Throw the flag now. I’ll be extremely guilty of piling on by the time this column is done.

I’ll take the yellow flag. But I’m going to raise a bunch of red ones in the direction of 7th-year coach James Franklin and his Penn State program.

Less than 10 minutes into the Nittany Lions’ 30-23 loss to Nebraska, it became obvious that nothing that would happen at the B1G’s westernmost outpost on Saturday was going to change my big-picture view of the PSU program.

Will Levis led a spirited second-half rally, but let’s not kid ourselves that a close game against another troubled, previously winless program mitigates all of Penn State’s issues.

Something is very, very wrong in State College.

Penn State is a shell of the program that just over a year ago went to Minneapolis sporting an 8-0 record and No. 4 ranking. Nov. 9, 2019 might well be the last teasing high point of the magical Franklin Era. Count Minnesota’s 31-26 victory as a crushing knockdown, if not a knockout.

Penn State faces the very real possibility, next Saturday against Iowa, of starting a season 0-5 for the first time in its 134-year history.

I would love to write this season off as an aberration. I’m not unsympathetic to the troubles that 2020 has wrought on Penn State. From James Franklin living apart from his family to Micah Parsons opting out, the coronavirus has taken a toll. Tack on Journey Brown’s heartbreaking forced retirement because of a heart condition and Noah Cain’s opening day injury, and we can all acknowledge 2020 is blasting PSU football perhaps even more than it’s blasting the rest of us.

But the show must go on.

Ohio State, and everyone else in the B1G and across the college football landscape, is dealing with COVID protocols and cardboard fans, too.

Yet Penn State, perhaps more than any other Power 5 program, seems unprepared physically, mentally, emotionally and strategically. If there’s a plan at all, it doesn’t seem to be a coherent one.

This 0-4 start is not a fluke. Penn State is bad team — an uninspired, leaderless group seemingly devoid of dynamic personalities. Right now, Maryland is a better team solely on the strength of the buzz generated by Taulia Tagovailoa. (Not to mention 35-19.)

Penn State has been rotting from within for a couple years now. Here are some of the red flags:

  • Players suddenly don’t want to play at PSU: Since the transfer portal opened in 2019, 36 Penn State players have entered it. Only 3 have returned. Among those who left: high-level recruits Ricky Slade, Justin Shorter, Michael Johnson Jr. and Juwan Johnson. Only one player came through the portal the other way: PSU got itself a kickoff man, Jordan Stout. Meanwhile, Ohio State lost 9 but added 4 — including Justin Fields and Trey Sermon. On top of all that, PSU’s 2021 recruiting class currently ranks 8th-best in the B1G, by far the worst class since Franklin arrived in 2014. And oh, by the way, zero of Pennsylvania’s top 10 players are in it.
  • The offense is stale and predictable: The Lions look like they’re running a dumbed-down version of the offense Joe Moorhead brought to the McSorley-Barkley era. What’s left of that multi-faceted attack? If all else fails, run the quarterback. On Saturday, this year’s lone dynamic playmaker, Jahan Dotson, had 1 catch for 6 yards in the first half. Will Levis finally got some extended run at quarterback after Sean Clifford committed 2 more turnovers in a disastrous first half. But if the QB run threat remains so central to the approach, perhaps Ta’Quan Roberson really should be the answer.
  • Staff changes haven’t helped: Since Moorhead, has any coaching staff hire made a positive difference? It doesn’t seem so. The jury remains out on new OC Kirk Ciarrocca, but there are reasons to think it wasn’t a great hire. For one, his system at Minnesota didn’t revolve on having a running QB. Tanner Morgan stands at minus-92 rushing yards for the Gophers since the start of the 2019 season. On both sides of the ball, Penn State seems to have become easy to play against. Are the Lions somehow tipping their plays? Have they become totally predictable?
  • Puzzling in-game strategy: This season started out with a loss because a running back failed to fall down short of the goal line to run out the clock. Against Maryland, Franklin tried a 2-point conversion down 35-13 with 10:16 remaining. Is there a message other than “we concede” that PSU’s players and fans were supposed to take from that? The obvious play is to kick a PAT, try to score 3 more TDs in 10 minutes and send the game to OT. Or you can just give up and practice one of your 2-point plays. Other times, the defense has run substitutes onto the field who don’t seem to know where to line up or whom to cover.
  • Lack of focus, confidence: After the loss to Maryland, Dotson admitted the squad was having unity issues and that players were worrying about things they shouldn’t be focusing on. The statement was a bit vague but jives with what’s occurring on the field. There doesn’t seem to be a rallying point. Levis and freshman RB Keyvone Lee seemed to provide a spark early in the second half Saturday. But it’ll take a lot more of that to forge an offensive identity.

Is it fixable? Possibly. A team can certainly overcome one poor recruiting year, especially this year, when any player who wants one can have an extra season of eligibility.

But the bad trends will need to change in a hurry. Penn State will need a series of positive quick strikes like the Levis-to-Pat Freiermuth 74-yard pass play that got it back in the game against the Cornhuskers in the fourth quarter.

Franklin needs a reset. Maybe Saturday’s spirited rally helps get that started. Maybe everything goes back to normal in a post-pandemic world. But it’s uncharted territory. This is the longest college coaching stint for Franklin at one place in any capacity.

The buzz is long gone. Can it be recreated? It’ll take a much greater turnaround than the failed rally Saturday in Lincoln.

Neither Franklin nor his squad looks up to it right now.