Last year's Penn State season will probably go down as the most disappointing in program history. From top to bottom, it was a failure.
The players didn't do what was needed, James Franklin was horrible and got fired, and there were other problems within the program that we typically don't see.
Unfortunately for all involved, it led to massive changes, with head coach Matt Campbell coming over from Iowa State and now being the man in charge of fixing a season that simply can't happen again, considering how much money this school is allocating toward its football program.
One of the biggest problems for Penn State a year ago was the offense, a large part of why James Franklin was fired. He had one of the most expensive coaching staffs in the country, including offensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who Franklin seemingly took a shot at in a recent interview.
“And although I do think taking on risk is important,” Franklin said to Adam Breneman, per Yahoo. “I think we took on too much risks in too many different areas, and it left us susceptible for what we do best. I think the first thing is hires. We made great hires on resume. But I don’t know if they were the right fit at the right time.
“We had a system of how we played on offense, how we played on defense, and how we played on special teams. Although we hired different people, they were part of the same system and the same family. We did not play early on the way I think we were capable of playing.”
Franklin talking about those systems is probably what made some of this not work any longer. I understand that he typically found a way to win games at a very high level, but he never beat the big boys, and there was a problem with that in Happy Valley.
Something had to change, and Penn State attempted to do so, but it might not have had to change as much as it did.
“It’s both. Ultimately, it’s on us to give them enough that they can go out and play winning defense,” he said to the press. “Because if it’s too simplistic, that’s going to be a problem as well. And it’s also those guys, you know, trusting their training and letting it fly. It’s a combination of both.”