Pressure on Penn State, James Franklin to win in College Football Playoff with star-studded roster?

Intro hello everybody it is Friday in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania my name is Adam Bitner assistant sports editor for multimedia at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette joined for our relaunched Penn State football podcast ahead of the new season by Joel hos uh who is the football editor at the daily Collegian my old job um from a long long time ago and uh also our post cazette intern um Joel it's nice to introduce you why don't you tell everybody about yourself a little bit uh yeah so like Adam said um I'm the football editor for the da daily Collegian it'll be my second year covering the team I'm from Northern Virginia so you know out of State student um grew up as a Virginia Tech fan actually but um yeah I mean I'm excited to join the podcast and get started talking about Penn State football absolutely we're going to be Big Picture talking about some big picture stuff today um Can Penn State win in the playoffs not just make them I think there's an expectation that you know around State College around the state that um you know this is going to be a pretty good team that's going to have a good chance to be in this expanded 12 team college football playoff field but what happens once they get there and what should those expectations be um we're going to get into that because frankly we don't have a ton to talk about because media day is not till this weekend uh when players coaches are going to be giving their um Spiel on the season ahead Joel's going to be there so we will be breaking that all down next week on the podcast but today going to keep it a little big picture um before we do just want to thank our sponsor we're glad to have back for a second season um here on the podcast voodo brewing and State College enjoy the world renowned craft beer delicious cocktails and their Almost Famous lobster rolls at Voodoo Brewing State College Pub located right off College Avenue at 322 uh in Route 322 at 2011 mwood Street State College uh voodo Brewing Company state college has something exciting going on every day the week join them this fall on Mondays for weekly free play cornhole tournaments or test your knowledge with the pub trivia every Tuesday at 6 Wednesday is their game night featuring board games card games and adult games every Thursday your boy dots hosts fingo but this is not your Nana's Bingo Saturday they will have the nitty lions and college football all day and they finish things off on Sunday with their weekly brunch paired with Steelers Eagles Red Zone coverage can't wait to see you at the voodoo Brewery pub in State College all right Joel I've been playing the new college football game a fair amount I bought an Xbox just to like get my hands on it because I played it a bunch when I was in college uh more than 10 years ago um and you know it was it was a fun way to you know engage with the sport and now it's back and I think that thing that has has stood out to me the most is that it's still really hard to win the national championship even if you make the playoff you you could still be three four wins away it's not like you know in recent years where hey if you're in the final four if you're instantly in a semifinal um you can play your best game of the year and be 60 minutes away from a national championship that's kind of gone away you got to be a consistently good team you got to beat three or four good teams to get there so my question for you is do you think this Penn State team has the juice to win in the playoffs and not just get in um I think that's kind of the bar for a lot of people is can Pence state get in the playoffs but I look at you know their history they've proven they can be one of the 12 best teams in the country I think the question is can they take a step above that and just because the bar is being lowered for the playoffs I don't know that that necessarily is going to make people happy if if you're losing in the first round and basically in the same spot in the sport where you were before yeah I think you bring up a good point there uh even though the playoffs expanded and one of the talking points of the expanded playoff is that it allows more access for teams you're going to obviously see teams that have never made the playoffs before getting an opportunity but does it necessarily make it easier to win a National Championship and I don't really think it does just because now you have to win even more games if you do make it to the playoffs because we've seen over the past few years A Team like TCU can have a good regular season you know maybe get lucky in a semi-final game and then make it to the National Championship or a team like Cincinnati you know a group of five school that can make it to the playoff and you like at the 12 team playoff now that path becomes even harder for a school like that to kind of sneak into the playoffs and then you have to win you know three or four potentially games to make it uh into the national championship game so for Penn State yeah I mean I think everyone's familiar with the statistic that I think five of the last 10 Seasons or something like that they finished in the top 12 and would have made the playoffs had it been a 12 team structure before but uh you know obviously never made it with the four team playoff got pretty close