After rare losing season, Penn State's James Franklin makes plans for 2021

Penn State’s 2020 football season — and the days that followed — were marked by change, personnel upheaval and something that is rarely experienced by the Nittany Lions and difficult for coaches, players and fans to accept:

A losing record.

For the first time since 2004, Penn State (4-5) lost more games than it won, a situation that spurred coach James Franklin to act almost immediately after the last game Dec. 19.

He fired offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca after only one season and hired Cal (Pa.) graduate Mike Yurcich from Texas on Jan. 8 after the Longhorns dismissed coach Tom Herman. That will make four different men running Franklin’s offense since 2017.

During a conference call with reporters Monday, Franklin said he had been in contact with Yurcich “for a long time.” He said his conversation with Ciarrocca wasn’t easy.

“Kirk handled it extremely well like he does everything. Total class act,” Franklin said.

“Philosophically, I felt it was the right thing for us to do to get to where we want to go and play a style on offense that I think is going to be important for us to play,” he said.

Franklin pointed to three areas he believes are the keystones of good offense — explosive plays, limiting turnovers and scoring points.

Penn State was not good enough in all three last season, finishing 112th of 127 Division I schools in turnover differential (10 gained, 17 lost), 87th in yards per play (5.5) and 54th in points (29.8).

Yurcich’s Texas team was 10th, 19th and seventh in all three categories. Plus, when he was coordinating Oklahoma State’s offense and coaching Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph, the Cowboys scored 40 or more points 35 times and 50 or more 15 times.

“There are going to be games where you have to score 40 points,” Franklin said. “You better be able to protect the football, and you better be able to create explosive plays. Those were two areas we were not successful at.”

He said hopes to revert Penn State’s offense to a style it employed in the years before Ciarrocca’s arrival.

“It’s going to be spread. It’s going to be tempo. It’s going to be emphasis on explosive plays,” he said.

Asked to assess the play last season of quarterbacks Sean Clifford and Will Levis, Franklin said (something he also has communicated to those players), “I wouldn’t say we took a step in the right direction.”

“I wouldn’t say we built on the year before (when Clifford helped lead Penn State to an 11-2 record). That’s why there was change, different starters, different rotations.

“We feel good about the guys we have. Sean has done some good things. Will Levis has shown us he has the ability to be a high-level player as well and has a very, very bright future.”

He is pleased that wide receiver Jahan Dotson has decided to return for his senior season, but he hopes to give him more help this season. Dotson (52 receptions-884 yards) and Parker Washington (36-489) were the only wide receivers with more than 15 catches.

“I want to get more guys’ hands on the ball,” he said.

Franklin’s discontent wasn’t confined to the offense. “We didn’t tackle as well last year as we have,” he said.

It was a difficult time for Franklin, even on a non-football level. His wife and two daughters spent the entire season at their Florida home to protect 12-year-old Addison, who has sickle cell disease, from the coronavirus.

The day after the season ended, Franklin took two covid-19 tests, quarantined for five days and surprised the family by showing up Christmas Eve.

“That was pretty cool,” he said. “They were really excited to see me for the first couple days. By the end, they were ready for me to go back to work.”

Back on campus, Franklin is working to rebuild his offensive and defensive lines after losing seven players on both sides of the ball to graduation, early entry to the NFL and the transfer portal.

Linemen C.J. Thorpe (Central Catholic), Judge Culpepper and Antonio Shelton have indicated they plan to transfer. Meanwhile, Franklin dipped into the portal himself, adding two transfers, defensive end Arnold Ebiketie (Temple) and Derrick Tangelo (Duke).

He uses the system when necessary, but Franklin wonders about the more liberal approach the NCAA is taking to transfers.

“The college football I got involved with (at the outset of his career), every decision that was made from an NCAA level and from the universities I worked with, these were educational decisions,” he said. “I just see less of that right now. Every time a guy transfers, his likelihood of graduating goes down. You lose credits. You don’t even see that discussed anymore. These are football decisions being made.”

Meanwhile, he is working toward the 2021 season, his eighth at Penn State. Spring football is on his calendar, but he wonders about that, too.

“We are planning to have spring football,” he said, “but we haven’t been told that’s a go yet.”