Paul Finebaum says pressure is on James Franklin in Oregon vs. Penn State

The White Out Game will kick off this weekend in a Top-10 matchup between No. 6 Oregon and No. 3 Penn State in University Park. Now, with it being yet another highly-ranked opportunity, Paul Finebaum has placed all of the pressure upon James Franklin and the Nittany Lions.

Finebaum discussed Oregon vs. Penn State ahead of Saturday’s kickoff while on ‘SportsCenter’ on Tuesday. He thinks the pressure is all on Franklin coming in and only more would come if the Nittany Lions were to lose this weekend to the Ducks.

“Pressure would just intensify,” said Finebaum. “The problem for James Franklin? He has played a miserably easy non-conference schedule, so nobody knows what they really look like. They haven’t looked great, but why should they? And then the pressure will just ratchet up for the Ohio State game, and that is where he has often just blown the entire season. So, I think a loss here complicates it for him and for Drew Allar.

“This is his best chance. I mean, Oregon is good, but they’re still a little bit untested at quarterback. It’s the White Out. I mean, if you can’t win this game, what game are you going to win?”

Again, this goes back to Franklin’s record against ranked opponents while with Penn State. He is 16-28 (.364) against Top-25 opponents, including being 4-20 (.167) against those in the Top-10, as he comes into his dozenth year with the Nittany Lions. That’s despite being 104-42 (.712) in total there by being 88-14 (.863) against unranked teams. That includes being 3-0 to start this season, despite opening with one of the easiest schedules in the country with wins over Nevada, FIU, and Villanova by an average margin of 38.3 points.

Now, Franklin and Penn State will go into conference play with one of their toughest games of the season against Oregon. It’s a rematch of last year’s game in the Big Ten Championship, which the Ducks won 45-37 in Indianapolis. It’s also one of three games currently on their schedule against ranked opponents as they’ll play at Ohio State and against Indiana in the first two weeks of November.

To this point of the fall, Penn State is almost as unproven as any team in the country after the first month. This is now the first chance for Franklin and the Nittany Lions to show whether or not this season will be different or more of the same with this opportunity against a quality opponent for the biggest home game of their year.