Penn State Sports Magazine
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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 4 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M T he dust had just settled on another New Year's Six bowl game, and another head coach was ticked. Georgia's Kirby Smart had come out on the winning end of a 63-3 decision over previously unbeaten Florida State in the Orange Bowl, but he was hardly feel- ing exultant after the victory, which had come at the expense of a Seminoles squad that had been devastated by opt-outs. "People need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix this," Smart said. "It needs to be fixed. It's very unfortunate that Florida State has a good football team and a good football program and they're in the position they're in." Hours earlier, Penn State head coach James Franklin had sounded a similar note. The Nittany Lion leader wasn't as forceful as Smart, no doubt aware that such a complaint would sound like sour grapes in the aftermath of his team's 38-25 loss to Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl. But he couldn't help but acknowledge the fundamental differ- ence between the team he'd led to a 10-2 regular season and the one that took the field in Atlanta. "We had significant players who played all year long who weren't in that game," he said. "I don't want this to come off the wrong way. I'm not criti- cizing, but it is what it is. It's the real- ity. … We need to have some healthy discussions about that as a staff and as a team and how we want to operate moving forward." Franklin's concerns were well- founded. On the front end, Penn State was completely without three of its most integral defensive players. De- fensive end Chop Robinson and cor- nerbacks Kalen King and Johnny Dixon were complete scratches. Edge rusher Adisa Isaac played 20 reps in the first half, then sat out the second, as did linebacker Curtis Jacobs. As a quintet, the players represented a combined 2,132 game reps from the 2023 season. Offensively, the situation wasn't quite so dramatic, but it wasn't ideal, either. Left tackle Olumuyiwa Fashanu, a likely high draft choice, sat out en- tirely, while right tackle Caedan Wal- lace and tight end Theo Johnson, both starters, reduced their workloads to 26 and 12 reps, respectively. It's easy to say that teams in Penn State's situation should adopt a "next man up" mentality. But with eight NFL-bound players all absent in the second half, that argument is absurd. The issues rampant in college foot- ball's bowl season aren't confined to players who are sure to be high draft picks. Players with less-certain profes- sional futures are also being persuaded to get out at the earliest opportunity. That applies to bowl participation, and also to the decision to go pro in the first place. Often, players are acting on the advice of agents who lack the polish of a profes- sional representative and who are mostly just looking to cash in on a payday. Reading between the lines of Frank- lin's postgame comments, it's clear he believes that players are not always getting sound advice when they're told they should sit out. "There's an opportunity to create value by playing in games," he said. "Having our guys play against Ole Miss and play well was an opportunity. We need to have some discussions as a team on how we're going to handle these things moving forward." Underclassmen vying for a slice of the NIL pie are also part of the conver- sation. The weeks leading into bowls are now dictated by something closer to hostage negotiations than X's and O's. Throw in the caveat of programs working to poach players via back- channels, with or without a formal portal entry, and overinflated self- evaluations produce daily distractions. The postgame comments from Franklin and Smart should serve not as a warning, but as the alarm they were intended to be. From Missouri's 14-3 win over depleted Ohio State, to Geor- gia's thrashing of Florida State, to Penn State's loss, to Oregon's destruction of Liberty, the matchups designed to fea- ture the game's best simply aren't liv- ing up to their billing. And it's not just a bad final cycle leading into next year's expanded playoff. The forces that have pushed the game in this direction won't be re- solved just by expanding the playoff. Rather, at a moment in which chaos undermines any semblance of integ- rity, a more-equitable model is the only viable path forward. Smart's sentiment is one shared and understood broadly. "You can say it's Florida State's fault, and they have to solve their own prob- lem. We had our guys, and they didn't have their guys," Smart said. "College football has to decide what they want. I know things are changing. But there are still going to be bowl games outside of the playoffs. "People need to decide what they want and what they want to get out of it, because it's really unfortunate for those kids on that sideline that had to play in that game and didn't have their full arsenal. And it affected the game, 100 percent." ■ Penn State was without this year's sack leader, senior defensive end Adisa Isaac, for all but 20 plays in its Peach Bowl loss to Ole Miss. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL O P I N I O N NAT E BAU E R N AT E . B A U E R @ O N 3 . C O M HOT READ Postseason Exodus Has Diminished Bowl Season