As our “Big Ten, big ’20s” series continues at Badgers Wire, we look at the Penn State Nittany Lions. I asked Kevin McGuire, host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast at Stitcher and a bunch of other distribution outlets, to address the biggest question facing the program in the coming decade.
This is what Kevin McGuire said:
“The biggest question for Penn State is how they will manage to take the next step toward being an elite program. Will they find ways to pass Ohio State or approach their same level of competition on a regular basis? Or will Penn State at best be a team that wins 9 or 10 games any given year and every now and then plays for the Big Ten when Ohio State stumbles?”
The Penn State-Ohio State series the past four years has been fascinating to watch. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, it can reasonably be argued that the team which controlled a majority of the game did not win. Ohio State took a 21-7 lead to the fourth quarter in 2016 before Penn State scored 17 straight points and used a blocked kick and return to stun the Buckeyes. In 2017, Penn State took a 35-20 lead to the fourth quarter but then allowed 19 points in the final stanza and lost, 39-38. In 2018, Penn State led 13-7 at halftime but lost 27-26.
This past year, we almost had the same dynamic. Ohio State led 21-0 and seemed to be on the verge of registering a massive blowout. Instead, the Buckeyes fumbled multiple times and Penn State scored 17 straight points. Was another improbable comeback about to occur in this series? Ohio State put an end to the series’ upside-down nature over the previous three seasons, shutting out PSU the rest of the way and winning, 28-17.
The good news for Penn State and James Franklin is that they outplayed Ohio State for most of the 2017 and 2018 games. The bad news is that if they hadn’t been able to block AND return Ohio State kicks in 2016, they might be 0-4 against the Buckeyes in the last four games between the two teams.
Kevin McGuire is right to say that figuring out the Ohio State problem is at the forefront of Penn State’s challenges in the coming decade.