a few times um so yeah I mean going back to your original question can Penn State win in the playoffs um I don't think the current team the way it's constructed the roster the talent level everything like that is capable of winning a national championship this season I do think they can win games in the playoffs one or two games depending on kind of how it plays out um I know they're favored in 11 of their 12 games with Ohio State being the only game where they're not favorites um and even that's a pretty small spread just mainly because pen state gets that game at home um I think it's just a few points right now so pen state if they go 11-1 should probably secure a top you know maybe the number six spot we'll say which would give them a home playoff game for the first round of the playoffs and I think they can easily win that matchup uh but then after that it gets tricky just looking around the landscape of college football you got teams like Ohio State Oregon Texas who just have so much talent who have stacked better recruiting classes than pen State um and just have been there before and have kind of proven their ability you know to make the playoffs and make National Championship games and things like that so I think for Penn State realistically it's possible for them to win a game especially if they get a home playoff game because you know the atmosphere they talked about it a little bit at uh Big 10 media days Pat craft and Franklin both talked about it the potential of you know a playoff white out and the kind of atmosphere that that would be um and I think that would really give Pence a big Advantage uh if they were to host a playoff game and I think they could easily win a game like that uh but then moving on to the next rounds I just don't know if Penn State has the ability to match up well against other teams and another thing I go back to is just the struggles that pen state has had against big teams under James Franklin uh just the inability to you know really beat top five teams with the exception of that one Ohio State game in 2016 well yeah I I kind of want to get Expectations into expectations now are you setting you know one win as as the expectation and anything above that as gravy or do you look at you know I I'll be honest I look at this roster and you have Nick Singleton you have KRON Allen you have drew Aller a guy that people have spent years being excited about at this point um didn't quite live up to the expectations last season but you know it was his first year as a starter and you'd hope that's the biggest step he's going to take right is from year one as a starter to year two um Julian Fleming coming in a guy Penn State missed on initially but who can really upgrade this wide receiver core uh Abdul Carter All American Buzz I mean they have a lot of pieces Joel that that you would think you know on on some level you'd want Make Some Noise with the this team while these guys are here because you don't know when you're going to have a core that kind of pops up that's this that solid again yeah I mean Penn State I would definitely say they're kind of trending toward a peak right now just given that 2022 recruiting class that had a lot of the guys that you mentioned with you know Aller Singleton uh Allen uh Deni Dennison Abul Carter guys like that they definitely have a lot of guys who are probably not going to be with the team next year so this does kind of feel like you know make or break you know do or die type of year but I just look at the classes that they had after that with 2023 and then the 2024 class coming in this season I don't know if they have enough and again they've had good classes everyone knows that Franklin's a solid recruiter um and got you know some good Recruiters on the staff as well but just compared to some of the other top teams in the sport talent-wise Penn State isn't able to match up I I mean you look at you know the average class over the last three or four seasons in Penn State's probably around 10 to 12 something like that so Talent they're not going to be able to beat their their opponents just through Talent they're going to have to do it you know by out scheming them and I don't know if they're capable of doing that again a big question mark is Andy cot Nikki and maybe he's able to elevate the offense kind of above their talent level to kind of you know punch above their weight class but you know until we really see that from him I'm not sure if I'm you know willing to predict that right now yes Seth and I talked a lot about the wide receivers I think that's going to be the big question in terms of skill right because you've got you've got the guys at running back I think you've got the guy at quarterback um you know he'll have to prove more this season but I think you know if if anyone's G to do it you it just feels like it's going to be Drew Aller um the question is is he gonna have the weapons to work with and I think that's where Andy cotel Nikki really comes in can he get more out of that group um than they did last season um do you consider the Peach Bowl in this conversation at all um Joel listen it was a meaningless exhibition you had a fair amount of opt outs but I've always said well that was the team that that's going to compete this season and they got beaten pretty badly by a very good old Miss team um you know that couldn't really stop their passing game I mean those are the guys