Penn State football head coach James Franklin knows that, like any other bowl game, his team cannot take Memphis lightly in Saturday’s Cotton Bowl Classic.

“Mentality in bowl games is critical. You see it every single year,” Franklin said at his press conference during his team’s media day on Thursday. “I think the first thing is talking about [mentality].”

Perhaps Franklin is putting a much more public emphasis on mindset and mentality because of last season’s Citrus Bowl defeat to Kentucky. The Nittany Lions lost by a final score of 27-24, but the Wildcats jumped out to a 27-7 lead with a third-quarter surge despite being a 6.5-point underdog. Kentucky was a great team last year, but Penn State came out flat as its opponent picked up a program-defining bowl win.

It’s probably unfair to say that Penn State didn’t show up at all in last year’s Citrus Bowl (exhibit A: the team’s 17-0 run in the fourth quarter), but Franklin has made sure to emphasize the respect his program has for this year’s bowl opponent much more than he did last year.

“This is the biggest game in Memphis football history, in my opinion,” Franklin said. “New Year’s Six bowl game, all those types of things. We’ve discussed that. It goes back to the healthy respect that we have for our opponent. Our guys have prepared well, but we better be ready for a dog fight.

“There’s a bunch of examples that we’ve shown to our players — examples of a Group of Five team playing power conferences — and some of those games not going as people anticipate.”

The most famous recent Group of Five upset of a Power Five team is probably UCF’s Peach Bowl triumph over Auburn in 2018. The Knights qualified for the New Year’s Six bowl after a perfect 12-0 regular season and conference title win over Memphis, and they declared themselves national champions after finishing with a 13-0 record following a 34-27 win over Auburn in Atlanta.

Franklin’s program, on paper, is far superior to Memphis in terms of talent. Penn State’s last three recruiting classes ranked among the top 15 in the nation, while Memphis’ have checked in at No. 56, No. 81, and No. 67 in the nation, respectively. The Nittany Lions are favored to win Saturday’s game by seven points right now.

Despite all that paper talk, anything can happen in college football. That might be a cliché used by every FBS head football coach at one point or another, but it’s true — and Penn State’s players are well aware of that fact.

“They’re a very aggressive and a really good team,” wide receiver KJ Hamler said. “We can’t slack with them. They have some really good players on defense — I know their safeties are pretty good, so I’ve been studying them a lot.”

“They’re not a team to sleep on. They’re a 12-1 team, so they’ve earned a lot of respect,” All-American linebacker Micah Parsons added. “We’ve prepared to win every game, and whether it’s Ohio State or Alabama, we come in with the same mentality.”