It has been a strange season to measure for Penn State. The Nittany Lions beat everyone they should have and lost to the two teams who have become — or have always been — the main impediment to greater success. As a result James Franklin and his forever-quarterback Sean Clifford simultaneously did quite a lot together in 2022 while also not doing much at all.
In this day and age it’s hard to deny the level of consistency and quality it takes to win 10 games, all the same as Penn State came up [way] short against Michigan and continued an annual tradition of nearly beating Ohio State, the Nittany Lions plodded their way to double-digit victories behind elite defense and good-enough offense. It was rarely sexy, and wins over teams that couldn’t hold a candle to Penn State in terms of depth and quality in the first place didn’t do much more than reaffirm all the the things people knew about each respective program.
The result is a trip to the Rose Bowl, one which comes with some confusing emotions, but an undeniable opportunity for the program to give the Big Ten its biggest postseason win of the year. It’s confusing in the sense that compared to Penn State’s 2017 Rose Bowl appearance, this 2022 season has been filled with as much discontent from many fans as happiness. Where 2017 provided Penn State with a final chance to celebrate a Big Ten Title winning team, 2023 feels a bit more empty. Penn State is going to one of the biggest bowl games of the year but doing so by virtue of Ohio State and Michigan’s success as much as the Nittany LIons’ own on-field accomplishments. It’s not that Penn State doesn’t deserve to go, the Nittany Lions are a very good team on the whole, but Penn State isn’t riding anywhere near the same kind of high it was in 2017. If anything fans are ready to move on to a post-Clifford world and have in turn missed out on a season which is ending with an extremely high profile game. One might ask the question if Penn State’s success in 2022 would feel so empty to some if this were Clifford’s first year at the helm rather than what it is now.
In reality none of this matters much when the ball is kicked off. Whatever the final television ratings are, a million or two people will have tuned in to see Penn State’s iconic uniforms grace an iconic field and they’ll come away with their latest impression of the Nittany Lions.
That’s where Franklin comes in. A recent trip to his office inside the Lasch Building is a reminder of how much he has done while at Penn State but also how long ago some of those accomplishments feel now. In some regards, Franklin doesn’t get enough credit for the general stability he and his staff have provided the program, at the same time it doesn’t help matters any that Penn State’s perpetual shortcomings against Ohio State in particular have felt like Sisyphus getting so close to pushing that boulder to the top of the mountain, only for it to roll back down and force him to start anew.
And that’s what makes Penn State’s meeting with Utah so interesting and potentially vital for both Franklin and the program moving forward. In many regards the quality of player Drew Allar, Nicholas Singleton, Kaytron Allen, Olu Fashanu, Abdul Carter and others won’t change Penn State’s cautiously optimistic chance in 2023 but the ability to create momentum and change the narrative for even a fleeting moment could do wonders for a program that just needs a spark again.
A win over Utah is an elusive win over a Top 10 team for Franklin and Penn State. It’s a chance to get a win in a truly big game atmosphere. It’s a chance to find success where Ohio State and Michigan found failure.
There’s something to be said for the fleeting value of bowl games in 2023, but when it’s all said and done pitting two Top 15 opponents against each other on a big stage to end the year is exactly the sort of things programs are built on and exactly the sort of things that win over detractors.
Time will tell how Monday’s game unfolds, but with Ohio State and Michigan licking their wounds, Penn State might not have a national title path, but it does have a chance to remind everyone that 10 or 11 wins ain’t bad and that the Nittany Lions are better than they get credit for. The more they can turn that belief into action, the more the Nittany Lions might truly, truly believe that themselves when the even bigger games come around.
