Penn State Football Coach James Franklin Deserves Criticism, But Calls For His Dismissal Are Ridiculous

James Franklin has been under fire since Saturday following Penn State‘s loss to Northwestern in the final moments of the game. It’s not the loss itself that people are upset about, but the game management by the Nittany Lions’ second-year head coach.

Penn State came storming back from a 20-7 halftime deficit to take a 21-20 fourth-quarter lead, but couldn’t hold it when their nationally praised defense surrendered a game-winning drive by the Wildcats that ended in a 35-yard Jack Mitchell field goal with nine seconds left.

The visitors may have had one more shot to take the ball back down the field if Franklin would have smartly utilized his timeouts. After Northwestern converted a third-and-five to the Penn State 24-yard line, Franklin failed to call a timeout and didn’t use his first one until the clock reached 22 seconds. The Nittany Lions were able to return a kick on the final play, but that was it. The Wildcats improved to 7-2 while Penn State dropped to 7-3 heading into a bye week.

There’s no question the coaching staff deserves much criticism for a lot of on-the-field issues over the past two seasons, and I for one have thought that Franklin’s preparation struggles and questionable in-game decisions could be problems that could contribute to a brief tenure with the Nittany Lions. That said, he’s shown great recruiting abilities and the athletic department needs to let this marriage play out until his first couple recruiting classes pass through. Saquon Barkley has been his best get yet, and he’s looking like a potential superstar and maybe their best back in 20-30 years. That’s a bold statement, but certainly not an overstatement at this point.

In addition, Penn State has a great deal of young talent waiting to step in next year as well as many freshmen and sophomores who have already seen the field. Junior quarterback Christian Hackenberg likely won’t be back by my estimation, but Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens are players Franklin is high on and they’ll compete for the job along with incoming freshman signal-caller Jake Zembiec. The skill positions on offense will be returning nearly all starters and reserves, and there is also young talent on the offensive line.

Defensively, the secondary is still young and is continuing to improve, led by Grant Haley and Marcus Allen. Jason Cabinda is already a leader at linebacker as a sophomore, and the dominant defensive line has young contributors behind All-American leadership.

Losses like Penn State endured Saturday are concerning when evaluating the coaches, but there is a lot of talent standing by, which should be enough to give Franklin a few more years. So anyone calling for the coach’s firing after just two seasons in which the program will total at least 14 wins, just stop it. The same goes for anyone calling for the dismissal of Mike Riley in Lincoln. Stop it. Feel free to criticize if it makes you feel better, but give these coaches time to put something together before you cut ties and start over. It’s probably going to be a lot of the same over the next year or two with virtually any other coach.

Jason Shawley is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com covering Big Ten Football. Follow him on Twitter @jshawls.