At 11-3 and then 11-2, Penn State’s recent back-to-back double-digit win seasons are a rarity.
Not only at Penn State. But in the Big Ten, and college football overall.
Only 10 major college teams won 10 games or more in both 2016 and 2017.
The breakdown: Three from the Big Ten (Penn State, Ohio State and Wisconsin), two each from the Pac-12 (USC, Washington) and the Big 12 (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State), plus Alabama, Clemson and South Florida.
Going 2 x 11 is even tougher.
In addition to Penn State, only five other teams had 11 or more wins in both 2016 and 2017 — Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
If that doesn’t put what James Franklin has done at Penn State over the past two seasons, in tandem, into perspective, perhaps this will:
In the three decades since the Nittany Lions last won a national championship (1986), they have had a total of nine seasons with 10 wins or more. And two have come in the last two seasons.
Penn State’s nine double-digit win records in the 25 seasons since joining the Big Ten in 1993 ranks it tied for third with Michigan, behind Ohio State (19) and Wisconsin (12) over that time. They’re followed by Michigan State (6), Iowa (5), Northwestern (4) and Nebraska (1), Illinois (1) and Minnesota (1).
Nebraska, which joined the Big Ten in 2011, has had a dozen 10-win seasons since 1993, while Maryland, which joined the conference in 2014, has had three since 1993 (in 2001-03, all while Franklin was an assistant with the Terps).
That’s it.
BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK
Penn State is on the cusp of an historic roll.
Counting 2016-17, only eight times in its 131 years has Penn State had back-to-back seasons with 10 wins or more.
And only twice has it had three or more consecutive 10-win campaigns.
Will 2018 make it three?
In Joe Paterno’s sixth season as head coach, Penn State went on a four-season double-digit roll, going 11-1, 10-2, 12-0 and 10-2 in 1971-74 with schedules where the Nittany Lions played just a dozen games, counting bowl games.
Other than that stretch, the Nittany Lions have had just one other three-season stretch of 10 wins or more. That came in 1980-82, Penn State was 10-2, 10-2 and 11-2, a streak that culminated in PSU’s first national championship.
The Nittany Lions have yet to repeat that since joining the Big Ten.
They came close in 1993-95 (10-2, 12-0, 9-3) and 2007-09 (9-4, 11-2, 11-2). But no cigar.
If, somehow, Franklin & Co. can get to 10 wins again in 2018, it will no doubt be Penn State’s best run of its Big Ten life. Which is significant for many reasons, but perhaps moreso than any other since it comes so closely on the heels of the NCAA sanctions.
THE BIG TEN ERA
The Big Ten Era is the barometer by which Penn State football today should be measured. Franklin has said that again and again.
‘When I go back and I kind of look at our history and I try to study best practices from a Penn State perspective,’ Franklin said in the midst of the 2017 season, ‘I typically am looking at the Big Ten era — not before that, because again, it’s hard to compare. There’s just so many differences.
‘I do think there’s an aspect to every fan base and probably every media group that covers historic programs like Penn State. They’re comparing things to years ago, which is wonderful that we have the ability to do that. But the game really has changed in so many different ways, and that’s where I think our challenge with the small numbers of schools like us is how do you continue to embrace the history and traditions with also moving forward to today’s football.’
Alabama and Ohio State and Oklahoma have thrived using that approach. Texas and Notre Dame, not so much. It’s a balancing act, Franklin has often said, that requires embracing the past but building a future that rests on its own 21st century laurels.
For Franklin, two 11-win seasons in a row creates a lot of buy-in.
‘That’s one of the things that we’ve worked really hard at since getting here — balancing that,’ Franklin said. ‘I think probably last year and this year we were probably in the best position to do that because, No. 1, we understand our past and our history.
‘And No. 2 we have a pretty good awareness of the era of football that we are in now, and also the era of Penn State the University. We are able to kind of take all that information and create the best blueprint moving forward for how our organization needs to be run.’
