Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1495456
2 0 A P R I L 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M T hree years ago, Penn State went into the season as the No. 7 team in both major polls and finished unranked. Last year, the Nittany Lions went into the season unranked and finished No. 7. Given the pollsters' checkered his- tory of predicting PSU's capabilities in recent years, you might think that James Franklin and his staff wouldn't care how anyone perceives their team during the offseason. And you'd be 100 percent correct. "Those things don't really factor in for us internally," Franklin said on March 14, the first day of spring prac- tice for the 2023 season. "I don't try to concern myself with the external opin- ions or expectations and those types of things. We're approaching it the same way we've always approached it. We've got to get better." This year, the preseason buzz has been building ever since the Nittany Lions wrapped up their 2022 season on Jan. 2 with a 35-21 victory over Utah in the Rose Bowl. That win, in which Penn State outscored the Utes by two touchdowns in the second half, capped an 11-2 finish. It was the team's fourth 11-win season in Franklin's nine years as head coach. The optimistic feelings that lingered after Penn State's bowl victory soon began spilling over into the various way-too-early 2023 polls that started appearing in mid-January. The Lions were sixth in ESPN's rank- ings, with writer Mark Schlabach noting that PSU was "headed back in the right direction." USA Today and NCAA.com had them slotted fifth, Pro Football Fo- KEEPING KEEPING IT REAL IT REAL The Lions have been a buzzworthy team this offseason, but external perceptions mean little to coach James Franklin with spring practice underway M A T T H E R B | M A T T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M