Penn State fans quickly turning on James Franklin after another Ohio State loss

That was not the end of it. More "Fire Franklin" chants could be heard as he made his way into the team's locker room down the tunnel.

Saturday's loss drops Franklin to 3-18 at Penn State vs. top-10 teams and a brutal 1-10 against Ohio State. Even worse than the numbers was the fact this seemed to be the year when his team would be primed to actually get over the hump. 

It entered the game as the higher-ranked team, it has a strong roster and when the ball actually kicked off, Ohio State seemed to go out of its way to try and lose the game with a couple of potentially devastating mistakes from quarterback Will Howard. Those mistakes included a pick-six in the first quarter and a fumble at the goal line that handed the ball back to Penn State. 

A top-tier team has to make its opponent pay for that.

Penn State failed. It not only failed, it failed in spectacular fashion by making several of its own boneheaded blunders, including two drives inside the Ohio State five-yard line that resulted in zero points. 

Over the past two years, the only touchdowns Penn State has managed against Ohio State were a garbage time score a year ago when the outcome of the game was already well decided and a defensive touchdown in the first quarter this season. 

Now comes the hard part of this for Penn State. 

Franklin has clearly built the team up to a certain level that the majority of programs around the country would love to be in. It is going to win 10 games most years, it is going to beat the teams it should beat and it is going to play in a big-time bowl game. It should still be a playoff team this season in the expanded field. You could easily do a lot worse.

The problem is that is pretty clearly the ceiling here. If the goal and expectation is to become a serious national championship contender, it is pretty clear by this point that Franklin is not going to be the person to get the Nittany Lions there. 

Penn State has to ask itself if it is content being pretty good and a consistent top-15 program or if it wants to take a chance on aiming higher. Or if it is even capable of getting the type of coach that can get it higher.