There are a lot of places to start with this one. So we’ll start with the bad, because I know how you’re feeling.
If you remove the method of defeat - a rollercoaster of moments culminating with a field goal just long enough to think something might go wrong, and just close enough to know that something probably wouldn’t go wrong - Penn State fans are left with he sum of all fears.
That sum, originates from a few different places.
There’s the fear that Drew Allar, who has shown exceptional promise, will never quite deliver on those high expectations. This is maybe a bit unfair to the overall career and season he has had and the moments created by his arm and legs. Allar had as much to do with Penn State getting to the semifinals as anyone.
But over the course of the playoffs Allar lacked the sharpness he showed against lesser teams. On Thursday night he delivered a handful of good throws, but he was not the steady hand the Nittany Lions needed to balance out an effective night on the ground. While watching him throw for 1000 yards [fact check needed] against Kent State is entertaining, his differentiating attributes were supposed to come in play during games like these.
Instead, Allar found himself unsettled, throwing across the field with the same kind of chuck-and-pray that Sean Clifford drew so much ire for. Allar’s greatest strength historically had been avoiding those throws.
For fans there’s also the fear that this won’t change. For whatever mental and physical challenges Allar might need to overcome, there’s also the reality Penn State played that entire game without a receiver catching a single pass. For all of Allar’s self-inflicted woes, it’s an unimaginable waste of his talents that Penn State has yet to field a receiver even approximating the level needed right now. And while the transfer portal can bear fruit, it would take a pretty significant eight month turnaround for the status of that room to markedly improve.
In turn, there is a very real starting point of offseason evaluation that operates under the assumption that Allar could be without his elite tight end, without some or all of his elite running backs and without any established No. 1 target to work with. Whatever steps he takes on his own are TBD, but Allar - and by extension Penn State - doesn’t head into 2025-26 with fewer questions. He heads into it with more of them.
There’s also the fear that it might not ever happen.
If you’re a Penn State fan there’s little reason to think national semifinal appearances will be the annual norm. In turn, it is an uncertain future when it comes to how often Penn State will get this close to the national title. If the residual Friday morning sting hits fans hardest anywhere right now it might be this. Penn State has lost big games before, they come with the territory. But there is no promise of these types of big games in the future. While it seems unlikely that a historically good and historically consistent program like Penn State will miss out on its fair share of title shots over the years, when the next one will happen is unknown.
These two things alone provide fans and the program with a different kind of day-after mourning. While somewhat arbitrary Ohio State et al games come and go each year. Those games are scheduled. Title shots are fleeting and earned. It might sound overly dramatic, but there’s a legitimate chance that Penn State fans who have longed for experiencing another national title will leave us before that happens again. In turn, Thursday night was the passage of a different kind of opportunity.
But..
There’s also a lot of reasons for fans to find some optimism. Ironically, for all the Big Game James criticism, this was a well managed season by James Franklin who saw Penn State through wins over Washington, USC, at Minnesota, at Wisconsin at West Virginia. The Nittany Lions also beat Boise State, SMU and played Oregon as close as anyone on just a week’s notice. The assistant coach hires were shrewd and Penn State’s only losses on the year came to two superior teams and peer in the final seconds. Even against Notre Dame, Penn State played pretty well and had a plan that worked. The execution simply lacked when it was needed the most.
Washington is a good measuring stick in all of this in its own way. The Huskies were bottom feeding Big Ten contestants just a year after losing in the national title game. A lot of things led to this fact, but in an ever changing and dynamic world of college football, Penn State stands to be as well positioned as ever before.
So who knows really - that’s why they play the games after all - and maybe Thursday night’s game won’t be so rare after all.
I’m just tired, Ben. I’m tired of losing these games in seemingly the only way that leaves me feeling like we we’re better but blew it.
But I’m also so overwhelmingly tired of being the laughing stock of the general discourse, despite so much quantitative and, frankly, common-sense evidence that this is a great program. To me it seems like a team like this Penn State team would be something of a darling to neutral fans; one that the public would generally root for and sympathize with when we fail. Instead, it feels like we’ve somehow become trapped in this weird, pseudo, anti-underdog, “you’re closer than everyone else but not good enough so you’re actually an even BIGGER loser because of that” vortex. It’s so discouraging as a fan to have to constantly weather this when trying to engage in this hobby.
I’m just tired. And I’m tired of Franklin getting so blatantly disrespected — by prominent media members now too — by exploiting lazy narratives, despite running a very successful and clean program in a very difficult era to do so. I want so badly for him to have the moment he deserves. I truly hope it’s still in the cards for him, for all of our sakes.
Appreciate the level-headed perspective and not aligning with the sensationalism that has taken over football (and all) media. That’s not meant to sound as dramatic as it does, but you get it.