Penn State's Long 2024 Road Brings No Shortage of Drama

James Franklin leads the Nittany Lions into a season filled with promise and pressure.

Penn State coach James Franklin on the sideline against the Mississippi Rebels during the second quarter of the 2023 Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The good news is that college football's offseason is over. It feels like ages since Michigan held off Washington for a national title, even longer since Penn State fell to Ole Miss deep in downtown Atlanta.

Nearly eight months of waiting, change, media rights, debate, expansion and speculation. It’s emblematic of how much change has occurred in college football when both teams that made the title game — an achievement requiring so much fine-tuning and precision —- have seen such massive overhauls. Both Michigan and Washington begin the 2024-25 season with new head coaches, quarterbacks and dreams.

Meanwhile, Penn State heads into its latest campaign under head coach James Franklin with the benefit of relatively predictable stability. Whatever shortcomings Franklin might have, both real and perceived, there is little question about what you’ll get from the Nittany Lions annually.

That consistency should turn Penn State into a regular participant of an expanded playoff field, which will keep the program relevant no matter how the sport changes. All the same, the Nittany Lions have had transfers in, transfers out, started the largest infrastructure project in the history of the athletic department and hired an entirely new platoon of coordinators.

The bad news is that the conversations and debates have only just begun. The games might be back, but the long road ahead is paved with no shortage of drama for Penn State.

RELATED: Scouting Penn State's chances to make the College Football Playoff

The development of quarterback Drew Allar, the resurgence of running backs Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, the position change by defensive end Abdul Carter, the uncertainty of the wide receiver room. All of this is foreground to a larger tapestry of what Penn State has — and hasn’t — yet done under Franklin. A tenure which has stretched more than a decade with one conference title and a lot of “what if?”

Like always, things out of Franklin’s control could derail Penn State’s chances of making its first playoff appearance. Teams are always one injury from disaster. That aside, there are few reasons to pick against the Nittany Lions in any given week this season. The defense should continue to be great under new coordinator Tom Allen, and the offense has too many potential stars for none to rise for new coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. If nothing else, the Kotelnicki's touch should be a breath of fresh air for an offense that often felt stale in the season’s biggest moments.

Penn State finds itself on the precipice of a new chapter in its storied history, facing as much pressure to perform as any team the program has fielded in recent memory. It may not have the same obvious national title aspirations of the 2017 squad, but everywhere you look there is pressure:

• Can Drew Allar turn into the quarterback fans are hoping to see?

• Can James Franklin not only get Penn State into the expanded field but also win a game or two?

• Where will Penn State land in the hierarchy of the new Big Ten? Washington, UCLA and USC may lack bite in 2024, but the Nittany Lions are not guaranteed to avoid adding them (or Oregon) to their list of Big Ten programs to chase down.

All of that starts this week with a visit to better-than-you-think West Virginia that would love to hijack Penn State’s season right out of the gate. It emphasizes Franklin’s occasionally cliched "1-0" approach because, while it may come across as predictable coach-speak, it also has resulted in Penn State rarely losing games it shouldn’t. Whatever qualms you might have about the Nittany Lions’ results in the biggest moments of the year, you only get to the big games by taking care of business in the smaller ones.

But there’s nothing small about this week.

“I know there are also reasons people schedule lower level, out-of-conference games, because there are going to be some things that show up in this game that probably won't show up in game two or three,” Franklin said on Monday. “So that's where I'm losing my hair and sleep, trying to do everything we possibly can to eliminate those things that you know can typically show up on a game one, and doing everything we can to try to eliminate or deter those things from happening.”

RELATED: How James Franklin is preparing for a "challenging" trip to West Virginia

And with nearly 150 days between Penn State’s opening-week clash and the national-title game, it’s hard to argue that college football is becoming more of a marathon than a sprint. A world where losing might not derail your dreams and a world where nothing will get any easier as the pressure to perform ramps up.

How that marathon unfolds for Penn State could set the tone for the remainder of Franklin’s tenure. A postseason appearance, and perhaps even a win in the playoffs, could confirm Penn State’s status as one of the biggest benefactors of the new format. Miss the playoffs as a healthy and capable team, and the questions will only mount. Make the playoffs and put up a poor effort against a fellow elite, and the question might be raised whether losing early in an expanded playoff is much different than losing to Michigan or Ohio State.

So sure, the games are back. But, for better or worse, the debate isn’t going anywhere.

Ben Jones has been covering Penn State athletics for 13 years, having been to countless home and road games for Nittany Lion sporting events spanning the Rose Bowl to the NCAA Tournament. He's also the author of the book Happy Valley Hockey. You can read his work at https://benjonesonpennstate.substack.com and follow him on X (Twitter) at Ben_Jones88

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