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Penn State's belief in James Franklin paid off with Big Ten title game berth

 
Published Dec. 2, 2016

Two months ago, this was Penn State football: a team, decimated by injuries at linebacker, getting shelled by Michigan to fall to 2-2.

A fan base wondering if coach James Franklin would ever beat a ranked team.

And an athletic director hiding from reporters who wanted to know whether Franklin would even last the season.

Wait, that last one is fiction. It's what most athletic directors would have done - duck the difficult question and follow the AD manual by responding: "Every head coach is evaluated after the season."

Sandy Barbour tore up the manual. Approached by a reporter from the Altoona Mirror before a luncheon, she said this: "James is not on any hot seat, and he's not going to be on the hot seat in December."

And this: "I believe in where this football program is going under James Franklin, and I think he's going to be our football coach, period."

And this: "I think he's doing a spectacular job as a teacher, as a coach, as a leader of these young men. He and his staff are absolutely nailing that."

Wait, what? Doesn't Barbour know what she was supposed to say? The wait-till-after-the-season cliche?

"You say that to hedge," Barbour told the Tribune this week, "and I didn't want to hedge."

Franklin's players - who take on Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game Saturday night - appreciated it.

Linebacker Jason Cabinda said this week of Barbour's Sept. 28 comments: "Something people outside the locker room don't get to see is how you grow with these coaches, get to know their families. Anytime a coach gets fired, it's terrible. It breaks families apart. Seeing that vote of confidence was awesome."

Penn State's next game was against Minnesota at home. The Nittany Lions, down seven injured starters, trailed 13-3 at halftime. Some students at Beaver Stadium chanted: "Fire Franklin!"

Early in the third quarter, quarterback Trace McSorley hit Irvin Charles for an 80-yard touchdown pass.

"Turned the game around," Franklin said, "and really our season around. It got the stadium involved. It got a young team settled down."

Saquon Barkley won the game by running for a 25-yard score in overtime, and the Nittany Lions haven't stopped. They've won eight straight games to get to 10-2, marking one of the most remarkable in-season turnarounds in Big Ten history.

Asked what chance he would have given Penn State to reach the Big Ten title game after the 49-10 loss to Michigan, Fox Sports analyst Dave Wannstedt replied: "Zero. Absolutely zero."

To reach Indianapolis, the Nittany Lions not only would have to win out, but also would need Michigan to lose twice. Both happened.

They beat No. 2 Ohio State as 20-point underdogs, marking Franklin's first victory over a ranked team in three seasons in State College. They trailed 21-7 after three quarters. The key play was a scoop-and-score off a blocked field goal with less than five minutes to play.

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"The kicking game is probably 75 percent effort," Wannstedt said. "By that I mean you don't practice it as much as offense or defense, and you have a lot of young players trying to get on the field. Give James Franklin credit. It shows they were playing awful hard."

It also validated what Barbour said - and believed from the beginning.

Penn State hired Barbour, a Northwestern alumna and former NU assistant field hockey and lacrosse coach, in the summer of 2014, about seven months after Franklin arrived from Vanderbilt. Almost immediately, she said, she determined that Franklin was the right man for the job.

What no one could have known is how the 2016 season would unfold.

"I don't know that you could ever have predicted this," she said. "But I know this: These young men believed in themselves and the process."