Paul Finebaum on James Franklin: 'That was a mess on Saturday night'
Paul Finebaum’s opinion of James Franklin hasn’t changed much since he left the SEC.
Franklin, who had great success at Vanderbilt from 2011-13, has struggled at times in frustrating moments for Penn State. He showed that habit again Saturday night in the Nittany Lions’ 36-35 loss to Indiana — and Finebaum wasn’t surprised.
“That was always the rap on him, was game management,” Finebaum said on The Roundtable on JOX 94.5 in Birmingham Monday morning. “[He’s] a tremendous recruiter. I think he runs a fairly optimal program but I don’t know what happens to him in these moments. That was a mess on Saturday night.”
Franklin’s offense scored a touchdown up 21-20 with under two minutes to go rather than just run out the clock. That allowed Indiana to march down the field and tie the game at 28-28 before eventually winning in overtime.
Penn State has won 11 games in three different seasons under Franklin, but the Nittany Lions have also had some puzzling losses.
To make matters worse for Penn State, Franklin’s squad will be staring down an 0-2 record next weekend if they can’t pull off an upset vs. Ohio State.
“He picked the wrong time to lose because the Ohio State game is really is only shot this year at redemption and I don’t see that happening,” Finebaum added.
Penn State and Ohio State will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night.
Here’s Finebaum’s full appearance on The Roundtable: