For Ohio State coach Ryan Day, his team’s 20-13 victory at Penn State was a relief. It’s another headache for Nittany Lions coach James Franklin.

The two often criticized coaches are – for different reasons – linked by their mutual control. Day, who left the field with a big smile after his No. 4 Buckeyes finished off the No. 3 Nittany Lions, will face strict scrutiny this day. Franklin left the field to taunts from Penn State fans and yelled right back before heading into the tunnel on his way to the locker room.

In the wake of an ensuing Big Ten brawl, the burning question is both simple and vague. Was this a better win for Day or a worse loss for Franklin?

The answer is simple: it’s Franklin. He hasn’t won a major competition in eight years and the stereotype has become a brand. He’s Mid Game James again. Sure, the Nittany Lions could regularly beat teams from the old Big Ten West Division, but they are now 1-10 against Ohio State. It took a blocked field goal attempt in 2016 to get that three-point victory. But in their last eight tries, Franklin’s teams have fallen short against the Buckeyes. They were all within reach, yet they are all gone. Or, in Saturday’s case, knocked away.

It’s become a pattern of good, not great, in Unhappy Valley with Franklin. Against top-five competition in his 11 years, Penn State is 1-13. Against the top 10, Franklin’s 3-18. When facing the top 25 teams, Penn State is 13-27 under Franklin.

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Over the past decade, Franklin has been much better at complaining than at beating the Buckeyes. He often complains that the Big Ten made his team start league play on the road every year. Granted, in nine of his 11 seasons, the Nittany Lions opened outside Beaver Stadium. But they were 7-2 in those games and one loss came by a single point in overtime in the pandemic-shortened season. Outside of the 49-10 win at Michigan in 2016, the Nittany Lions did not make their first Big Ten trip to a contender.

Franklin has taken time this year to lobby for the runway expansion at University Park airport so his team won’t have to travel to Harrisburg, about 90 minutes away. Although inconvenient, many Penn State sports teams and their opponents board commercial flights at 5:45 in the morning and would trade places for a charter in a heartbeat. And that’s a charter to the west coast once a year.

No team discussed its desire to end division play more than Penn State, especially since the Nittany Lions always lost to Ohio State. But only twice has Penn State managed the league’s second-best record, and both years it would have lost tiebreakers to other teams, such as Michigan State in 2017 or Minnesota in 2019.

After winning the national title in 2016, Franklin complained that Penn State’s administration was not “bold and aggressive” in capitalizing on its achievements to usher in new facilities. During a 2023 appearance on the Next Up podcast with Adam Breneman, he said Penn State’s NIL is “two years behind” and “If all 750,000 alumni would just do something, there is tremendous power in that.” In theory that’s important, provided you win enough big games to show that money works for you. So far he hasn’t done that.

Franklin rightly views Penn State as capable of competing for national championships like conference peers Ohio State and Michigan or the top teams in the SEC. Its athletics department was one of three Big Ten programs with revenues exceeding $200 million in fiscal year 2023. The football program ranked third in ticket sales among Big Ten schools that year with nearly $42 million. The Nittany Lions don’t lack things that other elite programs have. Under Franklin they have reached five New Year’s Six bowls.

But since entering the league in 2014, Mid Game James is tied with Wisconsin for third in the Big Ten with 95 wins and is closer to seventh than first.

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So what’s holding Penn State back? Is it NIL? Facilities? The airport runway? Hitting the road at mid-level Big Ten programs? Playing in the East Division, what no longer matters in the Big Ten’s divisionless structure?

Is it every offensive coordinator’s fault? Or does it evoke a fourth-and-5 run in a one-point loss to Ohio State in 2019? Or is it a minus-4 turnover margin in a 44-31 setback against the Buckeyes in 2022? Or does it rush for 41 yards and complete 18 of 42 passes against Ohio State in 2023? How about allowing Michigan to rush 30 times in the second half of last year and not attempt a pass and still beat Penn State over the final two quarters?

This time, Franklin was able to shake the stereotype. A fourth-quarter touchdown moved Penn State to Ohio State’s 3-yard line. They rushed for 2 yards three times in a row and never got tight end Tyler Warren in his effective role as the short-yardage quarterback. Then, on fourth down at the 1, quarterback Drew Allar threw into triple coverage and the pass fell incomplete.

Just like against Michigan last year, Penn State’s defense failed to stop Ohio State’s running game in the second half. When Ohio State took over on 1st with 5:13 to go, the Nittany Lions held all three timeouts. That was the chance for Penn State’s defense to force a punt and make a statement. Instead, the Buckeyes got physical and asserted their will. In their four-minute offense, they peppered Penn State’s defense for 10 straight plays and produced four first downs before taking a knee to end the game.

Like Franklin, Ohio State and Day had something to prove, and they did it. The Buckeyes overcame the adversity after Will Howard’s pick-six on Ohio State’s third play from scrimmage and an early 10-0 deficit. In the second quarter, Howard sprinted 13 yards, fumbled to the 1-yard line and caramed the ball over the pylon for a touchback.

Those are tough games, especially on the road in front of 111,030 screaming fans. But the Buckeyes persevered. Penn State faced its own issues with an interception in the end zone and a fourth-down stop at the goal line. When it was time to go big, Penn State got halfway there.

For Day, the ending was satisfying and allowed him to exhale. For Mid Game James, it was another big moment where he didn’t measure up.

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Photo of James Franklin: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images