James Franklin: “Too many moving parts” to blame for Ole Miss loss

It appeared that the Penn State football team was overmatched against Ole Miss. The same season-long issues showed up on the big stage on the offensive side of the ball. Lack of sustaining drives due to inconsistent quarterback play and lack of separation from wide receivers. Then, defensively, losing Manny Diaz, as well as several other players due to opting out ahead of the Peach Bowl, hurt. The secondary was inexperienced and unprepared for a moment that large. After the loss, James Franklin spoke to the media about the root cause of the loss.

James Franklin: “Too many moving parts” in loss to Ole Miss

Coaching staff turnover has riddled the Penn State football team over the past two months. In November, James Franklin decided to move on from offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. Then, just a few weeks ago, defensive coordinator Manny Diaz decided to take the Duke football head coach opening. It’s difficult to say what the exact issue was on Saturday, but the Nittany Lions were anything but sharp against Ole Miss.

When speaking about what happened in the Peach Bowl on Saturday, James Franklin said, “Specifically to the game, just too many moving parts with the staff and with the players against a good team. Too many moving parts, staff and players, to have the type of success that we wanted to have today.”

He later added, “Got to give Ole Miss credit. Got to give Lane and his staff credit. But I think ultimately too many moving parts, staff and players, to have the type of success that we want to have.”

Franklin points to lack of explosiveness against Ole Miss

At the half, it felt like the Nittany Lions had a real shot to win the Peach Bowl. But the second half was poor on both sides of the ball. James Franklin shared what Penn State lacked in the 2nd half that opened up the large Ole Miss lead.

Franklin said, “A couple things. We had obviously the ability to move the ball in the first half not as consistently and not as explosive as we’d like to be, but in the third quarter, again, starting out with two three-and-outs. We had some injuries. We had some guys that had limited roles in the second half compared to the first half. All those things factored into it.”

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