What does Penn State think of Utah football and this trip to Rose Bowl?

Los Angeles • There are a number of reasons why Monday’s Rose Bowl matchup between the University of Utah and Penn State is intriguing, but here’s just one.

The Nittany Lions are a team the Utes would likely never play otherwise, a traditional Eastern blueblood, not to mention a traditional Big Ten power.

If you’re a Utah fan, you know plenty about the Utes, but how much do you know about Penn State? Let’s learn a little about James Franklin’s team as it relates to this Rose Bowl. To do that, we enlisted the help of some journalists who cover the Nittany Lions.

Q: Utah getting the opportunity to play a Big Ten team doesn’t happen all the time, so there seems to be a lot of anticipation for that opportunity. Does that go both ways?

Johnny McGonigal, beat writer, PennLive.com: I think the perception there is that this is the team that beat USC twice this year, is the Pac-12 champion, so there’s a lot of respect, not just this year, but for what Kyle Whittingham has done over the course of his career.

Just talking to fellow media members, I think there’s a lot of understanding there, and the fanbase gets that, too.

For Penn State fans, you look at the last couple of years, not going to a bowl game during the COVID-affected year and last year the Outback Bowl. When you’re a Penn State fan, you went to the Rose Bowl in 2016, the Fiesta Bowl in 2017, and then the Cotton Bowl the year after that, I’m sure it’s tough to get up for an Outback Bowl or against a 7 or 8-win team, so playing a Power Five champion, I think there’s a lot of respect and excitement around that.”

Jon Sauber, beat writer, Centre Daily Times: “I think it’s a golden opportunity. ... For James Franklin, I think this is a big deal to get back to where he believes they should be. I think reasonable expectations for this program are to routinely make New Year’s Six bowls, and obviously when the Playoff expands, to make it when it’s 12. For the time being, this is the chance. This is a chance to catch it now, build into it for next year when Drew Aller is the likely starting quarterback. Five-star recruit, a big deal, has played well in limited time, and then, that ‘24 season, they have a real chance to easily make the Playoff and do some damage.

This feels like the start for them, and for Franklin, it’s a good way to get on that level footing after down 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Rich Scarcella, beat writer, Reading Eagle: Maybe Utah is not glamorous name-wise, but people who know football know how good Utah is.

I think the fact they’re the Pac-12 champion adds more to this as well. I know the players are really jacked up for this. Other than kids in the portal, they’ve had just one opt-out, and when we were up there talking to players about a week ago, you got the sense they were really, really excited about this.

Q: For Utah fans, getting to the Rose Bowl once, let alone twice, is a very big deal. What do you believe the perception of this Rose Bowl is for Penn State fans?

Dave Jones, columnist, PennLive.com: I grew up in Columbus, I’m an Ohio State graduate. My brother-in-law is an assistant at Michigan, my nephew was the quarterback at Maryland, I’m a Big Ten guy, and the notion that the third-best team in the Big Ten can go to the Rose Bowl, it’s not what the Rose Bowl means to me at all, and it’s kind’ve absurd.

I don’t think that is the perception of the Penn State fan quite so much. I think they’re moderately excited and, considering the last two seasons, are happy with this result. I don’t think anyone expected a 10-2 season out of this team, more like 8-4 was an average thought. They’re a little bit pleasantly surprised to be there, but not at the caliber of Utah fans.

Scarcella: The way they played defensively against Michigan, and knowing they had the lead on Ohio State with about 9:00 left and coughed it up, there is some disappointment there, but I sensed that once this happened, there’s a lot of excitement about this Rose Bowl.

That’s at least the feeling I get. I don’t know if it would’ve been the same if it was, say, the Orange Bowl, but the fact that it’s the Rose Bowl, I think that has a lot of people excited.”

Q: What would a Rose Bowl win here do for Penn State?

Jones: I think it would increase the validation of James Franklin, that he can win games against physical teams, which he has not been great at.

It’s funny, they’ve been more competitive against Ohio State until this last Michigan run the last two years. They’ve been, by far, the most competitive team in the league against Ohio State during Franklin’s tenure, but I think lately, people have begun to doubt his teams can win against physical opponents. I think that would be the most notable mark if they can beat this Utah team.

McGonigal: I think it would do a lot. ... This isn’t necessarily a breakthrough for the program. It’s almost reestablishing themselves as a program and as a school, like they belong in these kinds of games after a couple of down years. I think you look to the future, to 2023 and what’s building.

Scarcella: Penn State has only played two ranked teams, and they lost to both of them, so this is a really, really important game. I think winning the game makes it a great season, losing the game makes it a good season. They haven’t won a Rose Bowl since 1994, they’ve lost their last two games there, so this is a very important game. I think it can change the perception of this season if Penn State beats Utah.

Q: What is the local media interest like for this game vs. the regular season? Travel? Resources? How does it look?

Sauber: I think it’s going to be pretty robust. ... It’s the Rose Bowl, and that’s an easy thing to fall back on, but the history of it, people really fall in love with that and want to go out there and cover it.

There are resources being dedicated to it, and I think more so than any other New Year’s Six game would have drawn. At one point, the Cotton Bowl was possible, and I think a lot of us were wondering who would travel, but this is the Rose Bowl, it’s LA, Pasadena, it feels like resources are being dedicated to it.

It’ll look like most away games from a Penn State media perspective, if not a little bigger.