Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1546586
O C T O B E R 2 0 2 6 6 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M her about James Franklin's future with the program, she felt compelled to give the coach a public vote of confidence. "He's not on any hot seat, and he's not going to be on the hot seat in December," Barbour said. "James is going to be our football coach." Franklin was in his third season and had compiled a 16-14 record to that point in his tenure. The Lions had been hit hard by the NCAA following the Sandusky scandal, but that didn't make the losses any easier to accept. And the lopsided defeat at Michigan, in which they sur- rendered 329 rushing yards, seemed to suggest they weren't making any prog- ress toward their goal of eventually re- turning to title contention. In the face of growing skepticism, Bar- bour expressed confidence that Franklin was the right man for the job. "I believe very strongly that we're go- ing to get to a competitive place where everybody's going to be really excited about Penn State," she said. "It may take longer than some people want. It may take longer than some people think. "Frankly, all of us would like it to happen today. There are just some of us that believe there are some realities — not necessarily that any of us can control — that I think dictate giving it a little bit longer runway than most would like." After two dreary quarters against the Gophers, that revival seemed further away than ever. With the Lions having managed only a field goal, the crowd turned surly, demanding Franklin's ouster as the team filed into the locker room to regroup. Some fans were vocally agitating for Les Miles to be brought in following his dismissal by LSU earlier in the week. But Barbour's call for patience turned out to be unnecessary. If anything, she had been insufficiently optimistic. There really was a turnaround brewing, and it began with Charles' touchdown. The 80-yard score placated the crowd and cut the Nittany Lions' deficit to just three points. They later got a pair of Tyler Davis field goals and a 6-yard touchdown run from McSorley, and the teams went to overtime with the score tied 23-23. Minnesota got the ball first in the extra session and kicked a 46-yard field goal to go ahead. Penn State needed to respond. A loss to the unranked Gophers would have dropped PSU below .500 with Maryland and Ohio State coming up next. The Lions did respond, and in the most emphatic way possible. They needed just one overtime play to win the game. Sa- quon Barkley took the handoff, found an opening to his left, cut inside Ayinde at the 15-yard line and dashed into the end zone to give his team a 29-26 comeback victory. "I think it was definitely something our players needed," a relieved Frank- lin said afterward. "Everyone needed it, there's no doubt about it." A Turning Point It's easy to conjure up an alternate history in which Penn State loses to the Gophers and sinks further into the world of uncertainty and despair that had seemingly gripped the program af- ter its 2-2 start. But, of course, we know what actually happened. The win against Minnesota was followed by a 38-14 romp over visit- ing Maryland the next week and, after a bye, a 24-21 upset of second-ranked Ohio State, a game that turned on Grant Haley's 60-yard return of a blocked field goal late in the fourth quarter. Five more regular-season wins fol- lowed, all by double digits, with first- year offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead orchestrating a unit that averaged 46.4 points per game over that span. When Michigan faltered at Iowa and Ohio State late in the season, the Nittany Lions earned a berth in the Big Ten Champi- onship Game against Wisconsin. They won that, too, rallying from a 21-point second-quarter deficit to defeat the Badgers, 38-31, and bring the program its first Big Ten championship since 2008. While it ended with a wild 52-49 loss to USC in the Rose Bowl, the season cata- pulted Penn State back into the national spotlight, and it has mostly remained there ever since. Over the past 10 sea- sons, the Nittany Lions have played in the Rose, Fiesta, Cotton, Peach and Or- ange bowls, reached the College Football Playoff semifinals and finished in the Associated Press Top 25 eight times, in- cluding five top-10 showings. Would that have happened if Charles hadn't rescued the Lions on a wet Octo- ber afternoon? Maybe. But it's also pos- sible the 2016 season would have slipped away, undermining Franklin and perhaps even hastening a coaching change. For Charles, it was a shining moment in an otherwise uneventful PSU career. The former four-star prospect from Sicklerville, N.J., caught just 3 passes in two active seasons at PSU before being kicked off the squad for violating team rules prior to the 2017 Fiesta Bowl. Charles tried transferring to Indiana University of Pennsylvania but didn't have enough credits to enroll as a gradu- ate student, so he had to finish his degree at Penn State before he could play foot- ball again. He eventually made it onto the field for IUP in 2021 and caught 39 passes for 792 yards and 12 touchdowns. That was enough to garner some NFL attention, and after landing with the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent, he spent four seasons with the team, bouncing back and forth between the practice squad, active roster and reserve lists. This past May, he was traded to Seattle for a condi- tional seventh-round draft pick in 2028. He began the 2026 season on injured re- serve. Charles never enjoyed the kind of col- lege career he surely envisioned coming out of Paul VI High as a first-team All- South Jersey wideout. But by providing a spark when the offense was at its lowest, he may well have set in motion a butter- fly effect that changed the course of Penn State history. ■ "I think it was definitely something our players needed. Everyone needed it, there's no doubt about it." J A M E S F R A N K L I N O N P E N N S T A T E ' S C O M E B A C K W I N O V E R M I N N E S O T A