar has already told us their fate against the Oregon Ducks. Penn State has a chance to rewrite that story.
The Penn State Nittany Lions head into an incredibly important matchup against the Oregon Ducks on Saturday night. Head coach James Franklin’s squad was ranked as the No. 3 team in the latest AP Top-25 poll, and for the first time during his entire 12-year tenure, the outsiders believe that this team could potentially win a national championship. This program, however, still has some major big game question marks that they need to answer.
Heading into this contest, Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks are ranked as the No. 6 team on that aforementioned Top-25 poll, and also have those same championship aspirations after winning the Big Ten Championship game last season.
Franklin’s numbers against teams of that caliber haven’t been pretty since he made his way to Happy Valley, and remain his biggest criticism. He is just 16-28 when facing Top-25 squads during his Penn State tenure, but 4-20 against teams that cracked the Top-10. The Ducks narrowly missed being ranked inside the top-5 teams, and Franklin holds just a 1-15 record against such foes. There is a lot of pressure on Franklin to prove that he can win this type of game.
Will Drew Allar finally validate the hype?
Franklin’s quarterback, Drew Allar, has also predictably been quite poor in those big games. During his two years as a starter in Happy Valley, Allar holds a 5-7 record against Top-25 teams, a 1-5 record against Top-10 teams, and a 0-5 record against Top-5 teams. Allar’s individual performances in those Top-25 contests have been a big reason for the issues. The 6-5, 235-pound passer has thrown for just 1,496 yards, 10 touchdowns, five interceptions, and a 54 percent completion rate in those nine games. That is an average of 166 yards passing per game, and Allar only eclipsed the 200-yard passing mark twice.
Allar also hasn’t been impactful with his legs either. In nine games, he rushed for just 185 yards on the ground and an average of 2.84 yards per carry. That is less than 190 yards of total offense per game, not quite the numbers you would expect from someone that people try to hype up near the elite category.
When the Nittany Lions host Oregon this weekend, one of two things is going to be proven true. Either Penn State, including both Franklin and Allar, are going to show that this version of the program is different. They have a chance to prove that all the offseason hype is warranted and they have grown as competitors. It could potentially validate those championship expectations.
If Penn State comes out on the losing end, especially at home, it would just be another example of this team falling short. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Franklin’s squad can’t recover and make a push down the stretch, but it will be hard to have optimism that they will. This Penn State fanbase wants to fully buy into this team, but with those resumes at head coach and behind center, it is hard to do so.
Until proven otherwise, this is a good program that has an unfortunate trend of falling short in the biggest moments.
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