Notre Dame won the Orange Bowl because this program knows how to catalyze every advantage and how to tackle every challenge.

James Franklin is a good college football coach on paper. Just look at his overall stats at Penn State as their head coach for the past 11 years: 101-41 overall. Bowl appearances in all but one of his years (and that year happened to be 2020). His teams have finished top-10 in the AP poll four times.

Penn State head coach James Franklin made a few in Thursday night’s Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal — a game his Nittany Lions lost on a late-game field-goal by Notre Dame’s Mitch Jeter — but none has drawn more ire than his play-call on that game-winner.