Fans roast James Franklin, Penn State after inept first-half performance at UCLA
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Fans weren’t too happy with head coach James Franklin after last Saturday night’s heartbreaking loss to Oregon.
And that was before his 7th-ranked Penn State team dusted itself off, boarded a plane and flew some 3,000 miles west to California for what it hoped to be a bounce-back performance against 0-4 UCLA.
Well, by halftime of the Big Ten showdown at the Rose Bowl, those same Penn State fans who were incensed after a loss like the Oregon one were flat-out blown away after 30 minutes of football on Saturday. They were blown away because their team was getting blown away, as the Nittany Lions somehow fell behind 27-7 at halftime to a UCLA team that couldn’t get out of its own way so far this season.
Against Penn State though, quarterback Nico Iamaleava and that struggling Bruins offense weren’t struggling. Instead, UCLA rolled up an astounding 285 total yards against a defense that was supposed to be strengthened with the arrival of defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. But the Bruins sliced through that defense, rolling up 127 yards rushing in that first alone.
Meanwhile, Penn State was held to just 28 yards rushing and 92 total yards in the first half.
As you might imagine, those angry Penn State fans weren’t taking this lying down, and they had a lot to write about on social media. Here is just a sampling of it:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
