Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/906973
N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M Penn State secured a 66-3 win at Maryland Stadium on Saturday evening, knocking off the host Terra- pins to improve to 10-2 and close out the 2017 regular season. And Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin made a point to let a cramped postgame media room know just how happy he was with the team for doing it. Recording back-to-back double-digit wins in the regular season for the first time since 2008-09, the Nittany Lions have continued to make strides. Maybe more important, Franklin said, players have not yet maxed-out their potential. "I think we're trending in the right di- rection right now. We're getting better," he said, eager to load up the team bus and travel back to University Park on Saturday night. "I'm very just pleased the program overall and the progress we're making… There's some progress being made. We still have a lot of work to do, but I'm happy with kind of where we're at." To do that work, Franklin intends to put his young players in positions to de- velop through the next month as the team prepares for whichever bowl sce- nario presents itself once the College Football Playoff is selected and the bowls make their picks. It's all part of a process that Franklin has been envi- sioning for quite some time. "I felt like this was a possibility," he said. "How long was it going to take us to get back to this situation? I'm not sure. Obviously, it didn't happen fast enough for a lot of people, but through us looking back at it and having per- spective, I'm very pleased with where we're at. The exciting thing for me is I think that we're getting better. I think we're just going to continue to get bet- ter." Though falling short of a second con- secutive trip to the Big Ten Champi- onship Game and Big Ten East Division title, Nittany Lions deserve some his- toric context. Let's take a look at where this group stands among its predeces- sors at Penn State as well as the other news and notes items to emerge from the team's postgame media availability: NUMBERS GAMEOther records are bound to fall before the season ends, but Franklin pleased with Nittany Lions' steady progress N O V E M B E R 2 5 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 11 G A M E N O T E B O O K