STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Have you ever heard the sharp crunch of white gold against polished wood?
When the giant championship ring on Pat Kraft’s right ring finger hits the conference room table in front of him, the sound is unmistakable. Tear!
It is the sound of success, the sound of investment, of tradition, of history. Tear! Tear!
The melody Kraft inadvertently creates this Wednesday afternoon from his athletic director’s office, hidden in the shadows of Beaver Stadium, recalls Penn State’s latest national title. In March, Nittany Lions wrestling won the school’s 90th team championship in its illustrious history — the most, according to any school east of the Mississippi River.
And yet outside Kraft’s office window, through the fall foliage and against a blue-splashed autumn sky, a gigantic steel-and-concrete structure rises from the Pennsylvania hills as a reminder of something else: Here, football is king, and it is. no ring delivered in 38 years.
“I get it,” Kraft said as he enters his third year as athletics director. “We all sign up for it. We all come to Penn State to win national championships. I know (James Franklin) isn’t running away from it. Certainly not. That’s why I came here and why we invest. You don’t come to Penn State to be mediocre.
“Michigan won the national championship last year. Ohio State was in that mix,” he continued. “I think it’s our time.”
Penn State leaders believe they are years behind in facilities and receive no compensation for athletes, but they have caught up with the elites off the field. It operates from a renovated football facility, features a brand new dining hall, a spectacular weight room and a team of sports performance chefs, academic advisors and mental health specialists. The budget for name, image and likeness (NIL) payments – uncompetitive two years ago – is now highly competitive.
On the field, coach James Franklin is in his 11th season and making $8.5 million a year. He has averaged nine wins per year, has won a conference championship (2016) and has finished in the top 10 four times.
There is only one thing missing from the resume.
On Saturday, the gorilla that has draped the backs of those in power here for years – a scarlet-gray burden, the curse of Columbus – arrives in this city. The Ohio State Buckeyes not only serve as a barometer to predict a season, but have literally been the hurdle between Penn State and that elusive prize for over a decade.
Ohio State has won 15 of the last 18 in the series, 11 of the last 12 and seven in a row. Franklin is 1-9 against them.
“Nick Saban changed the way we look at football coaches,” said Brandon Short, a Penn State board member who played for the Nittany Lions in the late 1990s and played seven years in the NFL. “You can win a national championship once every 10 years and still be a good program. We’re having 10-win seasons, but we’ve got to get over the hump. That is why we invest in the program.”
Saturday represents that bump. While Ohio State may have the most talented roster in the country, was the Big Ten’s preseason favorite and may be the top contender to win it all, the fourth-ranked Buckeyes (6-1) are in trouble . First, they will be without two starting tackles on an offensive line that is showing signs of weakness.
Their defensive secondary was challenged in a top-five matchup at Oregon earlier this season and their offense struggled in a home game against Nebraska last week.
Is this the year that Penn State, perhaps Franklin’s most complete team of his tenure, gets the Buckeyes?
The hustle and bustle here at State College is palpable. ESPN’s “College GameDay” is here, and so is Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.” The setting is expected to be a typical Big Ten fall masterpiece. The vast hills of this place are a seasonal melody of red, yellow and orange. The high on Saturday is a chilly 56 degrees. And kick-off is at noon.
Big game, right? Franklin tries to quiet the noise; his comments point to a coach who has plastered signs throughout his building that read “1-0.”
“West Virginia to open the season was a big game. Bowling Green was a big game. “If you don’t think it was, lose to Bowling Green and see how people react,” he said Wednesday. “This is a big game because of the way we handled the previous six. We do not change anything in our process. I have no control over the noise and things outside our building.”
As much as Franklin tries to enshrine his “1-0” mantra, as much as he jokes that “they’re all big games,” this one is different — even his players believe it. Some have imagined the thrill of a win on Saturday.
“It would be a special feeling that I haven’t felt yet,” said PSU sixth-year defensive lineman Dvon J-Thomas.
Edge rusher Abdul Carter trudges the company line — “just another nameless, faceless opponent,” he said — until he doesn’t anymore. “We’re a little excited to get this win,” Carter added. “We let it slip [last year].”
For some, the skid against Ohio State is easy to explain. They had more resources and money, so they were more talented.
“Ohio State had an operating budget that was $12 million more than Penn State,” Short said. “They spent $12 million more. We have always done more with less, but it is unfair to ask staff to do that. We’ve been working to close that gap. We see results on the field.”
The real test, on the field, comes Saturday. It’s not just about the state of Ohio. Franklin can go on a different kind of streak.
He hasn’t beaten a team named Ohio State or Michigan since 2020 — a stretch of six straight losses. On the other hand, Franklin hasn’t lost to any other team in the regular season over the last three seasons.
“He really puts every ounce of himself into this program,” Kraft says.
“He’s worked his butt off in a place that’s not particularly easy and certainly not easy for him,” said a former Penn State staffer who spent years with Franklin in State College.
Those close to Franklin describe him as calculated and smart, an ultra-competitive individual who has flirted with other big-name courses over the years — think USC and Florida State — to leverage them here for more resources in an effort to to compete with the states of Ohio. and the Michigans.
He is very aware of his surroundings, sometimes startled by headlines and comments aimed at him and his program. But the culture of his team, people here say, is elitist. He cares about his players. He is passionate about it, also outside the field: academics, future development.
“I’m proud of the man he is and the leader he is of the program,” Short said. “It’s a family. That is not lip service.”
All this said, in an industry that has proven to be transient and impatient, eleven years in one place is a long time.
Coaches, even ones like Franklin, who average nine to 10 wins a year, are fired or retire with too many losses for their rivals. Take, for example, former LSU coach Les Miles, who was fired during his 12th season while on a five-game losing streak to Alabama. Or ex-Georgia coach Mark Richt, who was cut in 2015 with a 5-10 record against Florida. And what about Lloyd Carr, who retired after his 13th season at Michigan after losing six of seven to the Buckeyes?
Kraft points to Ohio State’s NIL efforts — the school reportedly spends $20 million on its football roster — when discussing the recent skid. He acknowledges that Penn State’s NIL budget is not $20 million. But it’s better than it ever was. And soon, schools will be allowed to share revenue directly with athletes in a limited system that is expected to provide more balance.
“We were literally nowhere [with NIL] when I got here,” Kraft said. “I think we are in a very good position now. I think Ohio State and the people we compete with had an advantage there. They did good things and were aggressive early.
“We are now at the point where we know we can agree with them.”
The Nittany Lions will perform in a sold-out Beaver Stadium on Saturday tear the slip? A win means better positioning to advance to the Big Ten Championship, which provides a path to a bye in the expanded College Football Playoff, which in turn sets up the schedule to come within three wins of that elusive prize: a ring.
