Sports Illustrated: No. 3.
ESPN: 4. Athlon: 5.
Both Fox Sports and CBS: 6.
USA Today, Scout and San Jose Mercury News: 8th.
For Penn State and James Franklin, those are some kinda great expectations for 2017. Super-size me.
(Reminds me of Red Smith’s great line after Ted Williams spit at some BoSox fans in Fenway Park in 1958 when he was booed upon dropping a fly ball hit by Mickey Mantle and subsequently drew a $5,000 fine: “By now some modern Dickens, probably in Boston, must have surely brought out a best seller entitled ‘Great Expectorations.’”)
Frankly, I wonder if James Franklin gives two spits about the not-yet-ready-for-prime-time predictions for the Nittany Lions next season.
This was the guy, after all, who got the double-dreaded vote of confidence from Boss Barbour after going 16-14 to start his Penn State coaching career – just #107 (no k) days ago. How’s that for irony?
SPITTY
It certainly seemed then like the spit was about to hit the fan.
But. But, from that point forward, all Franklin did was keep on lovin’ them and lead them to nine consecutive victories after his squad suffered nine consecutive losses at linebacker and along the offensive line. They won the Big Ten East Title, the Big Ten Conference Title and a berth in the Rose Bowl in the process.
And it was a process. As in the King James’ version, where CJF says “Trust the process.” His team did, and he led them to the promised land – Pasadena. Actually, Franklin never promised anyone a rose garden. Ever.
He did say he would get things fixed. He said he would get everyone pulling the rope in the same direction. He said he would bring the family together. He said he wanted to take Penn State back to when it was great – really, really great — i.e., back to the future. (Which was released, with Michael J. Fox, back in 1985 – the height of the true halcyon days of Nittany Lion football. From 1978-1986, Penn State was 90-21-1, with two national titles and two losses in the national title game.)
Franklin did what he promised. And more.
Now, folks expect the Nittany Lions to be better than their 11-3 record from 2016.
AT THE CENTER OF NIT ALL
And it is possible. Of the 24 players – offense, defense, kicker, punter – who started the Rose Bowl, they lose just 25%. And the offensive line will be stacked, with Andrew Nelson and Brendan Mahon and a now-submarine-deep group that somehow did yeoman’s duty down the stretch. They need a center, and in the days leading up to the Rose Bowl Ryan Bates made a case that he could be the guy.
“Yeah, I could play center,” he told me. “I was a center when I first got here. I almost played as a true freshman at center.”
Or, maybe someone else ends up at center and Bates shifts over to guard from offensive left tackle to make room for Mahon’s return. Along that line, Penn State now has options. Lots of them. That’s how things have turned around for Penn State, going from “Will play O-line for food” to being a team strength.
That the O-line is now a Nittany Lion deep spot – what were once vices are now habits – ranks right up there with Penn State being picked by venerable Sports Illustrated (actually, SI.com) to finish No. 3 in the country in 2017, just two years removed from finishing a season 0-4 to go 7-6. Not a coincidence, though. The best teams have the best lines.
So, expectations are high. No kidding.
HERE TO STAY
And they are not going away. Since his arrival at Penn State just over three years ago – on Jan. 11, 2014 – Franklin has addressed the high expectations of Penn State head-on.
Again and again – here, there and everywhere, ala Dr. Seuss, ad nauseum (undoubtedly for James, as well as us all) – Franklin calmly and continuously and cautiously expressed that managing the expectations of Nittany Nation, while rebuilding the program from inside out and staying respectful to all concerned, was his toughest task. In spades.
“I think there’s very high expectations at Penn State, and there should be,” Franklin said at the Big Ten Media Days last July. “I also would say that there’s very few programs that would have been able to come through what we’ve come through with the type of success that we’ve had, two bowl games in a row. Never had a losing season through the challenges. So there’s positives there to build on. There’s no doubt about it. But I think progress is going to come in every area.”
He repeated it again late September, when, in the dog days following the 49-10 shellacking in the Big House, I asked him if Penn State fans should just R-E-L-A-X.
