STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — About a dozen Penn State football players of the past and present have been given the same distinction by James Franklin. Trace McSorley, Saquon Barkley, Miles Sanders, Sean Clifford and Drew Allar are among those who at one point in their collegiate careers were referred to by the coach as Steady Eddy.
It’s a term of endearment coming from Franklin. These are the players who don’t get too excited after a win and aren’t down for too long after a loss. Whether in the weight room or the huddle, the staff knows what they’re getting from their reliable Steady Eddys.
Advertisement Consistency is key when evaluating teams and players. It’s what the coaching staff has spent the last month looking for with Penn State’s receiving corps. Who does more than just flash? (By the sounds of it, Harrison Wallace III checks those boxes.
) Who consistently makes plays and creates problems for the defense? (Wallace, again, seems to be that guy.) As Penn State begins another college football season, the Nittany Lions, themselves the Steady Edddys of the Big Ten, should at the very least go 10-2. Yes, 10-2 is my pick, and I can sense some eye rolls to go along with it.
Truthfully, one could’ve picked 10-2 for Penn State in each of the last five years and it would’ve always felt about right. That’s not a bad thing as many programs would love to realistically be in contention for a College Football Playoff spot. Does this year’s 10-2 pick feel too safe? Is it too much of the same for your liking? I picked 11-1 last year and learned from my mistake.
I won’t stray from 10-2 again until proved otherwise. GO DEEPER Ranking Penn State's games from least to most threatening to CFP hopes Five times during Franklin’s 10 seasons Penn State has finished the regular season 10-2. Penn State hit that double-digit win total faster than anyone thought with an 11-3 campaign in 2016.
That set the bar too high too soon. That’s what one Big Ten championship and a star-studded roster with a human highlight reel at running back can do to everyone. However, playing in the heavyweight Big Ten East, where games against Ohio State and Michigan were annual occurrences, was largely to blame for Penn State’s regularly going 10-2.
Add in a freak lightning delay in East Lansing in 2017, a career day from Minnesota wide receiver Rashod Bateman in 2019 and a slow start to the season in 2016, and each season where Penn State could have achieved more was often met by a missed block here or a fourth-and-5 play call there. Advertisement Each of the last two seasons, as Ohio State and Michigan again upended Penn State, 10-2 regular seasons were solidified. Oh, how this program has needed this expanded Playoff.
The beauty of this season’s 12-team Playoff is twofold for Penn State. The Nittany Lions play Ohio State this year, but they do not play Michigan — at least not in the regular season. The Nittany Lions can get used to this because at least through 2028, Penn State will not play both teams in the same year.
The other benefit is if Penn State does what it’s become accustomed to doing under Franklin — keep in mind its only had one losing season under Franklin and that was in 2020 — then a 10-2 Big Ten team would likely make the Playoff. Don’t get dejected about the idea of 10-2, at least not now when the 18-team Big Ten is going to make the nine-game conference schedule challenging for everyone. Penn State recognizes there’s a chance this season to do more with this roster than what’s transpired in the past.
“There’s no sugarcoating it. We gotta get in,” running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider said this month. “We can’t just say 10-2.
Ten-2 may not be good enough. We got to go win. We got a schedule that we feel like we got an opportunity.
” For once, thanks to the elimination of the Big Ten East division, Penn State has a path where 10-2 feels like the bare minimum. Ohio State has reloaded better than any team this offseason. An October stretch with games at USC and Wisconsin will test this team.
Next Saturday afternoon in Morgantown is not the place to try to ease into a new season. I’m penciling in a slip-up against Ohio State and somewhere among those three. But, in a sport where windows of opportunity open and close quickly — now more than ever thanks to the transfer portal — Penn State’s best players are entering their third season.
Members of the coveted 2022 recruiting class — with Allar, Abdul Carter , Dani Dennis-Sutton , KJ Winston, Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen — are in the spotlight. Advertisement They sound like they’re ready for the challenge, too. “We’ve been talking about this for years,” Dennis-Sutton said this week.
“I think our class was obviously different. Since our freshman year we had a lot of starters, which doesn’t happen often. .
.. We’ve been waiting for this.
Now that we’re the upperclassmen we have control of this team and we’re expecting ourselves and demanding that we take that next step and go to the Playoff.” GO DEEPER What we've learned about Penn State this preseason: Are the explosive plays improving? Penn State fans have been waiting for more, too. With each long walk out of Beaver Stadium, after those season-defining gut-punch losses pointed to 10-2 once again, there’s a real chance for this season to be different.
Maybe the consistency this program has shown under Franklin will be rewarded with a Playoff berth this season. Once in the field, anything can happen. That’s what makes the 12-team format so much more interesting.
If nothing else, Penn State knows how to go 10-2 even with a tougher schedule and when doing so with a less talented roster. This season more than ever Penn State knows exactly what it needs to do. (Photo: Matthew O’Haren / USA Today).
