To fully grasp why Penn State fans have placed so many of their emotional eggs into this season’s basket, it’s mandatory to take a step back and piece together the confluence of unexpected events that brought us to the cusp of this highly-anticipated crescendo.
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There’s an incredible amount of enthusiasm and confidence around Penn State football right now, and last week’s result (Drew Allar especially) did nothing to stifle it. If you’re following the team, you see and hear it everywhere: Fans genuinely believe this is the group that will contend for the playoff and maybe even win it all.
There’s an underlying sentiment implied in these statements: “They damn well better.”
I said it myself in my inaugural column here last week – “Anything less than 11-1 will be a disappointment.” – and this offseason, I’ve often found myself hearing and using phrases like “no more excuses” or exhorting James and his staff to relieve themselves or free up the toilet for others to use. Sure, fans of most power programs harbor perpetually high expectations, and preseason optimism is generally unremarkable, but there’s an acutely restless undercurrent to it in Happy Valley right now.
Why is that we’re all feeling so antsy? James Franklin, and especially Sandy Barbour, will hold up the historic run of four 11-win seasons in the last seven (conveniently omitting that the regular season used to be only 10 or 11 games), and State’s Rose Bowl victory means James is already halfway to running the New Years Six gamut only a decade into his tenure. On the whole, things seem pretty good. So what gives?
