Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1507572
1 0 O C T O B E R 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 D uring the Sept. 7 edition of James Franklin's weekly radio show, one of the questions came from a woman who referred to the Nittany Lions' matchup against West Virginia as "beautiful." Her reasoning had nothing to do with the 38-15 final score. Rather than the outcome, which had been a rousing Penn State victory, she was focused on the matchup itself. Franklin's Nittany Lions had wel- comed a longtime Eastern rival to Bea- ver Stadium, one of those traditional opponents that had fallen off the team's schedule in the early 1990s when it joined the Big Ten. That sense of re- gional familiarity, the woman said, was a big reason why she was so happy to see the Mountaineers back in State College for the first time since 1991. Running through Penn State's his- tory against regional opponents such as West Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse, the questioner argued that future foes USC and UCLA won't elicit the same excite- ment as the teams she remembered watching in Beaver Stadium decades ago. "What are the chances that we can get Pitt back on the schedule, West Vir- ginia back on the schedule, Syracuse?" she asked. It's now been four seasons since Penn State last played the Panthers. The Nit- tany Lions won that game 17-10, bring- ing an end to a four-game home-and- home series that featured three PSU victories. Responding to the listener, Franklin offered his most detailed answer in re- cent memory regarding the status of the intrastate rivalry. He explained that the Big Ten's shift to a nine-game confer- ence slate in 2016 made it more difficult to schedule nonconference opponents. He added, however, that he's open to resuming the series against the Pan- thers, which dates back to 1893 and in- cludes 100 games — more than Penn State has played against any other op- ponent. "The more conference games you play and the less regional the conferences are, then those games become more and more challenging," Franklin said. "And you have to see, do they make sense?" During the summer, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi insisted that resurrect- ing the rivalry does indeed make sense. When asked when the Panthers might next face Penn State, Narduzzi put the ball in Penn State's court regarding the future of the series. "You'd have to ask James Franklin that," Narduzzi told 93.7 The Fan. "My call is, 'Let's go.' We've called. We've asked." Franklin isn't so sure it makes sense from Penn State's perspective. When PSU welcomed Pitt to Bea- ver Stadium on Sept. 9, 2017, the at- tendance was listed at 109,898. It was the second-best-attended home game of the season, trailing only the White Out clash with Michigan, but it sur- Franklin On Resumption Of Pitt Series: 'It Needs To Make Sense' N A T E B A U E R | N A T E . B A U E R @ O N 3 . C O M NEWS & NOTES Kenny Pickett threw for 372 yards, but Pitt managed just one touchdown in its most recent game against Penn State, a 17-10 win for the Nittany Lions in 2019. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL