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It’ll Just Be Easier If Penn State Makes The College Football Playoff

Way-too-early thoughts on 2024 ahead of Blue-White Weekend. (Photo via GoPSUSports.com)

I recognize how problematic it is to let my mood be impacted by college football – or sports in general. 

After all, as Jerry Seinfeld once said, it’s just laundry. 

But I’m too far invested into this. You’re too far invested into this. Even if you can remove yourself, there’s always going to be a small part of you that lets your psyche be impacted by sports. You might let it impact your mood for five minutes, a few days or roughly 14 weeks in the fall and then some.

That is also why we turn to them to cheer us up and bring us community. They make us feel.

So that’s how we’re getting to the next point. 

It’d just be easier if Penn State makes the College Football Playoff this season. 

I’d feel better about all of this and so would you.

The season is still more than 140 days away and of course, Saturday’s Blue-White game will mean nothing, tell us nothing and provide nothing more than a chance to find that sense of community. 

But it’d just be easier if the 2024 season works out that way — with a trip to the playoff that is. 

It’s not that I don’t think they can because I do. In fact, I think they will but yet the persistent dread of things not working out quite the way I want them to is always lingering over me, which again is a part of being a sports fan. 

People are hungry around these parts though. And maybe I’m starting to catch a bit of that hunger. Penn State is squarely stuck in the top 15 programs in the country. It’s rattled off back-to-back 10-win seasons. The data is there.

So that’s also why Penn State making the playoff makes sense. It’s now 12 teams big. Penn State’s schedule is slightly more favorable than most years. And yet the idea of them missing the playoff causes just a little-bit-more-than a little bit of a sense of angst. 

In typical overthinking-millennial fashion, I’ve thought through the outcomes way too much and that’s what’s been on my mind as we get closer to Saturday’s preseason meaningless kickoff. I have thought through the comment sections, message board posts and conversations people will be having if Penn State misses the playoff. I do not want to see that reality. 

Some of that is also how toxically entitled parts of Penn State’s fan base have handled the failure of the Nittany Lions’ back-to-back 10-2 seasons, a much better-than-most résumé over the last few years (and certainly one that would have been appreciated in the early 2000s), but still not good enough for some. 

The other part is, well, I’m hungry for Penn State to make the next step. And I think that’s a valid concern for anyone who does let this team impact their emotions. 

Missing the playoffs would be a sign that we’re not seeing progress, particularly with this core. Last year was frustrating. Drew Allar wasn’t quite the Drew Allar we’d thought he’d be. Penn State never found its explosive knack the way you wanted it to. And if James Franklin and company can’t make the most out of this core – or even keep it as a top 10-ish team – then…

OK, see, there I go again starting to spiral. 

For much of Franklin’s tenure at Penn State, his team has been a top 10-to-15 team, which is where Penn State needs to be to make the playoff in the now-expanded era. 

There’s also every reason to believe that Allar will take that next step. He’s talented. You saw it in flashes – including on the first drive of the season. He’s also certainly smart enough. On defense, Abdul Carter is still one of the best defensive players in the country – and the last time a No. 11 essentially played defensive end for Penn State, it worked out quite well. 

Even Penn State’s wide receivers can’t be that much worse than last year – plus they should be more healthy than last season – a year when the offense still put up 30-plus points nine times, 40-plus points five times. 

Some of that sentiment is also what made last year so frustrating. You could see it. You could taste it. And then an overthinking offensive coordinator went so galaxy-brained in the two biggest games of the year that I quite literally ripped hair out of my head. 

Franklin of course fired Mike Yurcich – the first time he’s fired anyone in the middle of a season – and hired Andy Kotelnicki this offseason. The former Kansas coordinator’s offense put up those metrics that we – and the head coach – wanted to see. 

Other concerns this year include a deep secondary departing for the next level. Penn State replenished it from the transfer portal. The team also lost maybe the best offensive lineman to ever protect a quarterback in State College. But once again, Penn State’s offensive line will have depth to it – something Franklin’s best teams didn’t always have. 

There are reasons to find a belief as a fan. 

And that’s why we do this. We enjoy the risk-reward of fandom just enough to keep coming back, keep paying attention and keep sowing roots into this concept. It doesn’t mean we can’t get upset. It doesn’t mean we can’t be hungry for more. It doesn’t mean we can’t have an existential internal crisis about it. 

It’s just that for my – and your – mental state it will be much easier if Penn State makes the College Football Playoff this year.

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Darian Somers
Darian Somers is a 2016 graduate of Penn State and co-host of Stuff Somers Says with Steve. You can email Darian at darian@stuffsomerssays.com. Follow Darian on Twitter @StuffSomersSays.

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