PSU needs to beat Ohio State and win Big Ten title
PSU point/counterpoint — How will you measure success this season?
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Some are saying national championship or bust this year, but that's a little over the top.
It definitely would be an improvement over 2024 for the Nittany Lions to advance to the national championship game -- and obviously be a successful season.
And with a veteran team, including a standout quarterback, the time is now as this is clearly James Franklin's best team and best opportunity to make a run at No. 1.
But there are other measuring sticks that could show growth from last season, which ended with a bitter, come-from-ahead loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinals when the Lions botched a chance to at least get the Orange Bowl game to overtime.
And the first is beating Ohio State.
Franklin's ineptitude against the Buckeyes just cannot continue, especially this year when Ohio State is reloading with a new quarterback and replacing a staggering 14 NFL draft picks.
Penn State also poached the Bucks' defensive coordinator, Jim Knowles, after Ohio State was tentative in extending his contract.
Though the game is in Columbus on Nov. 1 and Ohio State most likely will be favored, Franklin must remove his 1-10 scarlet-and-gray albatross in order for him to gain the Nittany Nation's trust -- which, to this point, he does not have because of his big-game record.
Penn State has a week off before its game vs. the Buckeyes, just as it does before its other biggest game of the regular season, vs. Oregon on Sept. 27 in the annual White Out game at Beaver Stadium.
Beating both the Ducks and Bucks and going 12-0 -- should the Nits navigate the rest of their schedule -- would represent success.
That would also land them in the Big Ten championship game, where they fell short a year ago and had difficulty coping with Oregon's speed early in the game when they dug a 28-10 hole before losing 45-37.
It's quite possible the Nits could land in Indianapolis again, and winning there would be another step, and if they could do that, they'd probably earn a first-round bye to the CFP quarterfinals.
While they benefitted from a friendly playoff schedule last year -- SMU and then Boise State -- here's where the Lions will ultimately encounter an SEC blueblood, perhaps Georgia or Alabama.
And they'll need to get past that hurdle, which would land them in the CFP semifinals -- where they were a year ago -- for this season to be successful.
We saw last year that the upper tier of college football is on an entirely different level than the second tier of teams ranked eighth through 12th.
That's especially so in the NIL era, and predictably that gap will only continue to widen.
If the Lions get to the semifinals again and lose, it likely will be to a great team of their equal.
But if that's their only defeat and they wind up 15-1 --- and they erase the demons of Ohio State and also win the Big Ten — their season will still have to be marked as a success and an improvement over 2024 when they finished 13-3.
Even if it might not feel like it.
Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.