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Wolf re-elected Pennsylvania governor

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Casey rolls to victory, but Lou takes Luzerne County

<p>James Franklin has, at times, grumbled about dwelling on losses in his Tuesday press conferences. When questions were more focused on the game behind instead of the game ahead.</p><p>The Penn State coach did not take that approach on this Tuesday, three days after a 42-7 dismantling by Michigan.</p><p>&#8220;We did not play well,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve got to take responsibility for that, man up for that.&#8221;</p><p>While he might have preferred to talk more about Saturday&#8217;s game against Wisconsin &#8212; one that could determine whether the Nittany Lions end up in a prestigious bowl game or not &#8212; Franklin was blunt about the aftermath of the program&#8217;s worst loss since it returned to the national radar.</p><p>After back-to-back tough losses to Ohio State and Michigan State a month earlier, Franklin said he took solace in the fact that the Lions had been right in the mix in the few losses they had suffered &#8212; five defeats by a combined 12 points.</p><p>The Wolverines blew that away this past weekend, leading to some reflection for Penn State.</p><p>&#8220;Obviously our standards and our expectation is to win every game we play. So we have not done that for a number of reasons,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;I mean, I think you can list them all out. But at the end of the day, we have not played up to the standard that we have because our standard is to go out and put ourselves in the best position to win every single game, and we haven&#8217;t done that.</p><p>&#8220;So we will not be satisfied until we&#8217;re in that situation. But yeah, we have very, very high standards and expectations of who and what we want to be.&#8221;</p><p>Asked if motivation has been a problem since being knocked out of the College Football Playoff and Big Ten races, Penn State players shook their heads.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s been an issue at all,&#8221; starting safety Garrett Taylor said. &#8220;I think we have a lot ahead of us, a lot to play for. We make sure we&#8217;re playing for ourselves, playing for the other guys in the room, playing for the team.&#8221;</p><p>That will be tested in the stretch run as the Lions host the Badgers, then close out the regular season with a trip to Rutgers and a home game against Maryland.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got work to do. There&#8217;s no doubt about it,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no one in the building right now that&#8217;s comfortable where we&#8217;re at. That&#8217;s players, that&#8217;s coaches, that&#8217;s everyone.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Election Day</strong></p><p>Franklin said it was important that his players be educated on voter registration and their polling places.</p><p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s really important,&#8221; said Franklin, who noted that something popped up for him Tuesday morning that kept him from the polls himself. &#8220;I think a lot of times as coaches and as football coaches, especially during a season, you kind of go into the submarine and a lot of times, you don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going on in the world. You don&#8217;t see sunlight. You get in early in the morning and you don&#8217;t leave until late at night, so that can be challenging. Obviously I think that&#8217;s something that&#8217;s very, very important.</p><p>&#8220;I think one of the things that&#8217;s really good is making the process as easy as possible for our guys so that a large percentage would go and do it. So making sure our guys knew what all the options were on-campus, off-campus, things like that. I think it&#8217;s really critical.&#8221;</p><p>Two players who spoke on Tuesday, Taylor and offensive lineman Charlie Shuman, said the election had been a topic of conversation in the locker room.</p><p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s important we all take the time to vote,&#8221; Shuman said. &#8220;It&#8217;s our civic duty and we&#8217;re very busy, so it&#8217;s kind of hard to follow with everything, but we have all done our research, and going out to the polls, it&#8217;s our opportunity to make a change and vote for change.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Lions slip to 20th</strong></p><p>The second set of College Football Playoff rankings was released Tuesday and the Lions dropped six spots to No. 20.</p><p>With three losses, there&#8217;s zero chance they can reach the top four. But if they were to go 9-3 and get some help from the rest of the country, the Lions would still have a shot at climbing high enough to claim an at-large bid into a New Year&#8217;s Six game such as the Peach Bowl.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State&#8217;s five-touchdown loss at Michigan on Saturday has forced the program to do some reflection this week. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_AP18308153337673.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State&#8217;s five-touchdown loss at Michigan on Saturday has forced the program to do some reflection this week. </caption0><photoCredit0>Tony Ding | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

PSU’s Franklin: ‘There’s no one in the building right now that’s comfortable where we’re at’