Blue White Illustrated

y earliest memory of Jacksonville – my only memory, really – is of passing through it in the middle of the night en route to Miami for Penn State's Orange Bowl showdown with Oklahoma, a game that was to decide the national championship. It was December 1985, and I was with a group of friends from The Daily Collegian. We had reconvened in State College a:er Christmas, piled into two beat- up cars and headed south on I-95 intending to drive straight through, with nothing to keep us awake but a stash of Mountain Dew and glazed donuts and a cas- sette tape of "Purple Rain." A:er about 18 hours of driving, we crossed the Florida state line, and I distinctly remember thinking as Jacksonville whizzed past that we 7nally were home free. It must have been the Mountain Dew talk- ing, because of course Jacksonville is nowhere near Miami. But even with road signs appearing periodi- cally to remind us of the cruel geographical reality, it was di9cult at the time to give up on the enticing delusion that these two cities were not really all that far apart a:er all. In some ways, it still is di9cult. On Jan. 2, Penn State will take on Georgia in the TaxSlayer Bowl. It's James Franklin's second bowl game in as many seasons at Penn State, and he gushed about the matchup with the traditional Southeastern Conference power on the night of its announcement, calling the Nittany Lions' opponent "one of the most storied programs in college foot- ball." If the Lions can win it, they'll head into their o8- season with a bit of momentum and a nice talking point with which to chat up recruits and sell season tickets. But while a victory would be a reward in it- self, the visit to Jacksonville is, just as it was for our Collegian caravan 30 years ago, a mile marker on the way to somewhere else. The question: where? Where the Nittany Lions want to be – eventually – is in the College Football Playo8, which this year will feature a semi7nal game about 350 miles due south. The Orange Bowl will pit top-seeded Clemson against No. 4 Oklahoma, with the winner advancing to the title game in Glendale, Ariz. The Nittany Lions couldn't handle Brian Bosworth and company back in the day, and they'd certainly be hard-pressed to han- dle this year's Sooners, who are averaging 543 yards of total o8ense per game. But it's the other semi7nal that really gives Franklin's program an indication of how much ground it needs to cover. Second-seeded Alabama will face No. 3 Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl, and one of the reasons the Spartans are where they are is because they manhandled Penn State, 55-16, in the regular-season 7nale. The most lopsided loss of the Franklin era, it was a sobering moment, prompt- ing the second-year coach to note a:erward that "when we've played the upper-tier teams in this league and the country, we haven't been able to get it done at that level yet. … We've got to close the gap on them, there's no doubt about it." The good news for the Nittany Lions is that it can be done, and they need look no further than last year's TaxSlayer Bowl to 7nd evidence. Iowa played Tennessee in that game and was, to say the least, unimpressive. The Hawkeyes trailed 42-7 a:er three quarters and went on to lose 45-28. But they re- grouped impressively this past fall, going 12-0 in the regular season to earn a spot against Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship Game. They nearly won that game, too, as the Spartans needed an epic 22- play, 9-minute touchdown drive in the fourth quar- > > ROAD TO RECOVERY At TaxSlayer Bowl, PSU looks to take a step in the right direction M

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