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James Franklin responds to question of 1-9 record vs. Ohio State
By Paul Harvey
Published:
James Franklin has produced a significant stretch of success for Penn State since arriving at the program ahead of the 2014 season. Unfortunately, consistent success against top teams in the country and in the B1G has been hard to come by.
On Saturday, the Nittany Lions once again fell short in a big game, losing to Ohio State by a score of 20-12. That loss to the No. 3 team in the country makes Franklin 4-15 overall against Michigan and Ohio State. He is also 3-16 vs. AP Top 10 teams and 1-11 vs. AP Top 5 teams.
As for the Buckeyes, Franklin is now 1-9 head-to-head against Ohio State with that lone win coming during the 2016 season. With Saturday’s win, Ohio State has now won 7 straight against Franklin’s program.
The head coach was asked about that record after Saturday’s game. While he acknowledged it was a fair question, he pointed to a desire to focus on the most recent matchup.
“I totally get it. I totally get it. That’s a good football team. What I’ll talk about is today,” said Franklin. “We lost to a really good football team on the road we had our chances we battled we weren’t able to capitalize.
“Big picture things, I’ll be happy to talk about that at some point, but right now I want to talk about we lost to a really good football, didn’t make enough plays when we needed to make the plays. And I think it’s a fair question, I get the question, but right now I’m worried about this game.”
If there is any silver lining, Penn State will get a shot to bounce back later in the season when current No. 2 Michigan visits Happy Valley. Until then, this loss is a bitter pill to swallow.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.