UNIVERSITY PARK — James Franklin was up front when asked if his team was ready to play a 2-5 Illinois team Saturday afternoon in Beaver Stadium.

“We did not have our guys ready to play,” Franklin said after the game. “I think there was a difference between playing Iowa on the road and having that type of loss with the type of injuries we had going into our bye week. But at the end of the day, all that matters is we get the job done, and we did not today.”

Based on the result — a 20-18 9OT loss — he wasn’t wrong.

His Penn State football team was unprepared in his eyes and didn’t execute in the eyes of his players as everyone took their fair share of the blame.

The Nittany Lions will have to recover from the loss to one of the worst teams in the Big Ten and try to get back on track, even as all hopes of making the College Football Playoff have been dashed, and nearly any chance of a Big Ten title game appearance is gone.

After Penn State fell to a then-top five Iowa team on the road two weeks ago without its starting quarterback, kicker/punter Jordan Stout said the team had all of its goals still in front of it.

While Penn State still can achieve its goals, it will have to do a lot more work to get there. Stout, however, said he still believes the broader goals can “absolutely” be achieved.

“We have a 1-0 mentality,” Stout said. “We just gotta focus on 1-0.”

Stout and the rest of the team’s leadership must take hold of a season that quickly has gone off the rails. As one of those leaders, Jesse Luketa made sure the team knew they could grieve but also that they have to pick each other up.

The danger for Penn State is real. One loss to Iowa quickly could turn to three losses and a 5-3 record if this week’s game at Ohio State goes as poorly as the loss to Illinois.

Luketa insisted he and his teammates weren’t buying into the outside noise. Instead, they were focused on each other and finding a way to navigate a difficult situation.

“The guys are down,” Luketa said. “A little bit distraught. It hurt. … It sucks, but as far as anyone is concerned, the only people that matter are the people in the room. We love and appreciate our fans, but we don’t buy into the outside noise. … We have plenty of football left to be played.”

It’s not as if Luketa and the rest of the team’s leaders don’t have their own expectations to deal with, as well. For many of those leaders, such as him, safety Jaquan Brisker and receiver Jahan Dotson, this likely will be their last opportunity to achieve their highest aspirations as college athletes.

The realization that the ultimate dream for many, making the playoff and winning conference titles, is fading away is a reality the team’s leadership must face.

Luketa, who doubles as a linebacker and a defensive end for the Nittany Lions, said now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. Instead, it was time to put his emotions aside and make sure his teammates were taken care of first.

“It’s tough, but leadership doesn’t come easy,” Luketa said. “You have to do the stuff, the uncommon things, that everyone else doesn’t want to do, the uncomfortable things. I try to put my personal emotions aside and think for the greater benefit of the team.”

The burden of the team’s failure against the Illini always was going to be shared, and that’s the Penn State leaders’ intention. No one player was at fault. No one player went blameless, and many of them had opportunities to end the game.

Brisker dropped an interception that would have ended the game with the Nittany Lions up 13-10 in the first overtime. Illinois was able to kick a field goal and tie the score instead, but the senior safety said that moment would live with him for a long time.

“Probably until the next time we play or the next time I step on the football field again,” Brisker said. “That’s probably a play that I should have made as a (defensive back). It is what it is.”

Brisker took the dropped interception hard, but it was only one of many opportunities the team squandered through four quarters and nine overtimes. He was also a major reason the game made it to overtime thanks to the important tackles he made coming from the third level of the defense when the Nittany Lions couldn’t stop the Illinois rushing attack.

Not to mention, the coaching staff chose to play quarterback Sean Clifford, who was clearly limited in his ability to run the ball, an important facet of his game. Clifford looked uncomfortable, grabbing at his midsection after pass attempts and hits he took.

Still, Franklin was succinct when it came to the decision to stick with Clifford.

“We felt like Sean gave us the best opportunity,” he said when asked if he ever considered pulling his quarterback from the game.

Ohio State is in the not-so-distant future, but that isn’t the end of the schedule for Penn State.

There are matchups against two more top-10 teams, one on the road against Michigan State and one at home against Michigan, that also could be difficult. The story of the 2021 Penn State football team could go from the redemption of a group that struggled through 2020 to that of a barely-.500 team if things go poorly against some of the best teams in college football.

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