James Franklin brings his best roster to Columbus since 2017. Are the Lions ready for the Buckeyes?
Penn State coach James Franklin was on a high school football field in New Jersey last Saturday when Ohio State played Maryland. It was Franklin's fourth state of a four-day, five-state recruiting trip that also took him to Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina and Massachusetts. He admitted to checking the score but not watching the highlights until he got home late that Saturday night.
Franklin tried to hit snooze on the Big Ten's first Game of the Year —"I just want to have a few hours of normalcy and like hang our with my wife," he said — which was understandable. As coaches often say, winning is difficult. Franklin has won 11 games in a row for the first time in his career. So he should enjoy that.
Maryland native, and former Terp, Chop Robinson said he watched that Ohio State-Maryland game while at home on the bye weekend but only casually with family. Tight end Theo Johnson, who played at Ohio State in 2021, instead wanted to talk about this post-game celebration first. Sure, Penn State isn't an explosive-play offense this season. It's stunning that the longest rushing play belongs to fourth-string back Tank Smith. And yet the Lions move methodically, convert in the red zone and have just enough under-the-surface polish lurking to make Ohio State nervous.
"We have as good a balance as I think we've had, and maybe that I've been around," Franklin said before the game last week."Are there some areas of balance that we're probably still searching for? Yes. But I think our ability to run or pass the ball is problematic. I do believe that."
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