Penn State Sports Magazine
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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 5 5 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M E D I T O R I A L MATT HERB MATT.HERB@ON3.COM T here is nothing quite so sticky in the public imagination as an event that confirms a pre-existing belief. Notre Dame's comeback against Penn State in the College Football Playoff semifinals did just that. You could al- most hear the murmurs as Mitch Jeter's winning field goal sailed through the Miami night, curving back toward the middle of the field after appearing to veer off-course when it came off his foot. There go the Nittany Lions again, com- ing up short in another big game. Penn State is now 1-15 under James Franklin in games against top-five oppo- nents. That record speaks for itself, and I'm not here to defend it. The Lions have repeatedly found ways to lose games against quality opponents, including contests like their Orange Bowl matchup with the Fighting Irish in which they accomplished a lot of what they set out to do. They held Notre Dame's vaunted ground game to 117 yards. They won the turnover battle. They finished with 5 sacks. And they still came up on the short end of a 27-24 decision. The loss to the Irish is surely the most heartbreaking setback of the Franklin era, but what I am here to do in its aftermath is to note that there are plenty of exam- ples throughout college football history of coaches who couldn't win the big one until, suddenly, they could. For much of his career at Nebraska, Tom Osborne was a guy who couldn't win the big one. His Cornhuskers put to- gether 11 seasons of 10 or more wins and played in 16 New Year's Six bowls dur- ing his first 21 years in Lincoln, but the closest they came to winning a national championship was in 1983 when they finished No. 2 after an agonizing 31-30 loss to Miami in the Orange Bowl. Then in 1994, everything changed. Osborne guided the Huskers to a 13-0 finish and a No. 1 ranking, albeit with the help of some sympathetic pollsters who didn't want to see him share the title with 12-0 Penn State. He won two more championships before retiring after the 1997 season. Bobby Bowden couldn't win the big one, either. His first 17 Florida State teams reached the 10-win plateau nine times but never finished higher than sec- ond (in 1987). The Seminoles finally put it all to- gether in 1993, winning the first national title in program history behind Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Charlie Ward. Six years later, they won it again. Mack Brown didn't win a champion- ship until his 22nd season as a head coach and eighth year at Texas. Jim Harbaugh needed seven seasons at Michigan before he beat Ohio State, and even after clear- ing that hurdle, the Wolverines flopped in the playoff two years in row, including a stunning loss to TCU in the 2022 semi- finals that was every bit as crushing as Penn State's defeat against Notre Dame. It wasn't until his third CFP appearance that Harbaugh led Michigan to a cham- pionship. Empathy doesn't come easily to fans impatient for a championship, and Penn Staters have been waiting a long time. The Nittany Lions haven't finished on top since Joe Paterno won his second title in 1986 with a 14-10 victory over Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. Paterno, too, spent decades straining to reach the mountaintop before finally getting there. His Nittany Lions didn't finish No. 1 until Year 17 of his tenure. While he often argued that his unbeaten teams of 1968, '69 and '73 deserved to be crowned champs, his first opportunity to actually play for the title didn't come until 1978. That season ended in heart- break, with PSU falling to Alabama, 14-7, after the Tide mounted a fourth-quarter goal-line stand. The Lions' breakthrough didn't arrive until four years after that devastating loss. The world is a very different place than it was back when Paterno, Osborne and Bowden were among the sport's big- gest names. Those coaches didn't have to deal with the internet discourse that has become a fact of life for their succes- sors. Social media amplify the outrage that follows every loss these days, and the increasing professionalization of the college game has only emboldened angry fans to attack when their team's results don't meet expectations. There's no pa- tience anymore for the kind of decades- long projects that turned programs like Penn State, Nebraska and Florida State into blue bloods in the first place. Franklin has felt the heat. As he noted after the Orange Bowl, "I know how im- portant winning is at Penn State. Trust me, that's been made very clear, time and time again." He has done a lot of winning in 14 years as a head coach and 11 at Penn State. With a record of 101-42 at PSU, he is the third-winningest coach in program history, trailing only Rip Engle (104-48- 4) and Paterno (409-136-3). Along the way, he's guided the Nittany Lions to six seasons with 10 or more victories. Will Penn State take the next step un- der Franklin? It's impossible to predict, but history tells us it's too soon to say he won't. ■ James Franklin is now the third-winningest coach in Penn State history with a 101-42 record in 11 seasons. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL Patience Doesn't Come Easy, But It Can Pay Off VARSITY VIEWS