It is Thursday, May 25, and Penn State’s 2023 night-time season-opener vs. West Virginia on Saturday, Sept. 2 in Beaver Stadium is now just 100 days away.
Penn State head coach James Franklin, entering his 10th season at Penn State with four top 10 finishes in the past seven campaigns, has already laid down the gauntlet.
So has his athletic director. And his defensive coordinator. And his star running back.
2023 will be big. BIG.
It was 97 days ago, on Feb. 17, when Franklin hyped up the already-high expectations for Penn State’s 2023 football season, when he addressed the Penn State Board of Trustees.
He pointed out that the 2023 version of his team was ranked No. 5 in the country in a very, very (very) early ranking by ESPN. And he mentioned it three times.
“We’re very aware of what we need to do in taking the next steps,” Franklin said at the time. “The Rose Bowl championship was awesome. I’m glad everybody got a chance to enjoy it. But now these guys and our program are moving forward. We understand what the expectations are at a place like Penn State — and we completely embrace them.”
Then Franklin did a deep dive into ESPN’s SP+ February rankings for this coming season.
“Going into the next year, ESPN has us ranked in preseason college football — we’re ranked fifth in the country, something we embrace and are excited about. Guys,” Franklin said, referring to a quartet of players — including much-hyped quarterback Drew Allar — after viewing a highlight video, “I’m glad you watched the video, but that’s behind us. We have work to do. Just because you’re here, you still got to do the work of the rest of the day.
“So,” Franklin said, addressing the BOT, “we are preseason ranked No. 5 in the country. I want to be back here next year addressing you guys about our season as well. But I would also challenge you as well as those (players) over there, we’re fifth in the country, but there’s two schools on our own side of the conference (No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Michigan) that are also ranked in the top five. So, we’ve got a tremendous challenge, which is something that we embrace.”
As it turns out, at the end of spring practice Penn State dropped to No. 8 in ESPN’s 2023 rankings. No matter. A whole host of media outlets have the Nittany Lions ranked in the top 10, and many have them in the top five.
A KRAFTY GOAL
Anticipation for the 2023 season is already at a fever pitch.
Last December, Franklin’s boss, athletic director Pat Kraft, said that he expects — the root word of “expectations” — the Nittany Lions to eventually win a national title.
“So being with this group,” Kraft said, “why I’m so happy that they’re going to play in the Rose Bowl, why I know we’re going to be elite and we’re going to win a national championship and we’re going to be great, is because I believe (Franklin) does everything the right way with those young men.“
Franklin’s defensive coordinator, Manny Diaz, thinks the Nittany Lions are a contender to be No. 1 in 2023.
“We’re going to be in the mix. We were right there a year ago,” Diaz said. The 2022 season “gives us a lot of momentum. The standard of what we expect next year is well-defined. Once you taste something like this, it’s hard to go back.”
And Franklin’s star running back, Nick Singleton, thinks his teammates can do better than their 11-2, No. 7 finish in the AP poll in 2022.
“This year, we have bigger expectations from last year,” Singleton said in April. “Obviously, we want a Big Ten championship and to compete for a national championship.”
Penn State’s fans do, too.
On Monday, Penn State athletics announced that “general season tickets and all season parking passes for the 2023 football season are now sold out. Limited availability still remains in the Mt Nittany Club. Join the waitlist today to become a season ticket holder for the 2024 season!”
The seemingly bang-bang-bang nature of the announcements of the night-time opener against West Virginia, the 8 p.m. Sept. 23 White Out at home vs. Iowa, and the switch of the Michigan State game to Ford Field on Black Friday has fans even more excited.
AN AIR OF 1986
The current feeling on campus, in State College and across social media is similar to the lead-up to the 1986 season, when Penn State was coming off an 11-1 season after it went undefeated and was ranked No. 1 in the regular season, only to lose 26-10 in a disastrous Orange Bowl performance against Oklahoma.
That offseason, Penn State celebrated the upcoming campaign, its 100th playing intercollegiate football, with a series of galas featuring Bob Hope and the tagline, “A Century of Excellence.” That team was stacked. It had 50 lettermen and 17 starters returning — including 19 of the top 22 offensive players and 18 of its top 22 defensive players, as well as its punter and placekicker. The squad featured 14 fifth-year starters.
Its biggest weakness was at quarterback, where John Shaffer was coming off an Orange Bowl performance where he threw three interceptions, and completed just 10 of 22 pass attempts for 74 yards. In the offseason, Shaffer — who, like Allar is an Ohio native — had to win his job back, edging out the more-popular Matt Knizner.
The hype, the expectations were real.
Only thing is, in the months leading up to the 1986 season, Joe Paterno didn’t buy into it.
“We’ll be a much better team than last year, but that doesn’t mean we will win as many games,” said Paterno, who publicly and privately pooh-poohed preseason polls. “We weren’t all that good of a team early last season, but we got some lucky breaks, won some close games and then, later in the year, we were a good football team.
“Our schedule is tougher this year (1986),” Paterno added. “We play Alabama, Boston College, Notre Dame and West Virginia on the road.”
The Nittany Lions responded by going 12-0 and winning their second national championship in four seasons.
THE ROAD AHEAD
In 2023, Penn State’s major road tests are at Ohio State on Oct. 21 and the aforementioned road game Nov. 24 at Michigan State, which was 5-7 last year. Penn State also plays host to Michigan in Beaver Stadium on Nov. 11.
Franklin is 4-14 against Ohio State and Michigan in his nine seasons at PSU, with a sole victory against the Buckeyes in 2016. That was a magical year for the Nittany Lions, as they won the Big Ten, went 11-3 and won nine consecutive games before losing 52-49 to Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl.
That success came just three seasons into Franklin’s reign, while he and Penn State were still feeling the effects of the Sandusky scandal. It created what might have been unfair expectations at the time.
Franklin said as much in March 2017, as he was starting to prepare for the next season — which was, somewhat suddenly, full of expectations.
“We’ve said this in the past,” Franklin said back then, “and Penn State has had really, really high expectations and standards — no matter what our challenges have been.
“Expectations are,” Franklin added, “almost like, ‘You better live up to this.’
“Expectations are,” Franklin concluded in that revelation six years ago, “almost like, ‘I’ve already identified in my mind how many wins and how much success you’re supposed to have.’ ”
It is now six years later.
And the expectations for 2023 are real.
And they are so high, so early — among the fans, the Board of Trustees, the AD, the coaches and the players — that a 10-2 record, with losses to Ohio State and Michigan, will no doubt be seen as a major disappointment. Even if the Nittany Lions finish No. 5 in the country.
