PRIMANTI BROS., State College — Almost a year of Thursday nights ago, I walked down the steps of Lettermans for James Franklin’s radio show.
I was greeted by a half-empty basement and a Penn State staffer.
‘I’m glad you’re here,’ the staffer enthused. ‘I hope you brought 20 people with you.’
He wished.
Penn State at the time was 2-2 following a 49-10 crushing by the Wolverines in Ann Harbough, Franklin’s seat was allegedly hot and rough — but actually cold and smooth, said Sandy…twice — and the PSU bandwagon was the size of a smart car.
Flash forward to this Thursday night.
Since that sad, sad, lonely night in Lettermans, Penn State has had 11 consecutive regular-season victories, a Rose Bowl nail-biter, a Top 5 ranking this week and a shiny new contract for its head coach worth upwards to $37.8 million.
And the weekly radio show has moved downtown to Primanti Bros., 1.3 miles west along College Avenue. On Thursday night, it seemed like half of State College had made the trip.
The seating capacity here is 209, manager Greg DuBois told me. For CJF on this Thursday, it was SRO. The. Place. Was. Packed.
And that was still at twenty of six. The ‘Penn State Coaches Show’ started at 6, with emcee Steve Jones’ first guest that semi-lovable curmudgeonly coaching legend, Russ Rose.
The over/under on when Franklin would hit the airwaves was 6:36 p.m. He’s paid handsomely for a full hour. When calculating Franklin’s salary, $2.2 mil a year of it is for media-related activity. At those prices, I was thinking that James would plop down a Franklin or three to pay for my beer (Deschutes IPA, draft). And everyone else’s.
As Rose drops a few spikes and digs at assorted folks, Primanti’s is stuffed like a Pitts-burger™.
AT THE BAR
The guy sitting at the bar next me, Matt Fekete — a 2013 PSU IST grad in town for the career fair — walked in from Hiester Street and hit the jackpot.
‘Is there a party going on?’ Matt asked the bouncer. ‘It’s really loud in there.’
‘Kind of,’ says the guy at the door. ‘James Franklin is coming for his show.’
Matt — an OB fan from his undergrad days: ‘He brought us out of the darkness’ — grabbed a free beer at the door and sat down for the show. Matt, who lives in Baltimore, has grown to appreciate and respect James. ‘Man, he can recruit. He’s more than holding his own against Urban and Meyer. A poor man’s Nick Saban.’ (I swear to God, that’s what he said.)
Our bartender, Natalie Milsztajn — who until Sylly Week worked at a previous institution a few blocks down Calder Way — says the crowd was a bit bigger last week for the Pitt, Pitt, Pitt pre-game show. Still, compared to last year, the crowd for Franklin looks to be about #107k.
STREAKING
Last year. Shakespeare said what’s past is prologue. Primanti’s is 4,224 steps from Lettermans. The third week of September 2017 is miles from where Penn State was this time in 2016. Since Sept. 24, 2016 (PSU’s loss to Michigan), Penn State has won 11 consecutive regular-season football games.
A victory over Georgia State on Saturday in Beaver Stadium will make it 12 straight. Since Joe Paterno came to town with Rip Engle in 1950, that’s the fifth-best such streak in PSU history, tying the 2016-17 squads with the 1986-87 and 1973-74 teams. (The others: 28 consecutive regular-season victories, 1967-70; 18, 1993-95; 18, 1977-78; and 15, 1970-71).
Interestingly, at 12 games it will be the second-longest regular-season unbeaten streak since Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1993. It’s important to note here that last week, in answer to a query by yours truly, Franklin shared that when he benchmarks Penn State’s past successes, he looks at the ‘Big Ten Era.’
So: The Nittany Lions are on a roll. (‘Do you want double-meat with that?’)
Again, figuring Penn State beats Georgia State — the first football team from the Peach State to play in Happy Valley since 1923 — on Saturday, Penn State will have upped its home record in Beaver Stadium over the past three home seasons to 16-1. #WOW. That encompasses all of 2015, 2016 and 2017. (The lone blemish is a close 28-13 loss to Michigan in 2015.)
That’s quite a streak. You’ll have to go back to mid-2006 (and a 26-12 win over Illinois) through early 2009 (a 31-6 win over Temple), to find a home winning streak that’s more impressive. In 20 games over that four-year stretch a decade ago, Penn State’s only loss was 37-17 to No. 1 Ohio State in 2007.
That was a decade and a lifetime ago.
LAST CALL
Back at Primanti’s. It’s 6:28 p.m. and Penn State’s head football coach makes his way into the place, to big cheers. By far, it’s his earliest arrival of the season. Maybe the past few seasons.
The hay is in the barn and most of the work is done for Georgia State.
During the first commercial break of his segment, Franklin throws T-shirts to a rowdy crowd of fans, ranging in age from 7 to 87.
Penn State is no longer begging for bar mates on Thursday nights. That’s because the Nittany Lions — and James Franklin — are on a roll. And that’s saying a mouthful.
