Has Penn State football already cemented its 2024 season as a successful one?
That answer depends on who you ask.
Some would say “yes.”
Others would so “no.” Others would see both points of view. For the first time since the College Football Playoff became a thing in the 2014 season, Penn State is in the dance. Not only is it in the dance, the team has done quite well, winning two games and putting itself two wins away from winning a national championship, something it hasn’t done since 1986 and has done twice overall.
The standard at Penn State is incredibly high, so the answer to the question “is this season already successful?” is more complex than it would be at most schools.
WHY IT’S A SUCCESS
GLENDALE, AZ – DECEMBER 31: Penn State head coach James Franklin interacts with his team after the victory during the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal playoff game against the Boise State Broncos on Tuesday December 31, 2024 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ. (Photo by Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire)
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.There are obvious reasons why this Penn State season is already a success regardless of whether the team wins its Orange Bowl/College Football Playoff semifinal matchup with Notre Dame Thursday, Jan. 9 in Miami. Perhaps the biggest one is that this Penn State team has won more games than any previous one in school history with 13. Now, some will point out that this happened because Penn State played the longest schedule in school history with 15 games. But let’s think about why that happened. Penn State beating the teams it was supposed to beat and not losing as three-touchdown favorites is why it got to go to the Big Ten Championship Game and Ohio State didn’t. Penn State then had to beat two top 10 teams to get to No. 13, which it did. So, yes, winning the most single-season games in school history happened partly due to how the college football schedule is set up now compared to years past. But Penn State still had to capitalize, and it did.
WHY ITS NOT A SUCCESS… YET
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: James Franklin
There are plenty who would argue that even with the single-season wins record, Penn State still has work to do. The reason being that, should PSU lose to Notre Dame, the No. 1 gripe about Penn State football in the James Franklin era would still be in play: they can’t win a big game. Now, Penn State beating SMU and Boise State helped in changing that narrative but anybody who would argue that Penn State wasn’t a clear-cut favorite to win those matchups would be mistaken. Wins over the SMU’s and Boise State’s of the world don’t carry the same weight that wins over the Ohio State’s and Notre Dame’s of the world. Penn State already failed to beat Ohio State, and failing to beat Notre Dame would lead to people continuing to use the nickname “Big Game James” sarcastically.
CONCLUSION
It wouldn’t be a column if I didn’t give my opinion, right? Well, here it is. I think the tiebreaker here is: At the end of the day, this season is already a success for Penn State football. As frustrating as a loss of Notre Dame would be for this fanbase and as much substance as the “Franklin can’t win a big game” crowd would still have, the fact is that Penn State started the season ranked No. 8 and is one of the last four teams standing. If somebody had told Penn State fans at the beginning of the season that their team would get this far and break a school record for wins, they’d have been excited. Penn State has never been closer to a national title under Franklin than it is right now. Sure sounds like “success” to me.
