James Franklin Sends Message to Penn State Ahead of Notre Dame Showdown
Granted, Penn State has had a relatively easy road through the first weeks of the College Football Playoff. The Nittany Lions took on SMU, the last team to earn a spot in the playoff, in the opener, and won, 38-10. And this week, it was on to the Fiesta Bowl, where Penn State beat Boise State of the lightly regarded Mountain West Conference, 31-14.
It’s a good start for Penn State, but in the semifinal, the Nittany Lions will need to be ready for a team that has morphed into a late-season juggernaut: Notre Dame, which has won 12 straight games since an unfortunate loss to Northern Illinois in Week 2. The Irish beat Georgia in last week’s Sugar Bowl, and has held its two playoff opponents to 27 total points.
They’re face off in the Orange Bowl next Thursday night. Notre Dame is favored in the game, but only by 1.5-2.0 points, according to Vegas Insider.
With that in mind, Penn State coach James Franklin had a message he put out on Friday, after his Orange Bowl opponent was final.
He wrote on Twitter/X: “Game Week! Let’s do this TOGETHER Nittany Nation. We need EVERYONE – students, faculty, lettermen, alumni, & fans worldwide – locked in on being 1-0 against Notre Dame Thursday! #WeAre (Penn State)”
A subplot for the Orange Bowl is that both Franklin and ND coach Marcus Freeman are Black, and could become the first Black head coaches to win a national championship.
Franklin had spoken about the significance of that possibility–five years ago.
“I don’t usually talk about this publicly, but my goal is to be the first African-American football coach to win a college national championship,” he said on HBO’s “24/7 College Football” back in 2019. “That’s something that’s very historic.”