“I get it. I embrace it. I take it for what it is, and I think our players do, as well,” the coach said then. “So yeah, I want everybody to take a deep breath. We’re going to continue loving these kids. We’re going to continue supporting these kids. We’re going to continue developing these kids, and I believe in my 22 years of experience that we’re heading in the right direction and good things are going to happen if people let the process play out.”
The process played out, all right. As Joe Moorpoints likes to say, “Well played, indeed.”
THE POINT(S)
You thought the expectations were high then? From now on, heading through spring drills and the Blue-White Game and the renewing of the Coaches Caravan and another Big Ten Media Days and the preseason, they are not going to be lowered. Not when your offense has cranked out an average of 45.6 points over its last seven games. (The Ki-Jana & Kerry 1995 Rose Bowl Nittany Lions averaged 43.8 points over a dozen games.)
Three losses in 2016? Penn State fans and the national media alike expect only two or one or zero in 2017. That, despite road games at Kinnick Stadium, Ryan Field, The Horseshoe and Spartan Stadium, and home contests against the likes – and dislikes — of Pitt, Michigan and Nebraska.
Who knows?
Guessing where Penn State will be ranked a year from now is like spitting in the wind, which UrbanDictionary.com defines as “a commonly euphemized phrase in the USA, out of ‘Don’t piss in the wind,’ a British nautical phrase with a literal meaning. Both phrases mean ‘Don’t do something self-defeating,’ in the sense of ‘If you try to expectorate (urinate), don’t do it into (against) the wind or the saliva (urine) will blow back on you in a nasty way.”
Even his heyday, Joe Paterno was given some latitude. He got even more in the early 2000s. From the late 1960s through the 1990s, Paterno lived well and rarely took heat, thanks to The Cycle Theory. From 1966 through 1986, Paterno could promise every recruit who came to Penn State that if the player stayed at PSU for five seasons, he would do at least one of the following — play on an undefeated team, be on a No. 1-ranked team and/or play for the national championship.
Helluva sales pitch. Lasted for 21 years. For the class that entered in 1987 and those thereafter, Paterno would have to amend that promise to include this provision: “or play on an 11-win team.”
Only four Penn State classes failed to achieve Paterno’s promise: The freshmen who entered PSU in 1999 (the squad that year was ranked No. 2 for eight weeks) and 2000, as well as the ones who came aboard in 2010 and ’11. That’s it. The freshmen in 1999 were, in many ways, cheated, when Minnesota knocked Penn State from the second spot in the polls after a 9-0 start. Paterno’s last two classes came kinda close; they were 8-1 when Joe was fired in November 2011.
The promise even held true for the freshmen entering in 2001, 2003 and 2004, when the Lions won five, three and four games, respectively — if not respectfully (see: Iowa 6, Penn State 4). By 2005, the players who entered in 2001 (the name Michael Robinson comes to mind) had won 11 games to start yet another cycle.
TO BE FRANKLIN WITH YOU
The thing about The Cycle Theory is, it allowed Penn State to have down years, rebuilding years or even multiple rebuilding years. One wonders if Franklin will now have that luxury.
Certainly not in 2017. Last season, the Nittany Lions spent October and November and December and even a choice bit of January playing over their heads. Or, maybe, out of their heads. Now, they have a 3, a 4, a 5 and a pair of 6’s to show for it. And still 232 days away is Akron, Akron, Akron.
Not that the deck is stacked against Penn State. They showed last season how adroit they are in playing the right card again and again.
Penn State, in retrospect, even played the Sanction Cycle with great skill. From the day Paterno was fired until the Nittany Lions lost in Ann Arbor in 2016, they were 32-26 – remarkable.
Then, just as in the old days, they cycled up, winning 11 games in Year 5. No one expected it. Any of it. So, just like that, the new Penn State that is – as Franklin likes to say — is the spit and image of the old Penn State that was.
No one expected it. And now? Well, now it’s a Dickens of a story: They all do.
