Fort Lauderdale, Florida— After Notre Dame beat Penn State 27-24 to move to the national title game, running back Jeremiyah Love didn’t hold back.
Penn State Drops Orange Bowl to Notre Dame in Heartbreaking Fashion
“We went out and played like the dogs that we are,” Love said, via Pete Sampson of The Athletic. “We ain’t no little dogs, we’re big dogs. They was the little dogs today. Little cats. Whatever you want to call them.”
Jeremiyah Love: "We went out and played like the dogs that we are. We ain’t no little dogs, we’re big dogs. They was the little dogs today. Little cats. Whatever you want to call them."
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) January 10, 2025
This sums up the No. 1 problem with PSU football: When PSU plays one of the “big dogs,” it loses.
PSU football still hasn’t vanquished the narrative surrounding it.
Many people describe coach James Franklin like this: Wins all the little games, loses the big ones.
That’s not to say that Penn State’s College Football Playoff wins over SMU and Boise State were “little ones,” but the facts are that Penn State couldn’t make a statement nationally in those games like it could have against Notre Dame because those schools aren’t at the same level, both in on-field performance and national prominence.
Thursday night in Miami was a chance for Franklin— who came in 1-14 against top five teams— to prove that he could lead his squad to victory against one of college football’s big dogs.
It was a chance for QB Drew Allar to fully vanquish the ghosts of Michigan and Ohio State. It was a chance for Penn State’s receivers to prove that they really were what Franklin said they were: a strength.
Instead, Penn State lost, Allar threw an interception that will never be forgotten and the receivers didn’t catch a single pass.
Notre Dame picks off Drew Allar late in the fourth 😳 pic.twitter.com/F0SZvM5fFa
— ESPN (@espn) January 10, 2025
SAME OLD SONG
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: James Franklin
People who look at Penn State’s failures against top five teams will notice a pattern: the team is often winning at some point. In losses to Ohio State during the 2017 and 18 seasons, and, hell, even this past November, Penn State coughed up a double-digit lead, and it did the same against Notre Dame. Penn State led 10-0 late in the first half and was clearly the better football team during that time. Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen were doing their thing on the ground. Defensively, Penn State— led by Abdul Carter, who is better with one arm than almost anybody else is with both— didn’t let Notre Dame do much of anything.
This reflects on Franklin’s ability to have his team ready to play, which is an aspect of his coaching that never should be in question.
But what’s also a common theme is that Penn State can’t figure out a way to close the deal.
A SUCCESSFUL SEASON, BUT…
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now: James Franklin
A few days before the Orange Bowl, I wrote this about Penn State and whether or not this season was already a success.
“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 PSU 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. PSU has never been closer to a national title under Franklin than it is right now. Sure sounds like “success” to me.”
Smeltzer: Is Penn State Football’s Season Already a Success? It’s Complicated
I stand by every word of that. At the same time, if somebody were to argue that Penn State made it to the semifinals because of a favorable Playoff draw more than anything else, how would a PSU defender be able to combat that?
Would Penn State have made it to the semifinal if its first two opponents weren’t a program that hasn’t been nationally prominent for more than 35 years and a Group of 5 school? We’ll never know. PSU could have proved a lot against Notre Dame, and in a way, it did. Penn State was winning for most of the game and was right there until the final seconds, and that doesn’t happen if Franklin didn’t have a quality football team. But competing against college football’s elite has never been the issue for Penn State under Franklin. Beating college football’s elite has been, and until PSU can break through, it won’t fully achieve “big dog” status.
