Game Coverage

PSU point-counter: What makes successful season? Giger — For Franklin, it’s win a postseason game

Commentary

By Cory Giger

For the Mirror

It's time for "Little Game James" to grow up and take the next step in his coaching development.

We need to see "Big Game James." And we need to see it in the College Football Playoff.

James Franklin, who has spent his Penn State tenure beating the teams he's supposed to beat while losing most of the biggest games, needs at least one playoff win this year for the season to be considered a success. Simply making the playoff won't be enough.

Why?

Because just about everyone already expects Penn State to make the playoffs. So, if all the program can do is simply meet the baseline expectation that people already have and no more, then at some point we need to be honest and say that's just not good enough.

Especially -- and I cannot stress this enough -- with this year's Penn State roster.

Franklin has his 5-star quarterback in Drew Allar, perhaps for one final year. If Allar plays well and has good draft stock, there's a very good chance he'll turn pro.

Any junior running back who's good at all should turn pro rather than come back and get his body beaten up in college for another year. Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen fall into that category, and there's a good chance one or both of them will be gone after this year.

If Franklin can't deliver a playoff win with Allar, Singleton and Allen on board together for perhaps a final season, then he would have squandered an enormous amount of talent.

Alas, the receiver situation still could be a mess, so that might derail the Lions' hopes. And Franklin will carry the lions' share of burden for allowing that to happen two years in a row.

We're in a completely different era now in college football with a 12-team playoff, an era when coaches will be judged heavily on the playoff.

For some schools, simply making the field will be enough, sort of like smaller schools getting to the NCAA Tournament in basketball. They're so happy to go dancing, it doesn't matter if they lose in the first round.

But for a program like Penn State, just getting into the football playoff won't be enough. It should NEVER be enough.

The Lions have to win at least one playoff game more often than not, and occasionally make a run with two or more wins.

Here's the problem as I see it this year:

n I have Penn State going 10-2, losing to Ohio State and one other game. At 10-2, the Lions would go on the road in the playoff -- and that'd probably be a loss.

In essence, then, I'll make the case that Franklin's most important task is to win every other game besides the likely loss to Ohio State, thereby finishing 11-1 and getting to host a playoff game. I believe they would win that, giving Franklin a coveted big victory.

Penn State should be favored in every game besides the one against the Buckeyes. So, "Little Game James" just cannot afford to blow one of those other games, and if he succeeds, then he would give himself a tremendous opportunity to finally take a step toward proving he can become "Big Game James."

Cory Giger is the host of "Sports Central" weekdays from 4-5 on 96.1 Hank FM.