Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/604314
– a record-breaking 63-14 loss at Ohio State in 2013 – and that margin of defeat drops to 10.6 points. Which is not to imply that a return to greatness is imminent now that the team's scholarship numbers are headed back up. The Nittany Lions still have an o=ense that moves the ball spasmodi- cally, and sometimes not at all. They have a defense that is less consistent than it was a year ago, as evidenced by the Northwestern game, in which they allowed Justin Jackson to gouge them for 186 yards. Their special teams have not always been an asset and have at times been a liability, producing a handful of big returns but also some bungled PATs, short punts and backbreaking plays like Solomon Vault's 96-yard kicko= return in the Northwestern game. Franklin conceded recently that the Nittany Lions are "behind where we want to be" on o=ense a>er nearly two years under the current sta=. But, he added, "some of those things aren't quick ;xes. We're improving. We're im- proving in areas. But, yeah, would you love to be further along and have a much di=erent identity at this point? There's no doubt." By the time most subscribers receive this magazine, the Michigan game will have been played. That means the Penn State football nation will either be lan- guishing in a charred and blackened pit of despair or joyously toasting victory with mugs of Wolverine tears. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground anymore. The Internet – Twitter in par- ticular – has intensi;ed the reaction to sporting events, delivering concentrated doses of both outrage and euphoria. But to assess Penn State in these chal- lenging times, it's best to get some dis- tance from the weekly melodrama of the season and focus on the big picture. And in qualifying for a bowl for the second season in a row, just three years a>er the program was seemingly in ruins, the big picture is looking reasonably bright. Penn State will be going somewhere in December and, metaphorically at least, it'll be someplace sunny. ■ T H E 2 0 1 5 S E A S O N