Column: Consistency at issue as Penn State fights to take next steps

The nod from Penn State head coach James Franklin was subtle, but one that was unmistakable earlier this offseason. Speaking to reporters following the Nittany Lions’ Blue-White Game in April, he was asked about the team’s personnel at wide receiver and his comfort with it.

At the heart of his response, Franklin expressed his faith in the players thanks to their “talent and ability.” Crediting the receivers for having taken a step in the spring, he noted that another would come through the summer months through hard work.

But, needing to translate that development into on-field production and, in turn, wins, Franklin put words to two interlinked concepts that will come to define the Nittany Lions’ 2024 season.

“We have the talent in the room,” he said. “The reality is, we gotta take this next step, and we gotta do it on a consistent basis. And we gotta make plays against all the people on our schedule.”

Talent + consistency = success

If it’s possible for 37 words to summarize the sentiment surrounding the Penn State football program for the past two seasons, at least, Franklin’s comments cover all of the bases.

Talent has been plentiful, with the Nittany Lions having sent 14 players to the NFL Draft over the past two cycles. Left tackle Olu Fashanu and defensive end Chop Robinson were the program’s two first-round selections, but professional talent was plentiful in the form of tight ends Brenton Strange and Theo Johnson, defensive backs Joey Porter Jr., Daequan Hardy, Kalen King, and Ji’Ayir Brown, offensive linemen Juice Scruggs, Caedan Wallace, and Hunter Nourzad, plus Sean Clifford, Adisa Isaac, and Parker Washington.

Only Georgia, Alabama, Michigan, and TCU had more players selected in the 2023 NFL Draft. Only Michigan, Texas, Alabama, Florida State, and Washington had more players selected in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Accordingly, the results for the Nittany Lions have overwhelmingly matched. During the 2022 season, Penn State produced a bounce-back from its disappointment of an injury-plagued 2021 campaign with an 11-2 record, a Rose Bowl win, and a No. 7 final ranking. And, Franklin’s outfit followed it with a second consecutive double-digit win season, finishing No. 13 at 10-3 after falling to Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl.

It was the program’s fifth season with 10 or more wins since 2016. That, of course, includes a 2020 COVID year with only nine games on the regular season schedule. Propelling the Nittany Lions into their current crossroads ahead of a much-anticipated, quickly approaching 2024 season, Franklin’s publicly acknowledged takeaways have been front-and-center since April.

Though worded differently each time, the onus of progress has evolved from what he first inherited at Penn State. The Nittany Lions have put in the work over the past 10 years to transform a program burdened by NCAA sanctions into one of the nation’s most consistently achieving in college football. Every opponent is worthy of and demands full attention, but the elites, finally, are being acknowledged as a specific hurdle to clear.

Finishing the past two seasons with statistical outputs placing the Nittany Lions ranked No. 19 in scoring offense in 2022 (35.8 points per game), and No. 12 in 2023 (36.2 ppg), and No. 10 and No. 3 in scoring defense, respectively, productivity has been plentiful. In 20 wins spanning two seasons, Penn State has outscored its opponents 836-245, or 41.8-12.3 points per game.

Meanwhile, in five losses, a starkly different picture emerges. Scoring just 20 points per game, the Nittany Lions have produced painfully inefficient offensive performances while the defense has allowed 33.4 ppg. With a nearly two-touchdown differential, Penn State hasn’t been especially close to knocking off its vaunted Big Ten rivals, Ohio State and Michigan, which have accounted for four of those five losses.

All four of those games have been FOX Big Noon kickoffs. All have pitted the Nittany Lions, ranked anywhere from No. 13 to as high as No. 7, against four teams ranked among the nation’s top five. Under those pressures, Penn State has wilted, creating a specific equation for Franklin and the program to solve this offseason.

“We’ve got to play our best when our best is needed most, in the biggest games, at the biggest moments,” Franklin told reporters at Big Ten Media Days in July.

Next steps for Penn State

For Franklin, the program’s players and personnel, and especially its fans, more is desired beyond what’s already been accomplished. Well-understood to be a program that would have benefitted the most from the new 12-team College Football Playoff format had it existed for the past decade, Franklin has outlined the path necessary to get it.

Hammering the day-to-day, practice-to-practice, period-to-period, meeting-to-meeting consistency that the best players in the best programs deliver each season, the Nittany Lions have spent the past eight months rallying behind the idea. Ahead of a campaign with the highest hopes inside and out of the program, it’s a next step Penn State is determined to deliver.

“We’ve been very, very consistent. One of the most consistent programs in the country,” Franklin told the BTN earlier this month. “But at a place like Penn State, the expectations and standards are very, very high.”

“We want to do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position to get into the playoffs. But not only get into the playoffs, get into the playoffs in an advantageous position, whether it’s a bye or whether it’s a home game to start the run.”

The post Column: Consistency at issue as Penn State fights to take next steps appeared first on On3 .