To Penn State fans, James Franklin should be a hero.

Penn State made the Big Ten championship game and the College Football Playoff semifinals. Any Penn State supporter would have been salivating at that prospect before the season.

The Nittany Lions were very competitive in both those games, losing to Oregon by eight and Notre Dame by three.

Social media blamed Franklin for “blowing” Thursday’s defeat to Notre Dame. But the goat that night was quarterback Drew Allar, who threw a disastrous interception that gave Notre Dame the winning field goal at the game’s death.

Franklin is 1-15 against teams ranked in the Top 5. Not good.

But Penn State isn’t a Top 5 program. Just below. Capable of competing, but almost never beating.

The disclaimer with Penn State’s playoff run is that they beat SMU and Boise State, two programs that are below the line. The College Football Playoff stupidly made Penn State’s No. 6 seed the most advantageous seed.

But you can only play who you’re scheduled to play.

It’s just a shame Penn State is scared to play Pitt.

One very important thing has happened during Franklin’s tenure at Penn State: Nobody talks about Joe Paterno or Jerry Sandusky any more.

Credit for that mostly goes to Bill O’Brien, who succeeded Paterno as coach before giving way to Franklin. O’Brien meticulously and bravely handled an impossible situation.

But Penn State is Franklin’s program. The shame has faded away. It seemed like that might never happen.

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