James Franklin is heading into a big season for Penn State Football, and It should be Playoff or bust for the Nittany Lions, with the playoffs expanding from four teams to 12 this season.
Penn State never made the college football playoffs in the first ten years it was established.
Still, there is a great chance they will make the first-ever 12-team playoff this December with their roster and a favorable schedule, hosting Ohio State and going on the road against USC, Wisconsin, and West Virginia, where they should be favored in those contests.
To reach the playoffs, you must have a great coach, and Penn State Football is lucky to have one of the best coaches in the country and in the Big Ten.
Tom Fornelli from CBS Sports ranked this year’s Big Ten coaches and has Franklin at four.
Ohio State’s Ryan Day, Oregon’s Dan Lanning, and USC’s Lincoln Riley are the only coaches ahead of him.
“It’s been argued no coach’s reputation stands to benefit more from the expanded playoff than Franklin’s,” Fornelli writes of Penn State’s head coach. “Who, over the years at Penn State, has struggled to break through Ohio State and Michigan but would’ve earned numerous playoff berths if the expanded field had existed the entire time. I don’t know how different things would be because he’s well-respected already! He’s fourth in the Big Ten and 11th among coaches in the Power Four. After a couple of disappointing seasons, the Nittany Lions have rebounded to go 21-5 the last two years and are now finally free of being in a division with the Buckeyes and Wolverines. Last year: 4 in Big Ten”
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Franklin is in a great spot on this list, and Day, Lanning, and Riley being ahead of him are all spot on, but he has a chance this year to knock Riley and Day off in head-to-head matchups and could even meet Lanning in the Big Ten title game.
Penn State will be a scary team this season, and the fourth overall coach in the Big Ten might be the one that comes out on top this year.
MORE: 5 Most Important Players to Penn State Making a Playoff Run in 2024
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