Yes, Penn State Has Been Great. Is That Good Enough?

After another loss to Ohio State, the Nittany Lions and coach James Franklin ask more existential questions of themselves.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day shakes hands with Penn State coach James Franklin following the Buckeyes 20-13 win over the Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Editor's Note: The following column first appeared at Ben Jones on Penn State.

The hard part is, everyone is right to some degree.

Fans aren’t wrong to expect Penn State to occasionally make it over the Ohio State Hump. For the better part of the last decade, Penn State has been right there, and whatever gaps might exist between the two programs, the Nittany Lions have had legitimate opportunities to win games against the Buckeyes. Wanting that to change on occasion isn’t unreasonable.

The big picture challenge for James Franklin is this: Penn State runs the risk of being almost too successful everywhere else. Penn State long ago left behind the struggles of the NCAA Sanctions Era and has rebounded by becoming one of the most reliably successful programs in the nation while subsequently being the poster child for Just Below Elite. In a way, it has diluted historically noteworthy success to something less than that.

For example: If Penn State wins 11 games this year — and it should be the betting favorite to do so — that would be the fifth time in the last nine seasons. By comparison, from 1990 to 2013, a span of 24 seasons, Penn State hit the 11-win mark just five times*.

(*Accounting for 10 wins as a result of schedule expansion to 12 games, Penn State reached that mark eight times over the same span. On the Franklin front, it would bring his total to six times in the last nine seasons.)

The result of an 11-win regular season would be hosting a first-round game in the College Football Playoff.

“There’s nobody that’s looking in the mirror harder than I am,” James Franklin said after Penn State's 20-13 loss to Ohio State. “I will say this, and I’ve said it before: 99 percent of the programs across college football would die to do what we’ve been able to do in our time here. But I also understand when you’re in a place like Penn State, there’s really, really high expectations. When you’re in a place like Ohio State, there’s really, really high expectations. I get it. So we’ve looked at all these things really hard. We’ll continue to look at these things really hard.”

Franklin isn’t wrong. Penn State has entered a space where the vast majority of its success is overlooked by virtue of its shortcomings. All of this while simultaneously putting together one of the most numerically successful runs in program history.

In many respects, Joe Paterno’s biggest strength was his ability to transcend generations. While he may not have posted endless memorable seasons, he was the cornerstone of nearly all of them. In turn, fans and alumni were tied together by happy memories under the umbrella of the same head coach.

As for Franklin, his crowning achievement, a 2016 Big Ten Title, is the only high-level emotional anchor that fans — especially younger fans — might have with the program and with him. Where students once came up with the chance to experience a Paterno-led game the same way their parents did, there’s a growing subset of Penn State fans whose main emotional underpinnings of the Penn State football experience are beating a bunch of average teams and losing to the majority [not all] of the very good ones.

It puts everyone in a weird place. On one hand, Franklin should have won a few of these Ohio State games. Losing to the Buckeyes on Saturday, for the 10th time in 11 years, stings less for the program if it’s part of a sequence of wins and losses. Instead, it’s just another moment of coming up short.

On the other hand, Franklin’s biggest contribution to Penn State is the fact games against Ohio State are ostensibly winnable on an annual basis.

And that’s not to say Franklin is the only coach for the job or couldn’t be doing a better job. But as USC, Alabama, Clemson, Michigan, Florida State, Texas A&M, Auburn, and even Ohio State to some extent, struggle in spite of their well regarded coaches, it does put into focus the general consistency Penn State has experienced. Additionally, that change and the hiring of high-profile coaching targets doesn't guarantee better results.

As Harvey Dent said to Bruce Wayne in "The Dark Knight": You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

It will be interesting to see in a few years how the playoff format changes our perception of winning and losing during college football's regular season — and, in turn, if Penn State’s new goal should be to host a playoff game and refocus interest on how that comes to pass.

All things considered, Penn State has played quality out-of-conference opponents well over the years, potential foreshadowing for the playoff. There’s a school of thinking that the Nittany Lions might actually fare better against teams that don’t have the program nailed down to the extent Ohio State does. If the Nittany Lions become a playoff regular, the impacts of the occasional loss to Ohio State or [insert high-end Big Ten team here] would prove to be more of a seeding conversation than an existential one.

But at 7-1, the Nittany Lions have four games left to win first.

More Penn State Football

James Franklin reflects on the final offensive series against Ohio State

Penn State's receivers look to make bigger impact in Big Ten play

For Penn State, questions linger about goal-line offense against Ohio State

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 from 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