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They all went through it, this road of gut punches and soul searching toward the college football elite.
Nick Saban still talks about the three third-down touchdown passes Florida completed to beat Alabama in the 2008 SEC championship game, preventing the Tide from playing for a national title.
Alabama then won three of the next four national championships.
Michigan lost twice in the College Football Playoff – once a rout (2021), once a humbling upset (2022) – before winning it all in 2023.
And now Ohio State, after so many near misses under coach Ryan Day, finally put it all together and won the whole damn thing.
Welcome to the grind, Penn State.
“I know how important winning is at Penn State,” Nittany Lions coach James Franklin said. “Trust me, that’s been made very clear to me, time and again.”
Close your eyes, and it may as well be Day explaining away the last three seasons. Or three months.
It may as well be Jim Harbaugh declaring Michigan will beat Ohio State, or die trying — before the Wolverines got it right.
Or Kirby Smart’s Alabama obstacle. Or Dabo Swinney finally breaking through at Clemson after the program’s near misses in big games were infamously dubbed Clemsoning.
It’s a brutal concoction of “what have you done for me lately” and “win or else.” With only one way out.
“This isn’t the end,” Penn State quarterback Drew Allar said earlier this month after the Lions lost to Notre Dame in the CFP semifinals. “We will be back.”
Franklin took a significant step late last week when he hired Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to run his defense and replace Tom Allen, who left for the same job at Clemson. Knowles led the nation’s No.1 defense in 2024, a unit that dominated four Top 10 teams in the national title run.
Ohio State’s Jim Knowles ahead of a game against…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/penn-state-hiring-jim-knowles-190619371.html
Author : USA TODAY Sports
Publish date : 2025-01-27 19:06:00
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