By Kyle Golik
As Penn State faltered in Indianapolis in the Big Ten Championship Game against Oregon, the Nittany Lions realized you can’t beat an opponent if they don’t make mistakes or capitalize on them when they did, see Dillon Gabriel’s fumble that Penn State wasn’t able to recover that could have swung the momentum their way.
Between the Big Ten Championship and their first College Football Playoff game in program history, Penn State had to reflect on missed opportunities.
Against SMU, Penn State forced three costly Kevin Jennings interceptions, including two pick-sixes (the first time Penn State had two pick-sixes in a game since 1998 against Michigan State), as Penn State dominated SMU 38-10.
During postgame, Penn State head coach James Franklin emphasized to his staff that they needed to be aggressive in their pursuits, “I told the guys we were going to call the game aggressively on offense, defense, and special teams. I wanted them to play aggressively. I wanted Tom Allen and Andy Kotelnicki and Justin Lustig to call the game aggressively. Don’t play on your heels, play on your toes,” Franklin said.
It didn’t take much motivation or having confidence to make those calls, whether it was the fourth and 13 that saw a Drew Allar pass sail wide of his intended target or on a fourth and one, on their own 19-yard line, a botched exchange thwarted a drive continuation.
Even with those failures, Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s belief did not waiver.
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“No, zero,” Kotelnicki said if he had any surprises of the aggressiveness desired by Franklin, especially on the two early fourth down calls that Penn State did not convert. “He was totally on the board with go for it, okay. It was that simple. He communicates frequently throughout the drives of what he’s thinking and when he thinks we might be able to go for it or not. That’s something we practice daily honestly through practice and what we’re doing and our game management meeting. There was no surprise or hesitation or no, oh, oh, oh. There was none of that, no hesitation. You could see our kids too, whatever, here we go. Another play, another opportunity.”
An aggressive nature is something many Penn State teams in the past couldn’t perfect – either they were not aggressive enough or too aggressive it spiraled from them – notably against Michigan in 2022.
While Penn State maintained an aggressive nature, especially against a talented quarterback in Jennings, who entering the game led SMU to a top 25 mark in yards per play at 6.4 yards, and whom Franklin compared to the Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. To give perspective, Penn State entered the game averaging 6.8 yards per play on offense. Despite the high praise Franklin and staff weren’t phased by giving Jennings the ability to potentially burn them because of the confidence Franklin had in his defense who was giving up only 4.5 yards per play, which ranked in the Top 10 nationally.
Is this a lesson learned, or simply Franklin realizing his squad had a distinct talent and experience advantage or SMU? I lean to think his confidence is with the team he had more than a lesson learned and senior defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas would agree.
“I believe it was a mentality at the top of the week. We spoke a lot about going in and being exactly who we are and not letting the moment define us, but defining the moment. I think we did that well. I think our defense really went in very level headed,” Thomas said. “We understood that SMU was a really good team with a really good quarterback that can make some explosive plays, especially on his feet moving around… That is just a testament to us and how we approach everything throughout the week, especially Coach (Tom) Allen’s approach to this week coming off of the Big Ten Championship, adjusting to the tempo and playing through that very well. I think we just did a great job in our preparation and really examining and looking at what we did a couple weeks ago in the Big Ten Championship and improving on that.”
Oregon, who played nearly a flawless performance, made few mistakes in Indianapolis. When they did, Penn State could not take advantage of them. Against SMU, Penn State took advantage of seemingly every mistake. It wasn’t just the turnovers, but Penn State seemingly got bit by Dillon Gabriel when he shifted the pocket with his mobility and opened up the center of field or the opposite boundary.
You could sense that was SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee’s strategy to shift the pocket, spread out the Nittany Lions’ defense, and exploit an opening. It nearly worked on the Mustangs’ opening possession where they went for it on fourth down deep in Penn State territory and saw a Jennings pass thrown off target from tight end Matthew Hibner that may have changed the trajectory of the game.
The win gave Penn State its 33rd win in the last three seasons, currently only Georgia, Michigan, and Oregon have achieved that (Ohio State and Alabama could join in their incoming matchups). Another indicator that Penn State is flirting amongst the elite in college football is since 2014. Franklin – who earned his 100th win at Penn State against SMU, joined Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, and Kirby Smart as the only coaches to win 100 or more games during that span. Each of those men have national championships, Penn State’s path is favorable to Atlanta, if they finally put together the lessons of big game failures of the past it could be a championship season for the Nittany Lions.
