Penn State gotten themselves to the college football national semifinals. They still have a tough road ahead if they want to win a national title, but this is nice for a program who has continually come up short in big games in recent years.
The Nittany Lions clearly had a significant talent advantage against Boise St, especially on the lines. The big question was how much of an impact could Heisman runner-up Ashton Jeanty have on the game. As it turns out the Nittany Lions were more than capable of slowing Jeanty down making him only average 3.5 yards per carry.
Penn State opened the game masterfully on offense. In their first two drives they dominated up front with the run game, but then used the pass game to get their touchdowns with two beautiful back of the end zone passes from Drew Allar.
Penn State kept trying to be cute on offense though and failed to truly pull away from the Broncos until really late. They averaged over 7 yards per carry, but passed the ball way too often when they could have controlled the game on the ground.
Either way, they took care of business and now are staring down their biggest game in the James Franklin era. Sure, some Ohio State games have been huge, but a game to get to the National Championship has never been in the cards for this program in the 21st century.
This current playoff format was almost tailor made for Penn State. After years of missing out on the 4-team playoff but still ranked highly, the Nittany Lions have broken through in part because of how the seeding played out.
Ohio State is way better than Boise State and Arizona State, but they were ranked four and five spots below those teams. Despite earning a first-round bye, Oregon had to face the Buckeyes in the quarterfinal and got destroyed to end their season.
Penn State, on the other hand, lost to Oregon in the Big Ten Championship. Yet they got to play two clearly inferior opponents to get to the semifinals. The only problem for Penn State is that they typically struggle when they go against teams that they don’t already have a significant talent advantage.
This has been a successful season for them, but how they perform in the semifinal against Notre Dame will further show whether Penn State is able to keep up with the top tier of college football.
Notre Dame and Penn State have been very comparable programs over the last decades.The Fighting Irish have made the 4-team playoff twice in 2018 and 2020, but they got stomped in each appearance and have generally been regarded to be below the elite of college football, just like the Nittany Lions.
These teams have recruited very similarly and have about the same talent available. They each have strong rushing attacks, with capable passing games as well. Defensively, both teams rank inside the top 10 nationally.
This is very much a toss-up game that will help define the narrative surrounding the team. Beating a prestigious quality program like Notre Dame to reach a national championship game would be the biggest moment for the program since at least the 1994 season, even if they fail to win in the title game.
They haven’t beaten Ohio State or Oregon, but the Nittany Lions still find themselves in the best position they could have hoped for. It’s a huge opportunity.
