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his past season, Penn State did something it hasn't done all that often over the years: It fol- lowed up a season of 11 or more victories with another season of 11 or more victories. Before the past two years, the Nittany Lions hadn't racked up 11 wins in consecutive seasons since 2008-09, when they went 11-2 two years in a row. Before that, you have to go back to 1985-86, when they went 11-1 and 12-0 and twice played for the national championship. It's been a nice run, even though neither season ended with a national title, or even a berth in the College Football Playoff. But if the current Nittany Lions really want to etch their names in the history books, they should focus on making it three in a row this coming fall. Never in the program's history have the Lions put together three consecutive 11-win seasons. And only twice in their history have they put to- gether three or more consecutive seasons with 10 or more wins. It happened during a four-year stretch from 1971-74, when they went 11-1, 10-2, 12-0 and 10-2. And it happened again nearly a decade later, when they went 10- 2, 10-2 and 11-1 from 1980-82. Those, of course, were the golden years of the Paterno era, back when the program was shedding its reputation as just another ambitious striver and taking its place on the na- tional stage. The game has changed dra- matically since then, but the transition that James Franklin is trying to engineer is not entirely dissimilar from the one that Joe Paterno pulled off in the early years of his head coaching career. Franklin wants the Lions to dare to be great. Will they get there? Their long-term outlook is improving, especially with their latest recruiting class ranked fourth by Rivals.com coming out of the early signing period. But it will be a year or two before most of those prospects start con- tributing, and the Lions have some big holes to fill in the meantime. As they begin their off-season, fresh off the excitement of a 35-28 victory over Washington in the Fiesta Bowl and a No. 8 final ranking in the three major polls, they must figure out how to replace their leading rusher and leading re- ceiver. They must also retool a defense that will most likely be without seven of its top eight tacklers. Those losses notwithstanding, Franklin has said repeatedly that he likes the over- all direction of the program. "We just kind of keep chipping away at it and keep working," he said. "The development of our current players, what we're doing ac- ademically, what we're doing on the foot- ball field in terms of being successful, two undefeated seasons at home, back-to- back – that hasn't happened in 31 years. What we're doing from a facility perspec- tive, what we're doing from a staff per- spective, and then recruiting. "I keep seeing us make progress every day. It's not just every single year; it's every day. I see us making decisions across campus. I see the alignment that we need. I've talked about this a lot since I arrived, about the alignment for you to be as successful as you want to be and as successful as we need to be. That takes the students, that takes our players, that takes the coaches, that takes the admin- istration, our athletic director, Sandy Barbour, that takes our president, Eric Barron, that takes the board, that takes the lettermen, that takes this community all really working together. Every day I see us getting closer to that. So it's an exciting time. I look at attendance this year, and I think we had the largest jump in atten- dance in the country this year, so there | Penn State has re-established itself as a force to be reckoned with, but the players who transformed the team back into a title contender are starting to leave. Are their successors ready to step up? WINNING PERSONALITY Franklin has now presided over back-to-back 11- win seasons at Penn State. The Lions have never won 11 games three years in a row. Photo by Steve Manuel T F A S T F O R W A R D >> A N E A R L Y L O O K C O V E R S T O R Y POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

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