After an opening round full of lopsided games, the College Football Playoff quarterfinals brought a different kind of drama. The slate opened with Penn State comfortably taking down Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. But then, Texas survived Arizona State in a wild Peach Bowl before Ohio State shocked the nation with an eye-popping beatdown of top-seeded, undefeated Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
Each of those winners has advanced to the CFP semifinals, which will be played at the Orange and Cotton Bowls. The final matchup—Notre Dame vs. Georgia in the Sugar Bowl—has been postponed to Thursday, Jan.
2, at 4 p.m. ET in the aftermath of the terror attack on Bourbon Street .
This piece will be updated. Two things can be simultaneously true. James Franklin has an ugly history of his teams losing to top-ranked competition.
Until the Nittany Lions beat an elite opponent—think Ohio State or Oregon this season—there will be doubts. That is fair. On the other side, Penn State has advanced to the CFP semifinals after toppling SMU and Boise State.
No matter the competition along the way, only four programs can reach that stage. This is, quite literally, an unparalleled opportunity for Penn State thanks to a 31-14 victory over Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. In short: The noise around Franklin isn't getting worse.
Look, if the Nittany Lions play poorly in the Orange Bowl, the narrative around his struggles with Top Five opponents will persist. At this point of his 11-year tenure at PSU, i.
