Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1490816
F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M A firmly established backfield should prove helpful next season, because the Lions are not without questions else- where on offense. Rising sophomore Drew Allar will be starting for the first time, assuming he opens at quarterback when the Nittany Lions begin their 2023 season Sept. 2 against West Virginia. What's more, the Lions need to find Allar some new targets. Three of this past season's top four pass catchers have departed, with wideouts Parker Wash- ington and Mitchell Tinsley and tight end Brenton Strange all headed to the NFL. That trio accounted for 129 of Penn State's 270 catches and 1,550 of its 3,283 receiving yards. The Lions are hoping that rising ju- nior KeAndre Lambert-Smith offered a sneak preview of his future when he followed Singleton's long run with the Rose Bowl's other offensive thunderclap, an 88-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter that helped put away the Utes. "KeAndre is a great story," Franklin said. "He's just trusted the process and persevered. He's extremely talented, and I think he has such a bright future." On the opposite side of the ball, the Lions will return seven of their top 10 tacklers, including all three starters from a linebacker corps that went into the 2022 season looking like one of the team's biggest question marks and came out as one of its strengths. True freshman outside linebacker Abdul Carter was one of PSU's break- out stars, ranking second on the team in both total tackles (56) and tackles for loss (10.5). Carter joined Singleton and defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton, who had 3 sacks in his debut season, on ES- PN's true freshman All-America team. Those players will be front and cen- ter when Penn State looks to build on its fourth 11-win season in Franklin's nine years in State College. Coming off their decisive victory in the Rose Bowl, the Nittany Lions are already starting to garner attention as College Football Playoff contenders in 2023. In ESPN's Way-Too-Early Top 25, issued just min- utes after Georgia thrashed TCU for the 2022 crown, the Nittany Lions were sixth behind the defending champion Bulldogs, Ohio State, Michigan, Florida State and Alabama. "After a couple of mediocre seasons, coach James Franklin has the Nittany Li- ons headed back in the right direction," ESPN's Mark Schlabach wrote. It would be hard to argue that point, given the abundance of young talent that Penn State will be bringing back next fall. Having won their third New Year's Six bowl under Franklin, the Lions will be aiming even higher. The 2023 season will be the last in which only four teams qualify for the College Football Playoff. In 2024, the field will expand to 12 teams, and when that happens, playoff participation will start to seem less like a starry-eyed dream and more like an expectation. If their long touchdowns against Utah were any indication, players such as Sin- gleton and Lambert-Smith will be key parts of any playoff bids that Penn State makes in the next couple of years. "Those were two big plays in the game," Franklin said. "We expect those guys to make those types of plays." ■ A century ago, Penn State played USC in the first Rose Bowl game to take place at its current stadium in Pasadena. This year, the Nittany Lions were part of another pivotal moment in the bowl's history: the last of the traditional matchups between the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences. The Rose Bowl is set to host a College Football Playoff semifinal next season, and in 2024 the field will expand to 12 teams, with the Rose becoming part of a six-bowl consortium that will play host to the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. With a handful of exceptions, the Rose Bowl has been pitting teams from the Pac-12 and Big Ten against each other since 1947. Go- ing forward, however, Rose Bowl matchups will be determined by the CFP rankings. This past season, Penn State was 11th in the CFP poll that was released after the conference championship games. That wasn't good enough to get the Nittany Lions into the four-team playoff field, but if the upcoming 12-team bracket had been in place this year, the Lions would have made the field and opened with a road game at No. 6 Tennessee. Since the start of the playoff era in 2014, there have been five seasons in which Penn State went into bowl season ranked in the top 12 of the CFP poll, including a four-year stretch from 2016-19. — Matt Herb Penn State's Final Rankings (James Franklin era) Year Record Big Ten AP Coaches CFP* 2014 7-6 2-6 — — — 2015 7-6 4-4 — — — 2016 11-3 8-1 7th 7th 5th 2017 11-2 7-2 8th 8th 9th 2018 9-4 6-3 17th 17th 12th 2019 11-2 7-2 9th 9th 10th 2020 4-5 4-5 — — — 2021 7-6 4-5 — — — 2022 11-2 7-2 7th 7th 11th * The final College Football Playoff rankings are issued in December, prior to the start of bowl season. Nittany Lions Make Rose Bowl History — Again Coach James Franklin has yet to lead Penn State to the College Football Playoff, but if the upcoming 12-team bracket had been in place since the start of his tenure at the school, PSU would have made the field five times. PHOTO BY RYAN SNYDER