Penn State's James Franklin: 'We've got a chip on our shoulder'

It’s hard to imagine a college football team in America that dealt with the challenges the 2020 season presented worse than Penn State.

A preseason top 10 selection, Penn State lost its first five games for the first time in school history before steadying the ship and finishing 4-5.

The way coach James Franklin sees it, a world filled with video conferences and surgical masks was at least partially to blame. It surely didn’t agree with his coaching style.

“I want to connect with people,” Franklin said at Big Ten preseason media day Thursday in Indianapolis. “I want to be face to face. I want to embrace. I want to hug. I want to scream. I want to yell. That’s who I am. And having every meeting up until Game 5 over Zoom and not in person and with a mask on, when people can’t see the emotion and the connection and the love that I have for them, had an effect.”

The losses also had an effect on the mindset of his team, Franklin said. A positive one.

His players never want to go through a stretch like that again.

“We’re hungry,” Franklin said. “I would say, obviously, we’ve got a chip on our shoulder. We’ve found a lot of success at Penn State and we’re excited to get back to that.”

While a change in attitude might help the Nittany Lions a little bit, fielding a more effective offense would probably help a lot.

Kirk Ciarrocca is gone after just one year as offensive coordinator. Mike Yurcich, a 45-year-old who coached at Shippensburg and Edinboro and spent last season at Texas, takes his place.

“We want people to defend (the width of the field),” Franklin said. “We want to be able to get our players in space. We want to be able to run with power and authority. I know Mike feels the same way.”

Yurcich will be working with an experienced if beleaguered quarterback in Sean Clifford.

After throwing for 2,654 yards, 23 touchdowns and seven interceptions as a sophomore, Clifford managed 1,883 yards, 16 touchdowns and nine picks as a junior.

“(Clifford) has now seen it all, you know, two years ago won 11 games, won the Cotton Bowl with a lot of success,” Franklin said. “Obviously, as an entire organization, we had some challenges last year and that was an opportunity for all of us to grow and evolve. I know Sean has as well and we’re looking forward to watching him play this year.”

Clifford will have plenty of talented skill players to work with as he tries to get back on track.

Penn State had three running backs make the Doak Walker Award watch list.

Junior Noah Cain, who suffered a season-ending leg injury in the opener against Indiana last year, is back. He rushed for 443 yards and eight touchdowns as a freshman. Sophomore Keyvone Lee is back after running for 438 yards and four touchdowns in Cain’s absence. John Lovett, who ran for 1,803 yards in parts of four seasons with Baylor, transferred in.

At wide receiver, Jahan Dotson emerged as one of the Big Ten’s best last year, catching 52 passes for 884 yards and eight scores.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons on offense,” Franklin said. “At the receiver position, we were young last year. Jahan Dotson will obviously lead that group. I think we probably have, you know, maybe one of the most talented, at least part of that argument, running back rooms in the country. Same thing at the tight end position. Really excited about what we can do with the offensive line position.”