Neil Rudel on football: Penn State saved its worst for last
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ATLANTA - If bowl games are typically a combination of an end of one season and the beginning of the next, Penn State badly failed on both fronts Saturday at the Peach Bowl.
The Nittany Lions were drubbed by Mississippi, 38-25, and thus ended 2023 with a thud, falling to 10-3 and going 0-3 in games involving highly-ranked teams.
The game was not as close as the score indicates as Penn State totally collapsed in the second half, getting shutout until 4:14 remained and trailing at that point 38-17.
The defense was worse than the offense but just barely.
James Franklin, we know, is rarely to blame so it didn't take long for him to shift it in the post-game press conference.
"Too many moving parts, staff and players, to have the type of success that we wanted to have today," he said.
He's right about that. Franklin has done well to minimize his opt-outs - until this year.
All-American tackle Olu Fashanu, who is projected as a top-five draft pick in April, was expected to sit it out and did.
Defensive end Chop Robinson is also supposed to go high, and he excused himself after the season. Where the situation became a crisis is when starting cornerbacks Kalen King and Johnny Dixon punched out, with Dixon not even showing up.
Compounding that was the departure of defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, who left in early December to become Duke's new head coach.
That left the defensive signals to safeties coach Anthony Poindexter and defensive assistant Robb Smith, and they were no match for Lane Kiffin's ingenuity, which freed receivers all over the Mercedes-Benz field and exploited favorable matchups.
"You lose a guy that was No. 1 in the country as a defensive coordinator ... it's hard to replace that in a week or two," safety Jaylen Reed said.
Sources said King's decision was a point of frustration for the defense, members of which could be heard shouting at him, "You should be out here."
On the other side of the ball, Penn State's offense actually started well - moving down the field in chunks, thanks to Nick Singleton. The Lions drove 62 yards to the Ole Miss 9 when a Drew Allar pass to Trey Wallace didn't connect, forcing PSU to settle for a field goal.
Franklin thought there should have been a flag, and it was still on his mind three hours later.
"I thought the officiating (Pac-12 crew) was less than desirable," he said. "That first drive, we have the field goal, we run a slant, we get turned around, but I’ll move on. I could list a number of examples. That’s a big play at a critical moment."
Franklin offered the assessment in his opening remarks without being asked about the officials, or the play.
It was a close call, but the Lions had gouged Ole Miss on the ground and then suddenly wanted to pass - even though Penn State's wide receivers scare no one.
The officials made a couple questionable calls both ways. They were a non-factor. You can't sleepwalk through the second half and blame the officials.
In addition to the opt-outs, there were deals made with guys who are leaving for the NFL but agreed to suit up. Some of them played less after halftime, leaving the secondary to be manned by the likes of Cam Miller (No. 5), Zion Tracy (No. 12) and Elliot Washington (No.16).
"We had some guys in the second half that weren’t available," Franklin said. "If you watch their game plan, they went after some guys that had not played a ton of football for us this year, and it will be a great learning opportunity for those guys and for us moving forward."
Except that the game raised plenty of questions about the Lions' nucleus for 2024 - particularly on defense, where they'll be in a rebuilding mode, but also on offense considering Drew Allar did not play well and the wide-receiver position is a mess.
Maybe Julian Fleming, as is rumored, will arrive through the transfer portal.
"We’ve got to be able to scare people and be a threat consistently on the perimeter," Franklin said.
Gutted by the opt-outs, Penn State's performance didn't drip with emotion. A couple former players criticized the Nits for being flat on Twitter, but Franklin defended the effort.
"I don’t think that was an issue," he said. "We had significant players that have played all year long that weren’t in the game. I don’t want this to come off the wrong way. I’m not criticizing, but it is what it is. It’s the reality. I think about guys that did play in the game and how appreciative we are."
He did admit, however, that there was a better feeling approaching the Rose Bowl, when only Joey Porter Jr. opted out.
"You look at last year’s game and this year’s game, it was different," he said. "We need to have some healthy discussions about that as a staff and as a team and how we want to operate moving forward."
In the meantime, it's the officials' fault.
Neil Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.