LOS ANGELES -- The last time Penn State played in the Rose Bowl, it produced one of the greatest college football games you'll ever see.
James Franklin gets reminded of that from time to time by USC fans, and he has a comeback line prepared for the situation.
"I seem to always run into USC fans, and they talk about what an unbelievable game it was," Franklin recalled Sunday morning. "And I say, 'Yeah, it was unbelievable. Could have been a little better.'"
Penn State lost that epic game, of course, to USC, 52-49, to end the 2016 season. Still, to this day, it really doesn't even matter in a lot of ways what the outcome was, because anyone who watched and remembers that Rose Bowl knows it was a thrilling and special contest.
Will we see anything close to that in Monday's matchup between Penn State and Utah?
Well, we'd all be lucky if we do.
"We expect to have a great football game," Franklin said during the coaches' press conference Sunday morning. "I think it's going to be a four-quarter game.
"There's been great games already during this bowl season, especially the last couple days, and I expect this to be another one."
There are many similarities between these two teams, which has been a primary topic of conversation all week leading up to this game. I'll have more specifics on all that in my Kickoff preview tomorrow.
But there's no doubt these two teams and coaches have great respect for one another, and rightfully so given the status of each in college football at the moment.
"Honored to play Penn State, a storied tradition, a steeped-in-tradition program," Utes coach Kyle Whittingham said. "Absolutely a complete football team. You watch them on tape, strong at every position group. Without question the best defense we've played this year."
Whittingham has been Utah's head coach since 2004 and has done terrific work with the Utes, who are in their second straight Rose Bowl.
It's easy to forget with the passage of time, but Whittingham actually was considered a potential candidate to succeed Joe Paterno at Penn State back in late 2011. Whittingham's name came up in some speculation, and it might have been more than just speculation.
CBS Sports reported back then that Penn State officials had contacted Whittingham about the coaching position in December of 2011. Whether things went very far at all cannot be determined, and Bill O'Brien got the job a month later.
But that's how good of a coach Whittingham was considered to be 11 years ago, and his name has frequently been brought up in connection with other jobs since then. Yet he has remained at Utah all this time.
How different might things have been at Penn State had it hired Whittingham years ago? First, there's no telling how he would have handled the craziness after the scandal and the NCAA sanctions. But from a sheer football standpoint, the fact that the current Penn State and Utah teams are so very similar in style does kind of indicate, to a degree, what Whittingham would have at least tried to build with the Lions.
It didn't happen, though, and Franklin has been extremely successful during his tenure at Penn State, finishing in the top 12 of the College Football Playoff rankings now five of the past seven years.
Things certainly have worked out well for Utah and Whittingham, as the Utes have been a consistently strong program for many years, and now have the back-to-back Rose Bowl appearances.
"For our program to get back-to-back Pac-12 championships was a huge step in the evolution of our program," Whittingham said. "Very proud of our coaches and players for what they accomplished, and now we get the opportunity to play in the Rose Bowl Game, so we're excited about that."
Winning this game would be big, obviously, for either team. But just like with Penn State back when it lost to USC in 2016, there can be great value just in getting to a Rose Bowl, as long as you put on a good show and play a great game down to the wire.
Whittingham nailed it in that regard when he said, "I can tell you right now, the season is a success regardless" of the game outcome.
"For our program to be able to go back-to-back from where we started when we joined this conference 11 or 12 years ago was a big step in the right direction."
And certainly, from Penn State's perspective, getting to this game after going 11-11 over the past two seasons is a huge step forward. This season is already a success for the Lions regardless of if they win, but there's no doubt that beating a top 10 opponent would be some delicious icing on the cake.
"Getting here is one thing, and it takes a tremendous amount of hard work and perseverance and a plan and really doing it from the time the season ended last year," Franklin said. "But obviously both of our programs want to try to finish this thing the right way.
"We both are going to have momentum going into next year based on what we did and what we have on our current roster. But obviously being able to get a win to end the season, there's not too many programs that are able to end their season with a win. We'd like to be one of them, and obviously being able to do it against a really good opponent, I think that's important, too."
NEWS AND NOTES
• Franklin said running back Keyvone Lee will be available to play in the game. He only played five games this season because of injury.
• Left tackle Olu Fashanu will be a game-time decision for the Lions. He missed the final four games of the regular season with an undisclosed injury, but already has announced he will return next season as opposed to entering the NFL draft.
"We've had conversations with him and his family," Franklin said. "Part of Olu making the decision to come back was also about him being physically ready to play but also mentally ready to play. He does not want to rush back from this injury, and that was really what was discussed."
• Franklin was asked what he's most confident about with his team and gave a great answer.
"I've just been so impressed with our leadership," he said. "Obviously everybody spends a lot of time talking about culture, and I'm just really proud of our veteran leaders on our team in a day in college football where I think it's more challenging than it's ever been.
"So, to have those strong voices in our locker room, the way our guys have handled the entire season, the way our guys have handled opt-outs compared to programs nationally, compared to our program last year. We had a number of opt-outs last year. We have had very honest, transparent conversations, not only from Penn State's perspective and our football program's perspective but also their perspective and their futures. I think that's really important.
"I'm proud of our leadership, and not only what they've done this year but really the legacy that they're going to leave with the locker room and the right way to do it."
• The topic of college football teams providing mandatory weekly injury updates came up, after Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff had mentioned that possibility last week.
That would be wild and pretty crazy for the league to do, if no other leagues are doing the same thing. Whittingham said just that when asked Sunday.
"I really have no strong opinion either way as long as it's a level playing field and everyone is doing the same thing," he said. "If the Pac-12 has that and no other conferences do that, I'm against it. But if the NCAA as a whole goes that direction, like the NFL, and the NFL system seems to work very well, then it's not a problem at all.
"Right now our stance is with no injury report requirement or anything, why would you tip your hand at all, the guys that are available and not available. ... If it's just the Pac-12, that wouldn't make sense because that's a strategic disadvantage in my opinion."
