Penn State interim coach Terry Smith is not sugarcoating the aftermath of the program firing coach James Franklin over the weekend. Less than two months ago, the Nittany Lions were ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll and among the favorites to return to the College Football Playoff. Midway through the season, they’ve lost three straight games and seen Franklin get canned.
“We all failed Coach Franklin. That’s why he’s not here,” Smith said Wednesday to reporters.
Captain Nick Dawkins and several of his teammates have experienced guilt since Franklin was fired. “Ultimately, as players, it’s an overwhelming sense of guilt—like we got our coach fired, we didn’t play well enough, we didn’t do our job good enough,” Dawkins said, per 247Sports‘ Tyler Donohue. “And now he doesn’t have a job anymore. … Just a new sense of ownership, responsibility.”
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Smith has been cognizant of the emotions his players are going through as they adjust to the disappointment of their start to the season, starting quarterback Drew Allar going down with a season-ending injury and the firing of Franklin, who recruited them to Penn State.
“Obviously, this is a challenging week,” Smith said. “The guys are responding somewhat. We still have some work to do. They’re all hurt and torn, disappointed in what happened. Coach brought everyone in the building in. These are young people, they’re not used to people. We as adults, we have to adjust quicker We’re just taking the time to mentor these guys, and spend some quality time with to get them interested and motivated back out here.”
Penn State canceled practice Sunday following the news of Franklin’s firing and have taken things day by day.
“We’ve got to prepare for Iowa, but I’ve got to get these guys emotionally ready to play a football game,” Smith said. “… Each day is getting better. Sunday was really traumatizing to them. Monday, they called down a little bit but had some anger in them. Yesterday was show up for practice coach, and give you some effort. Today was, ‘Hey, we’ll run a little harder.’ I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
The Nittany Lions do not have much time to try to turn things around. Since the firing did not take place during their bye, they have to adjust to a coaching and quarterback change in just one week, all while they prepare to face Iowa, a top 10 defense in the country. It won’t get any easier after this week either as Penn State has looming matchups against No. 1 Ohio State and No. 3 Indiana.
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