Even absent much of the anticipated luster, Penn State’s trip out West to battle the Trojans offers a rare opportunity to flip the script on the program’s fortunes under James Franklin.

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The moment has arrived.

Among the many alluring qualities that draw us unceasingly back into sports fandom no matter how much or how often it inflicts nearly unbearable anguish, maybe the most satisfying is that sports offer us closure. A final score. An ultimate champion. No matter the length of the season or intensity of the build-up, in the end, there is always the denouement. A cold, uncaring universe offers little of the certainty our brains so desperately crave, but sports will always give us an answer, even if it is often the one we didn’t want. Wait long enough, and the moment – the answer – will always come.

For James Franklin and the Penn State football program, one such verdict is now merely hours away from declaration. No matter the outcome on a Sun-splashed afternoon in the Los Angeles Coliseum, a judgement on the Nittany Lions’ 2024 season, and perhaps a whole lot more, will be rendered. Many questions, some newly formed and others long-simmering, will finally get resolved when Penn State’s game at USC goes final.

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With the siren song of the 2024 Nittany Lions once again bewitching a tortured fan base, the bumpy road to past perfection reminds us that the pain of disappointment isn’t inevitable.

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“No question about it. I’m ready to get hurt again.”

-Michael Scott

It’s no, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” but this quote, often cited by sports fans of all stripes, probably captures the prevailing zeitgeist of Nittany Nation as we pass the season’s quarter post. An emboldened quarterback, an uptick in explosive plays, and a defense that smothers and stifles when it matters the most all have Penn State fans once again daring to believe. Yes, against our better judgement, we are once again ready. Are we going to get hurt?

If the internet is any indication (as dangerous a phrase as you’ll read in modern times), most college football fans think the answer is “yes.” This week, the X account for College Football Nerds (a fun podcast and good follow on social) put the question to their audience, “What do we think of Penn State?”

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As Penn State celebrates its 105^th Homecoming with a nationally televised game of ranked unbeatens, we share some inspiring words from one of Old State’s most eloquent voices.

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Penn State held its first Homecoming celebration in the Fall of 1920. The centerpiece of the weekend was an October 9 game played before a record-breaking “standing room” crowd of 12,000 at New Beaver Field. The returning alumni, who inaugurated the new tradition that would continue on for more than a century and that we’ll again renew this weekend, watched one of State’s best early teams, which would finish the season 7-0-2, the front-end of two-year undefeated span. The Nittany Lions, led by star halfback Charlie Way and future College Football Hall of Fame quarterback Glenn Killinger, sent Dartmouth packing by a 14-7 final tally.

At the time, Penn State was still a relatively young institution, having struggled through the early decades following its founding and, at the turn of the century, escaped its probable demise against seemingly daunting odds (not for the last time!) thanks to the steady leadership of visionary president George Atherton. As the new century blossomed, Old State was only just starting to hit its stride. The dedication of a special weekend to welcome alumni coming back to campus symbolized the roots of the college taking hold here in the Nittany Valley. Through toil and struggle, Penn State’s founding leaders and early classes of students had built something that would endure, that was worth returning to celebrate, and that was set to inspire future generations to profess their love and loyalty.

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[Still] In pursuit of a first trip to the college football playoffs, the 2024 Penn State Nittany Lions must escape the undertow of their past.

Sponsor: FTB’s 2024 Penn State football coverage is sponsored by the Sports Medicine specialists at Concierge Medical Associates. Schedule an in-person or remote consultation at: conciergemedical.ai

Well, here we are again.

Last season, I kicked off the inaugural column in this space waxing poetic about the journey of each college football season, gently reminding readers to pause, reflect, and enjoy the little moments on a metaphorical voyage we all hoped would take the Nittany Lions, and all of us along with them, to a place none of us had ever been: the playoffs. Just a sampling of my message about our personal roles in the ongoing saga of Penn State football…

“And as we all are experiencing these personal journeys, we are also then connected to broader, intersecting storylines that link generations and blur boundaries. Renowned chemist Evan Pugh heeding the call of his native Pennsylvania to sail across the Atlantic and found a college amid cornfields and cow pastures, sons of steelworkers spellbound by the sales pitch of a wily would-be lawyer turned football coach, raucous fans dumping a car into the duck pond, lining College Avenue for a national championship parade, or flooding onto the field after an upset of Ohio State, a wide-eyed student less than two weeks into the college experience emerging from a dark tunnel to behold her first ever White Out. They’re all there, ghosts of what came before and what yet may be, countless strand upon strand of stories old and new – stories of people and the place they came to love – that brush gently up against you like the evening breeze off Mount Nittany.”

All of that is still true! And I still believe it, or at least I hope I do. Perhaps it’s merely a temporary fit of ennui or some sort of mild mid-life crisis, but the optimistic enthusiasm with which I began last season eludes me.  As the influx of money and onset of instability have mauled college football almost beyond recognition these last years, I’ve found myself grasping to hold onto what made it special, and my grip grows increasingly tenuous. Closer to home, I cannot deny that frustration from the team’s repeated failures in the biggest moments has compounded over time. My follow-up to that first column last year, explaining my theory for why far more fans are feeling far less charitable towards James Franklin than I do, concluded that 2023, with a top-ranked quarterback and generational defense, was finally State’s moment to shit or get off the pot and make the playoffs. “They damn well better,” I wrote. They did not. Again.

