Media Days have come and gone. The NFL preseason is underway. Real, honest-to-goodness football is oh so close, and so is a big year for James Franklin and Penn State.
The Nittany Lions have one of the most experienced quarterbacks in college football history, some explosive young athletes in the backfield, a reshuffled offensive line that will probably be the subject of only four or five of these columns this fall, an intriguing collection of both returning and new talent along the defensive line, and what could be one of the best secondaries they’ve ever had.
They should also have a collective chip on their shoulders the size of Landon Tengwall after consecutive seasons of five or more losses. How and why Penn State came up so curiously and consistently short has already been written to death. Today, we will examine how Franklin and his team can end that surprising and sobering stretch of mediocrity.
With apologies to the famed 21st century philosopher William Martin Joel, it’s a matter of trust.