that you're you're going to see do you look at that game and say that's the kind of team Penn State's going to need to beat to advance in like you mentioned a home playoff game it's not gonna be a cupcake coming in there it's going to be a very solid team um or do you just say hey you know that game is is from a different era um you know there's there's not a lot can take from it um you know who knows what the intensity level really was in the locker room um after Penn State fall short again of its goals last season um I I think it matters a little bit I'll I'll give my opinion first um like I said I would have liked to see them play better in that game I don't think you necessarily have to win um but I think it was the way that they lost the way that they approached you know a matchup with a team like that um you know it's a little bit concerning no granted you're going to have two new coordinators in here and it's be a whole different show but um you know that's the type of game we would have liked to see Penn State win at the end of last season yeah I mean definitely and the peach bow you know this year is go is going to be a playoff game so you know kind of looking at it through that L you know last year Pence would have been in the playoff against potentially miss but um yeah I mean I think an important point to note is just the amount of opt outs that they had and not even the op us because there were you know players who opted out but then there were several players who started the game and then didn't play in the second half or we kind of basically on Pitch counts for that game um so it was a really limited team and not only are you missing players but you're missing some of your top players you know the guys who are heading off to the NFL and things like that so pen state was definitely not at full strength for the game and I think the difference would be if it was a playoff game penate I don't think you would see those opt outs I think those guys would would have all played in that game and played you know start to finish uh the full game just because it's a playoff game and you have that potential of when a national championship game so I think that is one of the benefits of the expanded playoff uh because personally I'm not a fan of the expanded playoff which I think puts me in the minority but one of the benefits I can admit is that it does give uh you know or it does reduce the amount of opt outs I think players are going to be more willing to particip to participate in these bowl games knowing that they have a chance at the national championship afterward yeah I am definitely more so on the fan side I think it opens things up and I think it avoids um you know for for what was most of the the four team era you know you had the team that was the top dog in the conference and then other teams just didn't get nearly that oxygen I think my big criticism of the four team was primarily the way ESPN treated it um and how it was like the only thing that mattered I remember watching the the non-bcs or not the non-playoff um New Year six games last year including the peach bow but also including what was it the cotton ball with Ohio State and missou and they just didn't talk about the game that was on their Air at all they went straight into into breaking down the matchup of the playoff games um hopefully there's less of that hopefully there's more talking about these games that that lead into who's going to make the 12 team format because it was just so frustrating to to watch those teams at the top just get so much oxygen not because I you know was particularly invested in whether Penn State was that team that was winning or anything but because you know you want to see a little bit of diversity and and not um you know consolidation of the sport which is why I think the four team era r um Joel I want to talk a little bit about the Big 10 championship game because I think the I think a lot of people are saying that the conference championships are not going to matter um again having done a couple playthroughs with the 12 team format not having to play that first round game is a huge cheat code to me and it's worth wanting to win the conference Championship um the the thing in the Big 10 now is that you no longer have the divisions you have you know the top two teams are going to meet in Indianapolis record-wise and then by TI bre ERS um do you think the conference Championship is going to be easier or harder for Penn State to win this season than it's been in years past because I mean there is a path because you don't play Oregon where you could go 11 and one but lose to Ohio State and you know lose the tiebreakers to both Ohio State and Oregon and end up not getting to go to the conference Championship even though you had that 11 and one season that seemed to be so elusive to Penn State for these years under James Franklin yeah that's a really good question because you're getting rid of you know the infamous East and West divisions where you had Ohio State Michigan Penn State playing each other every year and if you're Penn State at least recently that's kind of two guaranteed losses but now you kind of avoid that you still get Ohio State this year like you mentioned but you avoid Michigan with you know the loss of Divisions they also don't play Oregon this year so I would actually argue even though the four you know Pack 12 former Pack 12 schools