Penn State ... not elite.
It's been more than six years since an early-season loss had James Franklin extolling Penn State as a great team "and we've worked really hard to do those things, but we're not an elite football team, yet."
Guess what? Still not.
Penn State remains among the really good but not even great teams -- and programs -- in college football.
The Nittany Lions were again reminded of their residency over the weekend, held without an offensive touchdown at home and incapable of beating Ryan Day and Ohio State for the first time ... ever.
PSU hasn't defeated Ohio State since 2016, and Day improved to 6-0 against Franklin in their head-to-head matchups.
Big Ten conference brethren Oregon, Ohio State and Indiana all will be ranked ahead of Franklin's Penn State program Tuesday night when the season's initial 12-team College Football Playoff rankings are revealed.
Conceivably, Minnesota could be a ranked team when the Nittany Lions face them to end the regular season but otherwise Penn State's going to be a one-loss team with nothing approaching a win of significance on its schedule.
Not that it's Penn State's fault that USC has cliff-dived this season. The Trojans sunk back to .500 in their last 24 games under Lincoln Riley -- Hello! That's two full seasons -- when they lost at Washington and exited Seattle 12-12 in this stretch.
Georgia continued its mastery over Florida but also continued to look vulnerable in the process. Ditto Tennessee over Kentucky, which dropped Mark Stoops to 2-10 lifetime against the Vols.
Let's add additional context on Josh Heupel quickly rebuilding Tennessee while also providing a clearer portrait of Mark Stoops at Kentucky:
Heupel has 18 SEC wins since taking over on Rocky Top in 2021, and he almost certainly isn't done amassing them this season.
That same timeframe? Stoops has 12. That's it. And when you add in that the 2020 season was the COVID-19 slate that featured an all-SEC schedule for the league's members?
Stoops still trails Heupel in SEC wins, 18-16. He has elevated Kentucky to an above-basement-floor; he has not worked miracles.
Meanwhile, Indiana -- another basketball school -- is proving a football program can overachieve, in Year 1, no less, and be a true national factor.
The Hoosiers remain perfect, are slotted 8th in the latest AP Top 25 and now can say, "Yeah, we know how to answer." They spotted Michigan State 10 points and then scored the game's next 47 in another dominant victory.
Indiana hosts Michigan this weekend and already is a double-digit favorite against the defending College Football Playoff champs. After an open week, the Hoosiers close their schedule with Ohio State on the road and home against woeful Purdue.
Win at least two of those three, and the Hoosiers will be in CFP contention until the bids are handed out Dec. 8.
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