Familiarity breeds contempt, but all things considered, Penn State fans should get comfortable with the devil they know.
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A final few games remain in the season, but already this much is chiseled in stone: Penn State will go down as the four-team playoff era’s perpetual bridesmaid.
No program teetered as consistently on the cusp of inclusion in the postseason final four without ever actually taking the plunge. Fellow 900-win programs Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre Dame all made multiple playoff trips, and even lesser brands such as Michigan State, Cincinnati, and TCU, despite some forgettable results, still got to hang a banner marking their membership in an exclusive club ordained to forever exclude Penn State. This year began with sky-high hopes and flowery prose about the potential for a magical Autumn in the Nittany Valley and ended with a sickeningly familiar goose egg in the win column for the two games that mattered most.
That means the time has come to turn our attention toward the future. Even these final two regular season games and the best bowl for which the Lions can qualify are mostly about setting the tone for the campaigns to come. The glories of the here and now are already beyond our reach. We yet again find ourselves preparing for a Winter of what-ifs.