that they're adding do raise the level of the conference raise the level of competition I would still say Penn State has an easier path this year than it has had in the past this is probably Penn State's easiest path to the Big 10 championship game in a long time probably since they made it to the Big 10 championship game against Wisconsin back 201617 um so yeah I mean I think just the way the schedule played out this year and based on what we've seen from Penn State historically under James Franklin where they're able to beat the teams that are worse or you know underdogs and then they're they lose to the teams that are favor to beat them um I think if they continue that Trend they'll finish this season 11- one which you know in years past we keep hearing the 10 and two 10 and two Franklin always getting stuck uh kind of behind Ohio State and Michigan in the sings um or maybe getting upset by another team but for the most part you know you've seen Penn State kind of struggle against Ohio State and Michigan and avoiding Michigan this year avoiding Oregon like you mentioned um I think kind of clears a path for Penn State to an 11 and one season which would potentially put them in I mean I believe Ohio State and Oregon play each other during the regular season so one of them will have a loss and I think it would come down to tiebreakers if pen State finishes 11 and one but that's still an easier path than years pass against both Ohio State and tiebreakers Michigan it's just it's just scary though Joel I mean yes it's technically an easier pass but can you imagine how furious people are going to be if Penn State finally gets over the hump wins 11 games and still doesn't get into the conference Championship Net game now granted at 111 you're locked to get into the playoff um probably get a nice home game a nice matchup but um boy yeah it's it just feels like Russian Roulette where at least in the East Division you kind of controlled your own destiny right and you kind of eliminate Michigan and Ohio State from your path and then once you got to the conference Championship the East won every year you know and so all of your big games you know were in the regular season so I I wonder how it's going to play out because you're right they could go 11 to1 win the tiebreaker we don't have to have this conversation at all but they could lose that tiebreaker and people could be infuriated that they don't get a chance to play for that playoff buy um which is why you know people would argue should take care of business against Ohio State at home finally um one other thing I just wanted to add I'm a little you know I think it would be better for Penn State program wise if you had Michigan on the schedule this year because they're coming off of losing a lot of guys from that National Championship team most of their starters on offense I think this is a year you would have liked to see Michigan maybe see them in September um and and get that monkey off your back a little bit nationally I think that would give you um some needed Buzz um but I think you'd rather avoid Michigan in maybe one of these subsequent years where they're not reloading um so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out with the Wolverines as well um you mentioned the Pack 12 teams that are joining the Big 10 this season um justes facing you know three out of the four USC UCLA and Washington um does it give Penn St had any kind of Advantage if it has to play against an Oregon for a conference Championship um just because they'll get used to preparing for these new teams um week in and week out and and maybe other teams wouldn't necessarily get that Advantage um and then when you get to face Oregon you're kind of used to the rig Ro of of gearing up to face these new teams in a way that maybe other people aren't um yeah I mean so I actually think that Oregon out of the four pack 12 schools is the best suited to transition to the Big 10 because they've done such a good job recruiting in the trenches I think they're really they're really you know Stout offensive defensive lines and so I think they're honestly they kind of match up with the traditional Big 10 teams better um as opposed to like the Washington USC UCLA who I think you know a little bit more pass heavy maybe a little smaller lineman things like that so pen so for Oregon specifically I think it'll be a little bit different than any of the other Pack 12 teams that Penn State faces during the Reg season so I think if you're Penn State you're kind of Lucky to to avoid Oregon this year um I think they'll be one of the top two or three teams in the sport uh this season and get the other three teams which and we've heard from some of the play some of the players um kind of their excitement actually I know Devon Ellies was talking about you know getting to host Washington UCLA at Beaver Stadium how they're gonna have to get used to the cold um he was kind of talking about you know how he anticipates them struggling to kind of adapt to the chain weather and the environment and things like that so he was excited he was really excited to get them in Beaver Stadium um but as far as preparing for Oregon I think just Oregon has kind of elevated itself to a tier above the other Pack 12 teams where it's it is good enough in the trenches to be competitive in the Big 10 so it's kind of different um than the other Pack 12 team so I don't know if Penn