Penn State’s James Franklin wins a big one. More big ones are coming.

By Kyle Feldscher, CNN

University Park, Pennsylvania (CNN) — By most measures of football success, James Franklin’s tenure at Penn State has been satisfying. A 100-41 record over 11 seasons, one Big Ten championship, a slew of players in the NFL.

But there’s always been one question hanging over the Nittany Lions’ head coach: When was he going to win the big one? Aside from a victory over Wisconsin in the 2016 Big Ten championship game, Franklin’s Penn State teams often came up short on the biggest stages.

In front of 106,031 raucous fans on Saturday, Franklin won one of those big ones in the school’s debut in the College Football Playoff. Now there are bigger stages with brighter lights looming.

The Nittany Lions’ 38-10 victory over Southern Methodist University lacked dramatics once the home team started forcing turnovers and the din created by the Penn State faithful appeared to get to SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings. The Nittany Lions were simply more poised and took advantage of the Mustangs’ mistakes.

That experience – in cold weather, in Beaver Stadium, in pressure games – paid off for the Nittany Lions. It led to a party in the stands that lasted most of the 60 minutes of Saturday’s game and will continue throughout the night in this scenic town tucked away in central Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains – likely indoors after conditions in University Park that made the game feel every bit like it was taking place on the first day of winter.

It was the kind of moment the Penn State community has been looking forward to for years. One of college football’s most intense fanbases, the Nittany Lions’ fans have cringed in recent years as the team has fallen just short of a College Football Playoff berth over and over. But Franklin wasn’t shy about reminding the press after the game about his track record.

“We played in a bunch of them,” Franklin said about high-profile bowl games. “Dramatic pause, so everybody can take that in. We played in a bunch of them. My family, we’re used to spending Christmas in hotels. Not everybody is.”

With the expanded playoff this season, PSU not only got into the field but won the right to host a home game. Thanks to the CFP rules, they’ve also now got a favorable quarterfinal matchup against Boise State University in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Eve. It’s a place where Penn State feels comfortable – the program is 7-0 all-time in the desert.

Any rumblings in Happy Valley over whether Franklin would be able to push this program to the heights the PSU community feels it deserves will likely quiet now. And there were rumblings – TNT Sports analysts Champ Bailey and Takeo Spikes believed Saturday’s game against SMU represented a must-win situation for Franklin.

“When you look at all the prior years, Penn State would always finish anywhere from nine to 12 in the rankings,” Spikes told CNN Sport. “This has been a high ranking to where they are now, and you’re fortunate enough to be able to get a home game. This is the thing that really puts a lot of pressure on these guys, especially Coach Franklin. When you look at where they’re slotted, they’re really slotted in a good chance … is really set up for them to have success.”

Bailey put it much more succinctly.

“He better win this game,” the Hall of Famer said. “This is it. … You gotta win this game. Yeah, his career might be on the line for this one, at least at Penn State.”

That pressure is certainly lifted somewhat off Franklin and his staff. But he emphasized that he doesn’t see the win – a milestone 100th at Penn State – as being about him specifically.

“I appreciate you bringing up the 100 wins and all that kind of stuff. But to me, I’m at a point in my career it’s all about the players. It’s all about the players, the staff, you know,” he said.

Still, offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said the win was a product of how Franklin has built the Penn State program – especially as Franklin just made history by winning the school’s first College Football Playoff game.

“To speak of the tradition of this place, to have football as long as this place has had it, to have this state in the way it is, and to do something that’s never been done here – it’s pretty freakin’ rare. It’s pretty cool to be part of it,” he said.

“Honestly, I feel like just a spoke in the flywheel that he’s created here. You know I’m the offensive coordinator, it’s an important position. But he doesn’t get enough credit for what he’s done here consistently, honestly.”

Defeating a SMU team that was the last team into the playoff field isn’t enough for the longtime head coach of the Nittany Lions.

There are still big questions about how Franklin’s teams perform under the brightest lights. At Penn State, Franklin is 1-18 against teams ranked in the top five – including a devastating 1-9 against archrival Ohio State. The former Vanderbilt head coach won’t be able to face another top five team until the semifinal round, should the Nittany Lions defeat the Broncos; both the University of Georgia and Notre Dame are ranked in the top five of the final College Football Playoff rankings.

“I don’t care what anybody says about me or my team or my coach. At the end of the day, our process is our process, and at the end of the day, the only opinions that matter are the ones that are in the Lasch (Football) Building day to day,” said quarterback Drew Allar after the game.

“… And in terms of, you know, Coach Franklin – he gets a lot of criticism that’s undeserved, and he’s done a lot, like, a lot more than people give him getting credit for. And obviously, winning, winning his 100th game is special. To be a part of that and be the team that you know is able to deliver that 100th team win to him, and to have it on the stage like the playoffs and at home in Beaver Stadium, it’s truly special. And, you know, we don’t take these moments for granted.”

But behind a balanced offense – Penn State rushed for 189 yards and passed for 136 yards Saturday against SMU – and the nation’s sixth-ranked defense, Franklin has a squad that seems to be playing its best football at the right time of year. With the playoff weight successfully lifted off his shoulders, Franklin and Penn State certainly looked like a possible national champion Saturday afternoon.

“A lot of college coaches I saw this week talking about, you know, this is a four-game season. It’s not. It was a one game season with an average of 65 plays on offense, 65 plays on defense, and 20 plays on special teams,” Franklin said.

He added, “We just extended our season one more game. Sixty-five more plays. I think we got 10 days, or whatever it may be, (until the next game) and every one of them is like gold.”

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