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As Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen prepare for their curtain call campaign in Happy Valley, they’re poised to rank among the greatest running back tandems in program history.

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It’s safe to say Penn State has rarely had a pair of backs like Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton.

Both arrived on campus in 2022 and were quickly namedropped by running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider as difference makers who had instantly transformed the tenor of a room coming off one of the worst rushing campaigns in school history. The freshmen made good on their coach’s praise that Fall, igniting a potent rushing attack that led the Lions to a Rose Bowl championship in the game’s final year pitting the Big Ten against the PAC-12.

Following a sophomore outing that failed to match the highs of their debut yet still included plenty of positives and finished up strong, they now enter what is presumed to be their final season together at Penn State. With three years of college service, both are expected to enter the NFL Draft next year. In anticipation of this special duo’s swan song, we looked at how their years together in Blue and White stack up against the very best running back tandems in program history.

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The Nittany Lions are landing commitments from the Sunshine State, but is the juice worth the squeeze?

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Another one bites the dust.

The timeless Queen lyric can describe any number of Penn State depth players who recently managed to slide through the closing “transfer portal window” just before it snapped shut, departing a Nittany Lions squad straining to conform to the NCAA’s (quasi-fictional) 85-scholarship roster limit.

Sadly, it also applies to yet another Florida native choosing to leave Happy Valley and seek his fortunes elsewhere: King Mack, a sophomore defensive back, who with due respect to State’s other portal entries, represents the biggest and most painful transfer casualty of the offseason so far. A former top-100 recruit in the class of 2023, Mack very much looked the part in limited snaps as a true freshman, and even with a crowded safety room heading into 2024, he figured to be a contributor this season and beyond.

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A Digital Trip Down Ink-Stained Memory Lane Unearths Nittany Nation’s Collective Mindset During Blue-White Weekends That Preceded Unforgettable Seasons.

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One of my favorite “Penn State holidays” – Blue-White Weekend – is nearly upon us. After a long and lonely Winter spent away from the company of your old college pals, extended tailgating family, and 108,000 friendly acquaintances, we get to squeeze in this brief, but welcome reminder of what we miss so much from five months ago and eagerly await five months hence (and if you actually end up going into the game, get a mostly useless and often confusing “preview” of future Nittany Lions you hope won’t enter the transfer portal before August). The event has grown substantially over the years, becoming a rallying point for any number of campus and local groups, alumni reunions, and student revelry (as if they need the excuse). For me, the most memorable moment at a Blue-White game came in 2007, shortly after the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech, when some enterprising Penn State students organized fans wearing Tech’s colors into the game, clad in t-shirts sold to raise money for the victims.

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The Peach Bowl features two major conference foes with many similarities, including a desire to validate a 10-win season that left many critics unimpressed.

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We began this series of columns back in September by talking about the journey of a college football season as a story told in weekly installments. As we come to the end of this year’s journey, the Nittany Lions will conclude their 2023 campaign by facing an opponent that followed a strikingly similar path with many comparable story beats.

Penn State and Ole Miss fielded excellent squads that spent portions of the season ranked in the top 10, dominated the weaker foes on their schedules, faced questions about whether their ace-recruiter head coaches could win big games, and ultimately frustrated their fans with losses to their two marquee conference opponents. In the case of each school, one side of the ball carried the load; offense for the Rebels and defense for PSU. Now these teams arrive in Atlanta seeking to validate 10-win seasons that left critics questioning how good they really are. Each will play without their top edge rusher, but otherwise managed to staunch the bowl opt-out bleeding.

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For the second time since joining the Big Ten, Penn State will see its manufactured rivalry with Michigan State interrupted by conference expansion.

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For longtime fans who remember Penn State football’s roots as an Eastern independent, the program’s place in the Big Ten has always felt a little awkward. But 2023 marked the Nittany Lions’ 30^th season of conference competition, meaning full generations of Lions loyalists have grown up knowing nothing but B1G membership for their beloved Blue and White. For most of that time, fans young and old could count on two things at season’s end: Michigan State and freezing cold. Starting last season and looking ahead, however, while the weather will be lousy as ever, the opponent will be different. Penn State’s annual season-ending matchup with the Spartans, which was conceived out of the evolving conference landscape, has now become a victim of it.

Yet through most of State’s years in the Big Ten, Sparty loomed as the final obstacle to overcome, a gatekeeper guarding the path toward regular season glory, bowl position, and occasionally, a conference championship. In spite of this seemingly prime position on each’s year slate, the series never managed to generate much enmity on either side. Over nearly three decades, fans of both teams certainly grew accustomed to seeing one another at season’s end, but this familiarity never bred much in the way of contempt. Other opponents, notably Michigan and Ohio State, generated more publicity and hate, and neither teams’ players nor their fans ever circled late November on the calendar. Bona fide rivalries in college football are funny things, and if 22 (soon to be 23) season finales between Michigan State and Penn State can teach us anything, it’s that they cannot be engineered.

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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.

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