MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The hype that traveled with James Franklin to Penn State when he was hired a decade ago could be described in four words: He won at Vanderbilt.
That raised expectations around the Nittany Lions to meteoric heights, seemingly placing the program on a collision course for Big Ten and national championships. The Nittany Lions have won a single conference crown; the national championship continues to prove elusive.
Missed chances, missed opportunities, misfires in top-five matchups — deservedly or not, that’s been the Nittany Lions’ defining trait under Franklin. That makes losing 27-24 to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals at the Orange Bowl feel painfully familiar: Penn State is close, but the program’s glass ceiling remains unbroken.
“Everything we did together,” said junior linebacker Kobe King. “All the success, we had together. All the failures, we learn from. But it’s heartbreaking. It’s definitely something for the guys to look forward to next year, and some guys to put on their shoulders as a chip to learn from and to overcome.”
This loss breathes more life into the image of the Nittany Lions as their own worst enemy.
Penn State led 10-0 late in the second quarter and had a chance to keep Notre Dame off the board. But the defense failed to fall on a fumble, allowing the Irish to get on the board with a field goal. After dominating the first half, the running game essentially disappeared in the second. The Nittany Lions led 24-17 with just under eight minutes to play but allowed the Irish to tie the game on a breakdown in the secondary.
But no play will define the loss — and the team’s entire season — more than a crucial, game-breaking interception from quarterback Drew Allar with 33 seconds remaining.
“We just know we’ve got his back,” said All-America tight end Tyler Warren. “He knows that, too. That’s how we go about it, man.”
There’s no way to second-guess the decision to push the tempo in an effort to win the game in regulation, especially as overtime games have become an even bigger crapshoot with the rule change that forces each team to alternate two-point conversions beginning in the third extra frame.
“We’ve embraced playing to win,” said offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. “We get a good run to start that drive and hurry up and go tempo and end up turning it over, which ended up being costly. That’s what you’ve got to do. You play to win.”
But after running back Nick Singleton’s 13-yard run moved Penn State to the 28-yard line, Allar dropped back to pass and rolled to his left to buy time. He then committed one of the cardinal sins of quarterbacking: He threw across his body, aimed toward junior wide receiver Omari Evans. The attempt was intercepted by Notre Dame defensive back Christian Gray.
Allar could’ve thrown the ball into the first row, or even continued to scramble his way across the sideline. Either decision might have cost Penn State momentum. At worst, though, the safer play would have left the Nittany Lions in position to force overtime.
“I was going through my progressions,” Allar said. “Got to the backside and honestly, I was just trying to go to Omari’s feet. I should have just thrown it away when I thought the first two progressions aren’t open just because of the situation we were in.”
After three offensive snaps moved the Irish to the 25-yard line, quarterback Riley Leonard moved the ball toward the right hashmark to set up kicker Mitch Jeter’s 41-yard field goal with 10 seconds to play.
“He’s hurting right now, right? He should be hurting. We’re all hurting,” Franklin said of Allar. “This ain’t easy, to get in here after a game and have a conversation after you’ve just poured your guts out on the field. He’ll handle it great.
“He’ll be hurting tonight and tomorrow. He’ll hurt a little bit less the next day and so on and so forth. But he’s a committed guy who’s going to do it the right way. He’ll learn from this and be better for it, and so will we.”
Said Kotelnicki, “That’s tough, right? Because he’s going to put that on himself, and he shouldn’t have to.
“I simply say to him, ‘It ain’t you. It’s not on you to take that on your shoulders and feel that blame for that.’ Because we will win and we will lose as a group, as a football team. It’s never one play. Everyone is going to point the finger at that one. But I say, ‘I love you.’ Because I do.”
After taking a step forward in the regular season as a second-year starter, Allar struggled during the playoff, taking a back seat to the Nittany Lions’ running game in wins against Indiana and Boise State and again against the Irish.
He went 13 of 22 for 127 yards against the Hoosiers, tying his season low with 5.8 yards per attempt, and then completed 13 of 25 throws for 171 yards against the Broncos, though he did have three touchdowns without an interception. Allar was 12 of 23 for 135 yards against the Irish and was very ineffective downfield, completing just six of the 14 attempts that traveled more than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
Overall, the Nittany Lions failed to complete a single pass to their wide receivers.
“We tried a couple early on in the game but weren’t able to convert them,” Franklin said. “Yeah, that’s a storyline of the game. That’s one of the storylines, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. We had some throws and some contested balls that we didn’t come down with.”
The interception threatens to define Allar’s college career — it’s a moment that will linger in program history for the wrong reasons, and only grow painfully in magnitude should the Irish beat Ohio State or Texas in the championship game.
He’s already committed to coming back in 2025, saying in a social-media post last month that “there’s still more work to do, which is why I look forward to making more memories with my teammates this year and beyond.”
First, Allar will have to move past this moment. How he does so, or whether he does so at all, will play a huge role in deciding whether Penn State is poised to finally break through in 2025.
“Drew is a passionate guy,” Franklin said. “He invests so much into his development and also to his teammates, to Penn State. He’ll handle this like he handles everything else, with a first-class approach and with an investment level that’s as good as anybody in the country. His growth from a year-one starter to a year-two starter was significant. He has a chance to take another step next year.”
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