After teetering on the brink of the bottom fringes of the college football rankings the past few weeks, Penn State has now fallen out of the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll. The knockout blow came in the form of a 21-17 loss at home on Saturday to the Michigan Wolverines, which handed Penn State its fourth loss of the season, and the fourth loss in five games.
Having lost four games is reason enough not to be ranked by the coaches this week, especially when those losses have largely been strung together over a five-game span. Penn State’s only win in that mix was in Week 10 at Maryland.
Penn State likely won’t be able to climb back into the good graces of the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll voters this week as they host Rutgers for the final home game of the season. Penn State’s best chance to climb back into the poll will come in two weeks with a road game at Michigan State.
Penn State is certainly limping its way across the finish line of the 2021 season, no matter how you look at things, and the recent struggles have done nothing to calm the critic of head coach James Franklin. As we witnessed on Twitter over the weekend, the number of fans voicing their willing ess to pack Franklin’s bags for USC or LSU or wherever else are only growing louder.
Franklin must find a way to have Penn State ready for a rebound this week because his counterpart, Greg Schiano of Rutgers, knows how to motivate his players for this type of situation. Rutgers views Penn State as a rival and the Scarlet Knights are coming off a big blowout win at Indiana.
You can see the full USA TODAY AFCA Coaches Poll here.
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