James Franklin calls out Penn State WRs following Ohio State loss

The Penn State football team fell short once again to its Big Ten East foe, Ohio State. In a game where the Nittany Lions’ defense held strong for four quarters, the offense was abysmal. A lot of the natural reaction following this game will be anger or disappointment in QB Drew Allar. But James Franklin had his back during his postgame press conference. In fact, it’s what Franklin said about the wide receiver room that stood out the most.

James Franklin calls out Penn State WRs following Ohio State loss

All season long the Penn State football offense has lacked explosive plays. They were able to get past this component by beating lesser teams. But today, it was clear that the Nittany Lions did not have the playmakers needed to beat Ohio State. Drew Allar struggled in his first taste of adversity, but the blame shouldn’t be all on him. James Franklin commented on the wide receivers after the Ohio State loss.

Franklin said, “Drew [Allar] needs some guys to make plays for him on a more consistent basis.”

The wide receivers were led by KeAndre Lambert-Smith who had 6 catches for 52 yards. Then, it was Dante Cephas and Kaden Saunders who made some plays late in the game and also picked up some catches on the stat sheet. It isn’t enough, people had such high expectations for Dante Cephas transferring this offseason. Malik McClain who had a great performance against West Virginia has been out of the rotation in the wide receiver room since week 3 of the season. It’s clear that this is a massive gap in the program right now. If Penn State wants to be able to compete with Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Oregon, Washington, and the rest of the Big Ten next season, they will need to pull in more talent at wide receiver.

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