Chasing Hope

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.

Sponsor: For The Blogy’s 2023 football coverage is brought to you by Happy Valley United – the NIL collective representing every Penn State student-athlete. CLICK HERE to join the team and pledge your support.

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.

Both are seeking to solidify their position in the on-deck circle of prestigious conferences ahead of a transitional year that will see the college playoffs expand and both the SEC and Big Ten welcome new bluebloods into the fold. A New Year’s Six bowl victory over a respected adversary would propel the winner into an offseason of optimism with a more wide-open postseason awaiting in 2024. Finishing with 11 wins would reframe the regular season in a more favorable light for media, boosters, and fans while quieting skeptics who focus on the losses.

So the two Peach Bowl combatants enter this game with high stakes and a lot in common.

This first-time meeting between the two is a good matchup for Penn State, maybe the best one that was realistically available and made possible only by the playoff committee’s controversial snub of Florida State. Had the Seminoles made the final four, Louisville (who just got worked by 2024 Penn State opponent USC 42-28 in the Holiday Bowl) would have made the Orange Bowl through the ACC tie-in, knocking Ole Miss out of the New Year’s Six. If the Nittany Lions notch a defining NY6 bowl victory for a second straight year, we can all thank the committee for their hypocrisy and greed.

A fun storyline unique to this game for the Lions, making their first appearance in the Peach Bowl, is that a win would make Penn State the first program to have won all of the New Year’s Six bowls, another marker of longevity and success for a program that still must fight for respect despite its many laurels. It would also mean that James Franklin himself has won in four of the six most prestigious postseason showcases (Fiesta, Cotton, Rose, Peach). Winning the bowl would give Franklin his fifth 11-win season in 10 years on the job with an impressive 4-1 record in NY6 bowls. Beyond making the fans feel good and signaling that, despite the infamous struggles in the biggest games, we all get to enjoy a lot of winning, these meaningful data points are valuable bragging rights in the media and on the recruiting trail as Penn State works to stay ahead in the volatile college football landscape.

The changing face of the sport highlights one area where PSU differs substantially from its bowl opponent. While Franklin and company have had a characteristically quiet December in the transfer portal (in both directions), Ole Miss is gearing up for what their fans hope will be a historic season next year by securing commitments from some of the biggest names available in the portal. In the contrasting approaches, we see two different models for pursuing success at the highest level. One might question whether Mississippi will be able to successfully integrate an influx of portal vagabonds or if all the key additions will actually make a difference against the toughest competition, but many would commend Lane Kiffin for attacking his weak points by aggressively pursuing marquee free agents. In Penn State’s roster stability (and second consecutive bowl with hardly any opt-outs), we see evidence of a genuinely resilient institutional culture that defies the current trend in college football; we commit to you, and you commit to us. Of course, critics might suggest that the lack of turnover is fueled less by commitment to current players than a lack of money and perks to entice more talented replacements. Regardless of how you view it, the comparison of two very different styles of program-building adds an interesting side plot to the game.

It is impossible to view this matchup, however enticing, absent the context of the ultimately disappointing year leading up to it. Penn State squandered a favorable schedule and generational defense with an offense so moribund it got the once-lauded playcaller fired before the season’s end. Given the high hopes and underwhelming results of the 2023 season, it can be argued that James Franklin and the Lions need this win just to keep pace and avoid backsliding. In the afterglow of the Rose Bowl, the 2022 losses to Michigan and Ohio State felt like a prelude to taking a big next step this season. Now that the current season’s results seem pretty much equal to last year’s, failing to match that team’s New Year’s Six bowl win will feel like regression. That would be a sad end to a campaign that was once so filled with promise.

There is no reclaiming those lost opportunities, however. The record against the Buckeyes and Wolverines is what it is, and the four-team playoff era is ending without Penn State ever cracking the field. What awaits the team now is a chance to end on a high note and create valuable momentum heading into a transitional year for college football. Hope is the currency of the sport, and no matter how frustrated we felt at times throughout this season, a fresh infusion of hope for what’s to come will sustain us through the offseason. Before you know it, we’ll be sucked back in, excitedly preparing for a ranked road matchup with West Virginia to open 2024. With any luck, it will be as the first program to win all the New Year’s Six.

Three for the Road:

1. The number one thing I want to see from the Nittany Lions on Saturday afternoon? Confident production from their star tailbacks. Kaytron Allen, and especially Nick Singleton, looked so much more comfortable in the final two games, and I hope that carries over. Penn State will need them to rack up yards and dictate the pace of play in order to win, and getting those two going in the bowl will also make an important statement about what’s ahead in 2024.

2. Penn State’s edge rushers are another group that can send a strong signal about the program’s future with a game-changing effort in the Peach Bowl. With Chop Robinson out and Adisa Isaac likely on a pitch count, the imperative of making Jaxson Dart uncomfortable will fall largely to State’s next generation of defensive ends. With weeks of bowl practice to prepare for a larger role, will freshman Jameial Lyons have a breakout performance?

3. It’s not the playoffs, sadly, but this really is a nice matchup and big stage to send off a group of seniors and draft prospects who have been a lot of fun to watch and root for at Penn State. They deserve it. This team upheld the standard of the Blue and White on and off the field, and the players were easy to cheer for. I hope they get to go out on a high note.