This Week 9 meeting with Wisconsin has become Penn State’s most important game of the year

The No. 1 priority for the Penn State Nittany Lions coming into the year was to make the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. While beating Ohio State in Week 10 at Beaver Stadium would be key to potentially winning the Big Ten and claiming a top-four spot in the CFP, in the path to the playoff, Penn State’s most important game of the season has become this week’s matchup with the Wisconsin Badgers in Madison. 

To prove it has a shot at winning the national championship, Penn State needs to beat Ohio State, but in James Franklin’s 11 years in Happy Valley, he’s done that exactly once, back in 2016, and he needed a blocked field goal to pull off the upset. So, the Nittany Lions cannot afford to put themselves in a situation where they have to beat the Buckeyes to make the CFP because, with all the parity in the SEC, 11-1 will absolutely be good enough to finish inside the top 11 (with the final CFP spot going to the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion). 

This is Penn State’s best chance to beat the Buckeyes since 2018 when Trace McSorley led the Nittany Lions to a one-point loss, but if we assume an Ohio State loss, Wisconsin then becomes the biggest threat to knock Franklin’s team out of the CFP picture. The Badgers started 2-2 with losses to Alabama and USC in Week 3 and Week 5, but since that low-point that included an injury to veteran transfer quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, they have taken off. 

Head coach Luke Fickell’s team has won three consecutive games, beating Purdue 52-6, Rutgers 42-7, and Northwestern 23-3. Braedyn Locke, Van Dyke’s replacement has filled in admirably and kickstarted the veteran passing game for offensive coordinator Phil Longo, and since star running back Chez Mellusi stepped away from the team, former Oklahoma Sooner Tawee Walker has been dominant. Across the past three games, Walker has run for 413 yards and six touchdowns. 

If the Nittany Lions get caught looking ahead to their matchup with Ohio State, Wisconsin is good enough to pull off an upset, especially after Penn State narrowly escaped a visit to USC in Week 7. Franklin cannot afford to let his team peak ahead on the schedule because, in reality, this is Penn State’s most important game of the year. Among the non-Ohio State teams left on the schedule (Washington, Purdue, Minnesota, and Maryland), Wisconsin is the best. 

Penn State fans are tired of losing to Ohio State, but the Nittany Lions can survive that loss and still make the CFP, but back-to-back losses to the Badgers and the Buckeyes would end the season. This is a must-win game for James Franklin, much more than next week’s contest.