Nittany Lions aim high after title win

Before this past season, Penn State coach James Franklin didn’t want his team to talk about the possibility of winning a Big Ten Conference championship. At that point, no player on the team — or Franklin himself — had been to one.

But at fall camp in August, Penn State’s captains approached Franklin and told him the team wanted to begin talking about winning a conference championship. Franklin relented, sophomore defensive end Ryan Buchholz said.

Of course, the Nittany Lions went on to win the Big Ten title four months later, defeating Wisconsin, 38-31, to earn the program’s first Rose Bowl bid since 2009. Though it fell to Southern California in a nail-biter, 52-49, the team has tasted success and now is setting its sights higher for next season, Buchholz said.

For him, it’s no coincidence that the year the team began openly declaring its end goal is the same year it achieved it. Now, he wants to make it known that the team is hunting a national championship bid next year.

“It was just funny, this past camp a bunch of the captains came together and they told Coach Franklin that we want to start talking about Big Ten championships because it’s obviously one of our goals,” Buchholz said. “We started talking about it, and the year we started talking about it, we won it. I think if we start talking about playoffs, national championships, stuff like that, it can definitely happen.”

Buchholz was one of 50 football players who participated in the annual Thon Explorers Program Saturday. The event, one of many that took place during Penn State’s annual IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon fundraising weekend, paired football players with Thon families for a tour of the Lasch Building, which was decorated with a variety games for the families and players.

Though the “what ifs” from the final game linger, sophomore offensive lineman Ryan Bates said the postseason has left the team better prepared for next season.

“We won the Big Ten championship last year, just missed the playoffs by that much. It gives us a lot of hope, and we can do the same thing next year,” Bates said.

Buchholz is encouraged by the number of key players Penn State has returning this year. Junior running back Saquon Barkley, coming off of a dominant season that saw him named Big Ten running back of the year, is perhaps the biggest piece. Junior quarterback Trace McSorley also will return following a breakout season.

“You kinda know what it takes,” Buchholz said. “Before that, we didn’t know what it took to be a Big Ten champion in football. But now we have an idea.”