Some players, you talk to when you need information. Some players, you talk to when you need a good one-liner, or a little wisdom, or even just a bit of perspective. That’s just the way it has always been in this business.
But for this column, we need some old-fashioned honesty.
So when it came to determining the state of Penn State’s football program as it heads into the 2014 season finale against Michigan State, I went to Jordan Lucas.
“We’re going to be good,” he said. “I truly believe that.
“But it definitely takes a lot of patience. Sometimes, things don’t go your way, and we can do two things about that: We can run and hide from our problems, or we can face the problems and work so they can get better. But that takes patience.”
It has been difficult to see at times. But I believe Lucas. This team has played 11 games and been blown out in one of them, and it’s the second-youngest team in the nation. It’s not a stretch to think things will get better based on those two facts alone. Give them time to learn how to win, and Christian Hackenberg and DaeSean Hamilton and Akeel Lynch and a slew of underclassmen on the offensive line will figure it out.
Give him time to pitch the program to the best talent he can find, and James Franklin will recruit to a level Penn State fans haven’t seen in a decade or more.
This program is going to be OK. Better than OK.
Penn State is just 6-5, but it has plenty to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving, for sure. The sanctions that affect the program most, now and in the future, are gone. It can hand out scholarships and play in bowls and for championships, just like anyone else. They lost a talented young coach and replaced him with someone who was in some circles considered the most sought-after college coach last offseason. Nothing in Penn State’s control has exactly gone wrong, in the face of unprecedented issues.
I just wonder if there’s a vast contingent of fans out there who may have forgotten all of this.
What has become clear as this season has gone on, especially after the losses of course, is that the expectations Penn State fans have for this program in the present are frighteningly off-line with where the program is, in reality.
This is a program very much in transition. Fans certainly do not like the NCAA sanctions, nor do they believe for the most part they were fair. But they happened. That’s reality. Not liking something doesn’t mean you can ignore the existence and the impact. And the scholarship reductions have had a very, very real impact on this year’s team.
In the hours and days after the 16-14 loss to Illinois last Saturday, it was quite honestly stunning to read some of the comments sent to me through my Twitter account. One suggested Penn State should not be allowed to go to a bowl because it couldn’t beat the Illini. Some advocated firing Franklin. Many others were willing to give Franklin another season, as long as offensive coordinator John Donovan got the axe. The general theme, courtesy of one poster: “How long is PSU going to let these coaches waste this amount of talent?”
Wait... “this amount of talent?” Really?
This is a team that spent half the season developing offensive linemen, and the coaching staff has done an admirable enough job getting them to the point where they can be praised for simply being at times adequate. And all but one of them are returning next year, and most of them beyond that.
The quarterback is a sophomore, and sure, he’s going through some difficult times, but his talent is immeasurable. Akeel Lynch has finally developed into an every-down back, and he has two more years of eligibility left. The receiving corps is Eugene Lewis and a bunch of freshmen, and none of them are even close to finished products yet.
There’s a foundation on offense. It’s inarguable. Everybody agrees the defense is going to continue to be pretty good, led by some solid young pass rushers and a secondary that can be one of the best in the nation as early as next year.
As Lucas said, it’s just going to take some patience. Every sports fan wants their team to constantly be rebuilding with young talent — be it through recruiting in college football, the minor league system in baseball or the NFL Draft in pro football. But it takes a special kind of arrogance to expect you’re going to rebuild a program without growing pains.
Penn State fans — a good amount of them, anyway — are acting like this program was competing for national championships year in and year out. Even if that was the case, getting better doesn’t work that way, people. You don’t rebuild with one recruiting class or one new coach or one offseason of work.
“Am I disappointed? Yes,” Franklin said. “But with where we were at numbers-wise, being banged up and having lost some guys, not having the consistency we need across the board...”
He paused.
“I want to get it fixed as badly as anybody,” he concluded. “I truly do.”
For his part, Penn State’s straight-forward junior cornerback knows the perceptions. Lucas knows what fans care about and what they don’t. Ideally, they’re the same thing players care about. You have a chance to win the game every time you strap on the helmets, no matter what. And Penn State hasn’t won enough games to consider 2014 an unqualified success.
“We don’t ever feel sorry for ourselves, and we don’t want anybody to feel sorry for us,” he said. “We’re, what, the second youngest team in the nation? Who cares? Nobody cares about that.”
The reality is, people should care. They should, at least, be fair.
Talented young teams typically find ways to do two things: Compete, and lose. The Nittany Lions weren’t beaten so much by Ohio State or Maryland or Illinois this season as they were by the reality that this was a time to grow and learn.
They don’t have to accept it, but guys like Lucas are smart enough to realize that. Their fans should have such wisdom.
Contact Collins at
dcollins@timesshamrock.com or @psubst on Twitter.