Take Two: How close is Penn State to being elite?
MORE: Looking back on Week 5 in college football | Five weird things
Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.
THE STORYLINE
A passionate James Franklin opened his post-game press conference with a strong speech and an important message for his Penn State team: They’re great, but they’re not elite.
Minutes earlier, the Nittany Lions lost for the second-straight year to Ohio State by one point. For the second-straight year, Penn State blew big second-half leads to the Buckeyes.
“The reality is we’ve gone from an average football team to a good football team to a great football team and we’ve worked really hard to do those things,” Franklin said. "But we’re not an elite football team yet. As hard as we have worked to go from average to good, from good to great, the work that it’s going to take to get to an elite program is going to be just as hard as the ground and the distance we’ve already traveled. It’s going to be just as hard to get there.
“Scratch and claw and fight. Right now, we’re comfortable being great. And I’m going to make sure everybody in our program including myself is very uncomfortable because you only grow in life when you’re uncomfortable. We are going to break through and become an elite program by doing all the little things. Lose by one point this year, lose by one point last year. You make that up by all the little things – by going to class consistently so the coaches don’t have to babysit you and we can spend our time developing you as men and as people and as players and not be babysitting little things.
“Don’t get me wrong: Our guys do a great job going to class but there are two or three guys. It’s all the little things, it’s all the little things that are going to matter. And we’re going to find a way from being a great team, which we are, just so everybody is crystal clear, we’re a great program, we lost to an elite program, and we’re that close. We’ve gotten comfortable being great. We will no longer be comfortable being great.”
Penn State is clearly one of the best teams in the country. It had Ohio State all but knocked out Saturday night for the second-straight season but couldn’t close the deal. Are the Nittany Lions that close to being elite or is it not that easy?
FIRST TAKE: NATE BAUER, BLUEWHITEILLUSTRATED.COM
“The definition of elite is probably going to be debatable, but I don't think there's any doubt after the game against Ohio State, plus the result of last year's game between these two teams, that Penn State is knocking on that door.
“It's a recruiting cycle short of having that straight-through situation where juniors and seniors are starters, save for the rare exception of a phenomenal freshman or sophomore, which turns over to the next four- or five-star kid ascending with experience. And it's probably not quite where it needs to be in a few other areas - i.e. facilities upgrades, staff salaries, etc. - to immediately jump out as a top-five destination program. It's close, though. Truly, the strides the program has made in just the past few years have been significant.
“And I think that the issue with some of Franklin's comments Saturday night is that they are all true, but are not really the immediate cause for another one-point loss to a top-10 team. Looking at Penn State's four most recent losses – USC in the 2016 Rose Bowl, at Ohio State and at Michigan State last season, and now Ohio State this season – all were games that the Lions held leads going into the fourth quarter. In three of those games, Penn State held double-digit point leads. And in those four games together, the margin of defeat has been a combined eight points.
“Saturday night, Penn State lost because its offense lived in Ohio State’s territory in the first half and came away with six points on four trips inside the Buckeyes’ 40-yard line. Penn State lost because its defense couldn’t make the adjustment to Ohio State’s offensive adjustment toward screen passes in the second half. And Penn State lost because it ran the ball directly into a wall of Ohio State defenders on 4th and 5 with the game on the line.
“Franklin isn’t wrong about the drum he’s pounding. If Penn State fans, administrators, and those within the program want 'elite,' that is what 'elite' looks like. And maybe he just decided the rawness of the moment was the most effective time to hammer home an issue that he’s mostly reserved to Coaches Caravan interviews in the summer months. But if the question is about why Penn State lost to Ohio State by a single point Saturday night, the answer isn’t as all-encompassing as the issues Franklin stressed in his post-game press conference.”
SECOND TAKE: MIKE FARRELL, RIVALS.COM
“It’s difficult to be elite when there is already an elite program in your conference and especially in your division. If you can’t beat them straight up especially when you have a lead like that then you’re not going to go from great to elite.
“Can Penn State do that? I’m not sure. Elite programs go to the playoffs. Elite programs win national championships. Ohio State has done that, Alabama has done that, Clemson has done that in recent years. Those are elite programs. For Penn State to get there, it really would have helped for them to win Saturday night and they blew it.”
