Penn State looking for playoff detour
COLUMBUS, Ohio — No. 7 Penn State entered the famed Ohio Stadium on Saturday having accomplished just about everything a program can short of appearing in the College Football Playoff.
A Big Ten Conference title. Three New Year’s Six bowl wins in four attempts. Five top-12 finishes in the CFP rankings. Enough alums in the NFL to field almost an entire 53-man roster. It’s a resume that holds up against all but the small handful of programs that have dominated the sport for this decade of the four-team format.
That success should have the Nittany Lions poised for more as college football hurdles toward its latest season of major change, which will include realignment into megaconferences that stretch from coast to coast and a 12-team playoff format that promises more highstakes matchups than ever before beginning in 2024.
More than third-ranked Ohio State itself, it was the weight of history that the Nittany Lions were facing on the crisp Horseshoe turf. A last, best chance to take down their nemesis that has stood in their way for this past decade and give themselves a chance to participate at the highest level in this waning era of the sport the way lesser programs including Michigan State, TCU, Cincinnati and Washington have.
To take the step from great program to elite program that Coach James Franklin spoke of five years ago after a frustrating home loss to this same Ohio State team. On their terms. And not because the sport lowered the barrier for entry to the playoff party for them.
Instead, the afternoon followed a drearily familiar script observed by 105,506 scarlet-clad fans in a 2012 loss.
In a tightly played contest characteristic of this series, a pivotal second quarter was a microcosm of what’s separated these programs for all these years. With the Buckeyes driving in a 3-3 game, linebacker Curtis Jacobs appeared to strip sack Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord, recover his own forced fumble and return it 60 yards to give the Nittany Lions a 9-3 lead. The energy was sucked from the building as the first big break had appeared to go to the visitors.
Nope. The play was wiped out by a holding penalty on cornerback Kalen King, advancing the ball to the Penn State 16-yard line.
If that weren’t bad enough, Penn State was flagged on two of the next four snaps, too. King drew more laundry by interfering with Ohio State star Marvin Harrison Jr. Then Kobe King was called for a late hit after appearing to stack up a running play in the backfield, advancing the ball to the Penn State 2.
Ohio State’s Miyan Williams scored on the next play. The tally was only 10-3 with a lot of time left, but that 14-point swing in the matter of a couple minutes might as well count for a million when these two teams play.
In the macro, Penn State was Ohio State’s peer for 90% of the game, yet again, and lost its poise at the crucial juncture.
The problem isn’t more complicated than that for Franklin, who now has nine losses against these Buckeyes on his ledger. It’s not just a couple of bad breaks in a couple of games for him at this point. He’s consistently outcoached on the little things that determine games of this magnitude.
Were the playoff format not changing, you’d have to say he’s reached his ceiling at Penn State, to the point it would be worth discussing whether he should be replaced.
Granted, Penn State is not out of chances quite yet. No. 2 Michigan awaits in a Veterans Day showdown back in Happy Valley. It’s the Wolverines — not the Buckeyes — who are two-time defending Big Ten champs and have not dropped a conference game since 2021.
If Penn State wins that game and wins out, it’ll have a playoff resume to rival anyone’s, despite this loss.
Michigan isn’t the proverbial brass ring that Ohio State has been. Despite Coach Jim Harbaugh and Co.’s recent success, Penn State has won three of the past six meetings, sometimes in convincing fashion.
For those reasons, this one might be tougher to get over psychologically than it is practically. All of that belief, over all of those years, that this program might one day stand up to this particular annual test and take on the mantle of the Big Ten’s best head to head is being left on this field.
New challenges and possibly greater triumphs await. Maybe they’ll come this year with a win over Michigan. Maybe they’ll come in future years against the Huskies, Ducks, Trojans and Bruins.
But this particular chapter of Penn State’s history is closed in a decidedly dissatisfying way.