State will be necessarily prepared for a potential match up against Oregon yeah I think it media days would just do you think it helps to to face those teams more than facing Indiana Michigan state every single year um you know I think that'll be interesting to see play out and if it if it helps them preparation wise or you know it'll be interesting to see if things cut the other way and one of these Pack 12 teams finds a way to trip Penn State up because they throw some things at Penn State that they don't traditionally see um Joel was did you hear anything at Big 10 media days that intrigued you and and that you're possibly looking forward to hearing more about this weekend at at Penn State's local media day um honestly I didn't think there was too much uh importance that it was kind of a whole lot of nothing James Franklin does a really good job of that where he he talks a lot but doesn't really say anything um I think the biggest takeaway that I got from Big 10 media media days was just that Abdul Carter will be kind of transitioning more of a hybrid role between linebacker and defensive end he previously switched from linebacker to defensive end but now Franklin went kind of went back on that and said he'll be on a week- toe basis kind of going back and forth uh which makes it a little bit harder to game plan for opponents which is kind of a benefit for Penn State just because he's your most dangerous player on defense and having that extra element of uncertainty where it's harder to game plan for him makes him even that much more dangerous um so I think you know that kind of benefits Abdul um but yeah as far as you know notable things I heard from Frankton I didn't think there was too much important important stuff being said a lot of it was kind of just recapping things that we already knew because there were you know media members from other schools that were asking him questions that the Penn State beat members already knew that we've already asked him um but they weren't aware of so a lot of it was kind of just recapping things that he's already said players to talk to are there any guys you're looking forward to talking to um at Penn State media days specifically guys that you know maybe we didn't get to hear much from in the spring or haven't heard about what they've been up to all summer um because this is really the the Christmas Day for reporters at Penn State where you get access to pretty much everybody for the only time all year otherwise they there's you know you get whatever group of four or five guys Penn State gives you for the rest of the season um are there any guys on your list that you're walking up to First oh yeah no I mean it's great because you get the entire roster pretty much except for the Freshman but you can choose whoever you want to walk up to and you know there's way more players than there are reporters so you can usually get kind of a one-on-one and really get a chance to kind of dive in um but yeah one guy that I'm excited to talk to is alavian Collins quarterback who transferred in from Mississippi State not this offseason but the offseason before and um I think he's a really interesting case Franklin actually brought him up at Big 10 media days as a player to look out for that he thinks nobody's talking to so all right if Franklin you know said I don't think anyone's talking about this guy well I'll go ahead and go talk to him at Penn State media day I kind of figure out what's going on there obviously it's kind of a crowded room um at quarterback in a deep room as well bringing in other transfers AJ Harris Jaylen Kimber and then the guys that you return as well um but Franklin has brought him up now multiple times as a guy that he thinks is kind of underrated heading into next season um and he was a guy that last year I thought could maybe make an impact didn't end up seeing the field really at all um so I'm kind of interested to see what we what Pense gets from him this season how much of a contributor he can really be this year white out well look forward to hearing your thoughts on him and everyone else at Big 10 media days or excuse me just regular Penn State local media days I'll get you out of here on this Joel um I didn't get a chance to talk about this on the podcast because we weren't really taping for the last couple months since Seth graduated um what do you think of the white out decision I you know I I think that this is Penn State's biggest rival now it's the fox television network which has been trying to CR shoehorn the pen biggest Penn State Games into noon and kind of force Penn State's hand into giving them the the spectacle of a big noon white out Penn State reluctant to do it for you know what is this the third or fourth consecutive year they're saying nope we're we're not giving this to you fox sorry um I know they were very complimentary of fox you know at Big 10 media days both patcraft and James Franklin but do you sense that there's any kind of resent of of you know this this big noon culture that that fox is trying to cultivate in the Big 10 which is I think antithetical to what not just a lot of Penn State fans but I think a lot of big 10 fans like to see their teams in prime time too yeah 100 perc um I think it's pretty hilarious honestly that fox will repeatedly take Penn State's biggest games put them at noon you know kind of kind of um and then Penn State will retaliate by saying