Blue White Illustrated

T he scoreboard read 49-10. It was a beating in the Big House by Michi- gan that probably had many Penn State football fans wondering if the pro- gram was destined to spend the next few years somewhere in the middle or even the bottom half of the Big Ten East Divi- sion. Many college football analysts and bloggers had declared prior to the season that this was a make-or-break year for James Franklin and his coaching sta:. He was said to be on the hot seat, and that was before the Nittany Lions split their 9rst four games. Still to come were matchups against Ohio State, Iowa and Michigan State, games in which the Lions would probably not be favored. As longtime BWI readers are aware, I tend to err on the side of positivity. But even I was starting to have a few second thoughts about where the program was heading. And I wasn't alone. The con- sensus on BWI's premium message board, the Lions Den, seemed to be slip- ping, too. No longer was the board 9lled with members picking an 8-4 season. Some felt the Lions would need a mira- cle to win seven. Many felt that 6-6 was the best that could be hoped for. It seemed most Penn State football fans believed the program was moving in the wrong direction or, at the very least, had failed to get out from under the cloud that had been following it for four years. One thing was for sure: There weren't any fans or beat writers who could have imagined back on the evening of Sept. 24, following the team's lopsided loss to Michigan, that going into its game with Indiana on Nov. 12, Penn State would be sporting a 7-2 record and would be ranked 10th in the College Football Play- o: poll. The Lions responded to their bad a

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