There is a difference between not enough and right there.
Not enough is where Penn State was after the 2023 season.
Right there is where Penn State is after the 2024 season.
For better, for worse, Penn State is right there and that’s how the 2024 season will be remembered.
After the 2023 season and Penn State’s loss to Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl, it felt like this program didn’t have the juice. It was going to have to take a hard look in the mirror and it made this fanbase wonder where it truly was.
Penn State got no closer to the idealistic “elite” in 2023.
That season did not have a signature win – even with a 10-2 record. 2023 didn’t have a signature moment – even with a strong backfield and a 5-star quarterback, players that should make those moments. There was little to take from that season other than it wasn’t enough.
Instead, there were questions about Penn State’s search for a new offensive coordinator, Penn State’s ability at the wide receiver position and Penn State’s faith in the head coach.
Now after the 2024 season, Penn State has – even with some unpreferable outcomes – flipped that feeling to right there.
Penn State was one play away from changing the feel of that Ohio State game in November, Penn State was one bad start away from beating Oregon in Indianapolis in December, and Penn State was maybe, probably one drive away from playing in the national championship game in January.
Those outcomes, for as painful as they can be, feel different.
In 2024, Penn State won 11 games in the regular season. It’s the first time in a decade and a half that Penn State has won that many games in the regular season — and the first time under James Franklin too. And yes, the one loss came to the one team that we’ve seemingly boiled down Penn State’s success to. That’s a pestering, frustrating attitude because the misery of a loss doesn’t care who the opponent is.
Losses, as a fan, sting no matter what.
Of course, no loss may burn longer than the one Penn State experienced in the Orange Bowl against Notre Dame. Drew Allar’s decision to throw the ball over the middle will haunt me, you and certainly him until it doesn’t. And for as murky as things felt for weeks after the loss to Ole Miss last season, the immediate aftermath of that throw and that outcome against Notre Dame felt far darker.
However, that doesn’t erase the fact Penn State was one successful drive away from going to the national championship game. There are 100-plus teams that got nowhere near that moment and that’s much closer compared to where Franklin’s team ended in 2023.
It took a few blasts of returning to the cold northern air to remember that too.
In 2024, Penn State was one of 12 teams in the College Football Playoff and it’s a team that gave us a memorably frigid Saturday in Happy Valley, complete with a White Out of both natural and human creation. Tony Rojas’ interception against SMU gave Penn State fans an at-home moment we haven’t seen in some time.
To get there, to all of that, to those moments, we had to see the moment where Tyler Warren snapped the ball, ran down the field and caught a ball against USC. It was career-defining play for Penn State’s now-proven greatest tight end of all time.
There was Ryan Barker’s kick to seal that victory. There was Luke Reynolds’ mad dash on the gutsiest call of Franklin’s career to seal a victory in Minnesota. There was Beau Pribula’s ability to not screw up like the last quarterback that was thrusted into a big road game, mid-game to seal that victory in Wisconsin.
All of that put Penn State closer to right there this season, and if none of — or any — of that doesn’t happen, it would rightly not be enough. Those signature moments will be – in addition to a powerful win over Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl – what 2024 is embraced by.
And yes, there will be lasting thoughts that Penn State was right there against Notre Dame. And yes, it’d be nice to see Penn State squeeze that gap even more.
But unlike after 2023, when everyone wondered how they’d get anywhere again, the program has got a real plan to close the gap – to move forward another step.
It can begin by once again solving the wide receiver situation – which was not enough in the team’s three losses this season. Additionally, Penn State will have to once again hire a new defensive coordinator – the umpteenth straight year that Franklin has had to make one of the core coordinator hires. It will have to replace All-American Abdul Carter, likely to go in the top 10, maybe 5 of the upcoming NFL Draft.
But Penn State’s roster retention, particularly thanks to Drew Allar, Kaytron Allen, Nicholas Singleton, Zakee Wheatley and Dani Denis Sutton, will give the Nittany Lions a chance to be right there in 2025 once again.
That feels different than how things felt after last January. Back then, it felt like Penn State’s collective effort was not enough.
This season, the collective effort was right there.
For better. For worse.
Thank you for reading StuffSomersSays.com and listening to the podcast all season long. I hope we made you laugh and think. If you’ve enjoyed this piece or anything else we did this season, please consider supporting StuffSomersSays.com by clicking this link.
