Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1430714
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 3 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M tany Lions' 2022 recruiting class was ranked eighth nationally by On3.com as of Nov. 16 and is shaping up to be one of Franklin's best. In addition, the 2023 class is off to a great start, with three of the four ver- bally committed prospects having re- ceived four-star ratings. These classes will play a huge role in how the team fares in the coming years, which is why PSU would do well to avoid any off-the- field drama. The other risk lies in the potential to alienate Penn State's fan following, which has been a key component of the program's success. Those fans have du- tifully filled Beaver Stadium and fol- lowed the Nittany Lions to road games and bowls, and they've long viewed PSU's head coaching position as a des- tination job, not a steppingstone to an even better job somewhere else. Rip Engle coached the Nittany Lions for 16 seasons before handing the reins to Paterno, who coached for 46 seasons. O'Brien left after just two seasons, and while his abrupt departure to become the head coach of the Houston Tex- ans may have cost him some goodwill, there was a recognition among fans that the Penn State job had turned out to be much harder than it looked when he signed on, due to the NCAA sanctions. Also, in leaving for the NFL, he was returning to the place he had come from, having been hired away from Bill Belichick's staff in New England in 2012. If Franklin were to leave, it would be for another college job, and that would sting a little bit more. It isn't all that common for coaches of blue blood pro- grams to leave for other blue blood pro- grams. Jimbo Fisher's decision in 2017 to step down at Florida State to take the Texas A&M job is the most obvious pre- cursor. But usually when big names show up at new schools, it's either because they came out of retirement (Urban Meyer at Ohio State, Mack Brown at North Caro- lina) or because they wanted to return to the college level after struggling in the NFL (Chip Kelly at UCLA, Nick Sa- ban at Alabama, Steve Spurrier at South Carolina). For many Penn State fans, surely one of the most irksome things about imag- ining Franklin on some other team's sideline is not that his exit would de- prive the Nittany Lions of a high-pro- file, highly successful coach; the uni- versity will get another high-profile, highly successful coach if it has to. It's that Franklin's departure for an- other Power Five school would give the impression that the turf is greener elsewhere. When the Hurricanes approached Joe Paterno years ago, they sensed that he might be looking for new worlds to conquer. That's not the case with Franklin. The eighth-year Penn State coach won the Big Ten title in 2016, but he hasn't been able to get back to the league championship game, and the Nittany Lions have yet to qualify for the playoff. If he leaves PSU, it will be at least partially because he wants a different platform from which to pur- sue his ambitions. Paterno, of course, returned to Penn State in 1995 and stayed with the Nit- tany Lions for another 17 seasons. Even with the upheaval of the past decade, PSU has still only had four head foot- ball coaches since 1950. Other Big Ten programs can't come close to match- ing that kind of longevity, not even the league's most continually successful programs. Ohio State, Michigan and Iowa have had eight head coaches apiece during that span. Nebraska has had 10. Wis- consin and Michigan State have had 11 apiece. Maryland has had 15. There are some absolute legends in those numbers: Woody Hayes at Ohio State … Bo Schembechler at Michi- gan … Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne at Nebraska … Hayden Fry at Iowa … Duffy Daugherty at Michigan State. All had their day, and all eventually left the stage. In college football, nothing is for- ever. ■ Playoff Expansion Could Lift Lions Since Penn State's program began its steady rise in the early years of the Joe Paterno era, its goal has been to win national championships. The Nittany Lions have two titles to their credit, but the most recent was in 1986. The College Football Playoff was launched in 2014, and Penn State hasn't been able to make the field, coming closest in 2016 when they finished fifth in the CFP rankings that were issued after the conference championship games. Throughout his tenure at Penn State, James Franklin has made it very clear that his professional objective is to win a national title. In October 2019, on an episode of HBO's "24/7 College Football," he said, "My goal is to be the first African-American football coach to win a college national champion- ship. That's something that is very historic." One of the reasons why Penn State hasn't been to the playoff is that Ohio State has been very hard to dislodge. The Buckeyes have made four playoff appearances, while only one other Big Ten team — Michigan State in 2015 — has been able to reach the four-team field. But some relief may be on the way with the recent push to expand the playoff field. The CFP's management committee is looking at eight- and 12-team formats and is hoping to have a decision by January 2022, which would allow for an expanded playoff beginning with the 2024 season. If a 12-team format had been in place from the start, Penn State would likely have already made several appearances in the playoff. Here is where the Nittany Lions have finished in the CFP rankings leading up to bowl season every year since the playoff began. — Matt Herb YEAR CFP QUALIFIERS PSU'S RANK 2014 Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, Ohio State — 2015 Clemson, Alabama, Michigan State, Oklahoma — 2016 Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Washington 5th 2017 Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama 9th 2018 Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame, Oklahoma 12th 2019 LSU, Ohio State, Clemson, Oklahoma 10th 2020 Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Notre Dame —