well you know what we're not going to give you the white out um and then obviously you know when they're in public they're going to be you know saying nice things about each other but behind closed doors I think they hate each other and I think it's kind of funny that they kind of refuse neither side really uh is giving any ground up there with you know Fox refusing to give Penn State its biggest games at night Penn State refusing to give Fox the white out um but you know given what Penn State was dealt you know Ohio State game being at noon obviously that would have been the easy number one choice um but I think if you eliminate that I think Washington is probably the second best option so I do think Penn State made the right decision there just because you know they played in the national championship game last year so they still bring that kind of prestige of you know one of the top programs in the sport even though they're losing pretty much everything I mean all their coaches all their players um everything like that and so for Penn State it should be a very winnable game but also a game that comes against a pretty Marky opponent and opponent that you have some recent history with with you know the bowl game and everything like that um so I think that does bring some juice to Penn State and it's also going to be fun I think just to have Washington experience a white out for the first time you know kind of a welcome to the Big 10 moment you know here was a white out against Penn State yeah I just wonder why fox is like ratings battle listen I understand the whole concept of um taking a a game you expect to lose to the SEC in terms of the ratings battle and sticking it at noon and I don't necessarily have a problem with that I don't have a problem with Penn State West Virginia happening on big noon Saturday because if you try to put that game up against a couple of ranked SEC teams or whatever you know Alabama has going on in week one I can see the problem with that what I don't believe that Penn State Ohio State is going to lose the ratings battle um you know in a white out game that's that's the game that the whole country is going to be watching why can big noon not be flexible enough to say all right this week we're going 8 PM um we're gonna go head-to-head and then we're gonna go back to the big noon slot next week um you know and they'd only have to do it like once a year because we know they're going to play Ohio State Michigan at n anyway because that's that's the traditional spot for that game um you know I'd like to see them find of Common Ground where you can accommodate having Fox get the white out but also not playing it at noon um I also had this question do you think that Washington game is going to be a night game because it's November it's and it's not like you know November 1 it's November 9th it's the following week it's going to be starting to get pretty cold and traditionally the Big 10 does not like to have those games you know Prime Time night games in Big 10 stadiums in November I think that's changing a little bit but um you know do you think that's going to be more of a 330 slot that bleeds into the night time but kicks off during the day or do you think they're going to do what they have to do to get that game on NBC at night yeah I mean I think it was Audrey Snyder who reported that it wouldn't be a noon game it would either be 3:30 or 7 um so we know that you know regardless it'll be at some point dark and I mean anyone who's been to Penn State knows that you know 3:30 pm. in November it's probably it's probably already getting dark um so the second half of that game will probably be pretty much a night game anyway um and that's really what pen State's aiming for just that VIs ual aspect um it looks great on TV it looks great for any recruits who are in attendance just having that you know the black sky with the white all white uh you know jersey shirts everything like that clothing um but yeah I mean I think regardless 330 or S uh you're still GNA get at the very least half of the game played you know in the dark um and so Penn State still kind of even if they get stuck at 3:30 it'll still have the same kind of impact I believe uh as you know at 7 or 800 p.m. kick um so regardless of you know what the kickoff time ends up being I think pen state will be okay there from the visual aspect we'll be interested to see how that plays out we'll be interested to see what you get from Big 10 media days Joel looking forward to having a little more nuts and bolts to talk about next week get a little get more individually focused talk about some of these players that we're excited to see in 2024 um Joel thanks for stopping by everyone else uh please stay tuned to the channel we're going to have a lot more from Steelers training camp uh Christopher Carter's on the Northshore Drive later today on Friday um we're gonna have lots of content all weekend coming in from the guys out at Camp Jerry duac Brian backo ra atalo um so make sure you're subscribed make sure you like the video If you enjoyed it help us out in the YouTube algorithm we always appreciate that uh we will talk to you again next week thank you for checking out this content from Post cazette sports if you watch this video on YouTube please like the video and subscribe to our channel for all of the sports coverage the Post Gazette has to offer visit postgazette.com [Music]