Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1157192
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >>
decimate a top-five East Division oppo-
nent, as the Boilermakers rocked No. 2
Ohio State, 49-20.
But those losses notwithstanding, the
East has been the Big Ten's standard
bearer, and its ascendance has not been
particularly surprising. Michigan is, after
all, the winningest program in college
football history, with 953 victories all-
time, and Ohio State is second with 911.
A third East Division team also ranks in
the top 10, as Penn State enters the 2019
season in ninth place with 887 wins.
The winningest West Division program
is Nebraska, which is tied with Notre
Dame
for sixth place with 897 victories
all-time. After the Cornhuskers, the next-
winningest program in the West is Wis-
consin in 35th place with 705 victories.
Penn State coach James Franklin alluded
to that historical record when he was asked
at Big Ten media days about the league's
failure to secure a spot in the playoff the
past two years. All programs experience
transitory ups and downs, Franklin said,
but the traditional powers tend to experi-
ence more of the former than the latter. By
clustering so many of its best programs in
the
same division, he contended, the
league may be hindering its chances of
producing an undefeated or one-loss team.
"Look at how the divisions are, how the
divisions are broken up right now,"
Franklin said. "I think the East is very
strong and has been very strong for a
number of years. I think obviously you
can have the argument that over history
there's ebb and flow, but if you look at the
East, it's pretty strong [annually], proba-
TOM ALLEN INDIANA We don't plan to
run a two-quarterback system. Obvi-
ously, it's happened in the past, and it's
been successful at other places, but the
plan now is to pick one and let him be
the man. As I mentioned before, we'll
go into fall camp and make those deci-
sions, but I really believe in each one of
those individuals, and they all have
their unique skill sets and strengths
that they bring to the table. And they're
all a little bit di=erent, but they all have
the ability to throw the football and ex-
tend plays, which is a key ingredient to
what we're trying to accomplish o=en-
sively.
CHRIS ASH RUTGERS As we went back
and looked at 2018 like we did at the
end of the season, it was wasn't a lot of
fun. When you're 1-11, things are di>-
cult. I own it, and the good thing is that
we can control our future. We're the
ones who determine whether we're
going to stay there or move forward,
and I'm really excited about our foot-
ball team, the way they've responded,
the way they've worked, the way
they've come together. I'm excited
about what we can show on the

