This Could Be Next Year

This could be next year. 

That is why we do this. It is the price you pay for being a sports fan. It’s the price you pay for being a college football fan. 

It will click next year. It will work out next year. It will happen next year. Always and forever chasing next year until it becomes the year. 

You’ve been thinking about next year as soon as that ball landed in Christian Gray’s hands. 

You’ve been waiting for next year ever since Mitch Jeter kicked the field goal. 

You’ve been wanting next year from the moment you got on a plane to head back north to the moment you saw Penn State was once again going to have to hire a key coordinator.  From the moment that Kaytron Allen announced he was returning. That Drew Allar announced he was returning. That Nicholas Singleton announced he was returning. That they made not just a hire but the biggest hire at that coordinator role. 

The offseason is always the time to think about next year because it’s always the answer to when you’re left unsatisfied by last year. 

There is always next year – even when it feels like there will not be next year.

Since 1986, Penn State fans have been chasing next year. That’s 14,118 days (and counting) of thinking, waiting, hoping, searching, praying, wishing for next year. 

That’s 38 seasons of wondering if this fall was the start of that new next year. Now for the 39th time in that journey, Penn State is on the precipice of answering whether or not this is next year. 

Because it’s been 38 years, 7 months and 26 days since Penn State last claimed a national championship, there’s a whole generation of Penn Staters out there that do not know what a next year turning into the year feels like. There’s an entire group of this fan base that has gone without a next year. 

Sure, for some teams, next year never comes. It took the Chicago Cubs 108 years to find next year. The Buffalo Bills are still chasing next year. Hell, the whole country of Canada has been chasing a next year to see one their teams lift the Stanley Cup once again for the last 30-some years. 

But the enticingness of next year, the promise of next year, the hope of next year, the belief of next year is what gets you out of bed in the morning. It’s what gets you into the tailgate lots before the sun comes up. It’s what gets you those superstitions, those rituals and those prayers. It is – above all – the underlying current that keeps a light on just bright enough to make the quest for a next year worth it. 

Fandom is fascinating because on its surface, there is little that fandom does toward the actual outcome – and if it were up to the fans, then it would become a competition of fandom creating some new cycle of next year for someone out there that if I think about more is going to make my head spin. 

But the symbiotic relationship between fan and team is just as strong of a bond as you will. Team and Fan are essential to sports and most of all, sports are essential to next year. 

In my lifetime, and yes I fall in that group that has never seen a next year, Penn State has sniffed, scratched and fought for a next year quite a few times. Maybe even more so when James Franklin rolled into town. 

But 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023 never turned out to be the year. 2014, 2015, 2020 and 2021 probably never would have anyway. 

Yet in very real ways, 2024 felt like the next year we’ve all been searching for was happening right in front of us. Even when there were questions, even when there were doubts, Penn State was at one point one play, one drive and maybe one player away from pushing the thoughts of next year away. From reaching the game that would decide if this finally was the next year.

But the ball was intercepted. The field goal was made. And now we’ve sat around and talked and thought and waited and wished for next year all winter, all spring and all summer long.

Those other years will sit. They will sting. They will linger. They will burn. But the promise of next year always makes it better.

Right now, 2025 will be more or less just like any of those other years. There’s a 12-game slog ahead. There are some number of meaningful games to be played at the end of this season. And based on everything that happened between last year and the start of the new next year, it’s possible to believe that 2025 could be special. It’s hard to deny the reasons why this year could especially be the year. It’s hard not to get wrapped up on that feeling. It’s hard not to be excited by that feeling.

But somewhere in that 12-game slog we’ll find out if Penn State’s offense can continue to get better. We will find out if the wide-receiver-room questions have finally been answered. We will find out just how and if this Jim Knowles defense can work. We will find out if Penn State can win the big game. If Drew Allar is the quarterback. If Kaytron Allen or Nicholas Singleton will break the rushing record. If Dani Dennis-Sutton can replace Abdul Carter. 

Because the next year always has the answers. 

Because the next year always tells you if you’ll have to wait for next year. 

Because without the hope of next year, we just don’t know if this will be the year. 

Because this could be next year.

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