James Franklin promised to make Penn State elite; Saturday is his chance to make good

James Franklin sat down on that September day in 2018, the pain of another missed opportunity throbbing in his head. Miles Sanders had been stuffed by Chase Young on fourth down moments earlier. Penn State had blown a second consecutive double-digit, fourth-quarter lead against Ohio State. For the second consecutive season, the Nittany Lions had lost by one to the eventual Big Ten champ.

In that moment, Franklin lamented the fourth-down play call. Then he rallied and delivered a 432-word mission statement that was supposed to provide the roadmap to lead Penn State football to the next echelon of college football. The Nittany Lions had beaten Ohio State in 2016 and won the Big Ten. They had come so painfully close the next two seasons. Now, according to Franklin, Penn State would do the work to go from great to elite. The breakthrough must have felt imminent.

Except it never happened. 

Six years later, the Nittany Lions still haven’t beaten Ohio State since 2016. They haven’t played in the Big Ten title game since that same season. They never made the four-team College Football Playoff. They’ve been stuck in a version of college football purgatory, good enough to win double-digit games but never good enough to compete for national titles.

Saturday, Penn State has a chance to finally break through. A win would give the Nittany Lions the inside track to make the Big Ten title game. It would all but assure their inclusion in the new 12-team CFP. It would threaten to banish Ohio State — at least for a season — from the ranks of the elite. It would place Buckeyes coach Ryan Day in the hell loop currently occupied by Franklin, and it would free Franklin from the torture of being known as the guy who wins all the games he should and loses all the games that truly matter.

James Franklin promised to take Penn State from great to elite in the moments after a loss to Ohio State six years ago.

It hasn't happened yet.

Saturday, he has a chance to fulfill that promise.https://t.co/PLgkL44gT2 pic.twitter.com/bWTxGSTHxI

— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) October 30, 2024

Let’s examine Penn State’s opportunity through the lens of that Franklin speech. 

I’m pretty upset right now because I am hurting for those guys right in that locker room. I know how hard they’ve worked. The reality is that we have gone from an average football team to a good football team to a great football team. We have worked hard to do those things, but we are not an elite football team yet.

Penn State still isn’t an elite football program, not unless it can start winning games like this one. Last season’s Nittany Lions went 10-3, but they lost a slog in Columbus and then had their playcalling booed by their own fans in a home game against Michigan that could have gotten them back into the Big Ten title race.

The next day, Franklin fired offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich. This offseason, Franklin replaced Yurcich with Andy Kotelnicki, who may have to find a way for Penn State to win this game with its backup quarterback. Starter Drew Allar went down with a leg injury shortly before halftime of Saturday’s win at Wisconsin. Beau Pribula replaced him admirably. Allar is a game-time decision according to Franklin. In the same press conference Franklin revealed that information, the coach discussed how and Kotelnicki discussed how to call the game differently to emphasize the strengths of Pribula, who runs better than Allar but doesn’t throw as well.

Is this a hardship for Penn State? Of course. But elite programs deal with injuries. The 2014 Ohio State team won the national title with a third-string quarterback. This Buckeyes team will play without its best offensive lineman (tackle Josh Simmons) and possibly without his backup (Zen Michalski). 

As hard as we have worked to go from average to good, and from good to great – the work that it’s going to take to get to an elite program, it’s going to be just as hard as the ground and the distance that we have already traveled. Scratch and claw and fight. Right now, we are comfortable being great. I am going to make sure that everyone in our program, including myself, is very uncomfortable because you only grow in life when you are uncomfortable.

Have the Nittany Lions been uncomfortable the past six years? It looked uncomfortable watching eventual national champ Michigan run on 32 consecutive plays — one pass was wiped out by a penalty — to ice a 24-15 win last season. But has Penn State lived the way Ohio State did, the way Michigan did, the way Georgia did on a day-to-day basis? The results say no. 

Saturday, Penn State gets another chance to prove it has grown — that the Nittany Lions have lived that way around the clock since last season ended. Given Ohio State’s abundance of talent, scratching and clawing will be required. And they’ll have to do it for four quarters.

Franklin struggled Monday to pronounce the last name of Ohio State edge rusher J.T. Tuimoloau. It should be seared into Franklin’s brain after Tuimoloau wrecked the Nittany Lions in the fourth quarter of the teams’ last meeting at Beaver Stadium in 2022. The final stanza started with Penn State holding a 21-16 lead and ended in a 44-31 Buckeyes’ win. Taking the lead isn’t enough. Fighting to until the clock strikes zero will be required.

So, we are going to break through and become an elite program by doing all the little things. Lose by one point this year, lose by one point last year, you make that up by all the little things. By going to class consistently so the coaches don’t have to babysit you and we can spend our time developing you as men and as people and as players, and not be babysitting little things. Don’t get me wrong, our guys do a great job with going to class, but there are two or three guys. It’s all the little things that are going to matter and we are going to find a way to get from being a great program – which we are just so everyone is crystal clear. We are a great program. We lost to an elite program, and we are that close. 

We aren’t clear on the class attendance of the Nittany Lions, but let’s assume it has been exemplary. This is a veteran group that has gone 28-5 since 2022. The losses? Two to Michigan teams that combined to win two Big Ten titles and a national title. Two to Ohio State teams that went a combined 22-4. One to an Ole Miss team that won 11 games.

One relatively reliable sign of a team that does the little things right is not getting upset by inferior opponents. Penn State hasn’t allowed that to happen in years. Another reliable sign is playing near-perfect games to beat more talented teams. Penn State hasn’t done that in years.

We have gotten comfortable being great. We will no longer be comfortable being great. We are going to learn from this and grow from this, and we are going to find a way to take that next step as a program because we have been knocking at the door long enough. It is my job as the head coach, I am ultimately responsible for all of it. I will find a way, we will find a way, and with all the support of everybody in this community and everybody on this campus and the lettermen and everybody else, we are going to get this done. I give you my word, we are going to find a way to take the next step. I can read off all these stats, but the stats don’t matter. We are done being great.

Six years later, Penn State is still great — but not elite.

Saturday, everything can change.

Finally.