It’s been a tough year for Penn State football, but the Nittany Lions still managed to make history Saturday afternoon by winning their 900th game.

Following the 23-7 win over Rutgers, Penn State is now the eighth college football program to earn 900 victories over the course of its history.

The Nittany Lions may be 2-5 in 2020, but there’s no denying what they’ve been able to do over the past few years and in their history as a whole. Since James Franklin took over back in 2014, he’s led the Nittany Lions to three New Year’s Six Bowl appearances and three bowl wins overall.

The head coach even discussed some of that history at a press conference last week.

“We have to own this season,” Franklin said Tuesday. “We have to own it, but this is not the totality of who we are.”

Franklin mentioned some of the Nittany Lions’ successes over the past few years, including a Cotton Bowl win, Fiesta Bowl victory, and the 2016 Big Ten Championship.

“You can win for four seasons at a level as high as anyone in the country, and then during a season that’s been challenging on our world and a year that’s been challenging on a world, it can change quickly,” Franklin said. “And for me to sit here and say that’s not hard — it’s hard.”

There’s no doubt that this has been a tough year for plenty of people, including those involved with Penn State football. The Nittany Lions, including Franklin, have struggled without their families, and players have been forced to opt-out or miss this past season. Journey Brown, for example, saw his football career cut short due to a heart condition discovered this offseason.

As hard as this year has been, this weekend’s milestone serves as a reminder of just how far this program has come.

When Joe Paterno was fired back in 2011 amid the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal, it looked like the football program may never recover. The Nittany Lions faced heavy recruiting penalties and weren’t allowed to play in a bowl game for the next three seasons.

Bill O’Brien was hired to help manage the Nittany Lions through one of the most turbulent off seasons in college football history, and he managed to lead them to an impressive 8-4 record. Penn State couldn’t play in a bowl game that year, but an eight-win season was much more impressive than most folks expected that team to produce that year.

O’Brien remained in Happy Valley for one more year, but the Franklin era soon began in 2014. Since he took over six years ago, Franklin has totaled a 58-28 overall record at Penn State, including some of the most memorable wins in program history.

For starters, the Langhorne, Pa. native led the Nittany Lions to their signature victory over then-No. 2 Ohio State back in 2016. Along with that, Franklin has won a Big Ten Championship, took that same squad to a Rose Bowl, beat Michigan three times, and pulled off several other seasons that most fans likely never even dreamed of back in 2012.

Penn State fans have high standards, as they absolutely should, and a 2-5 record is far from ideal, to say the least. As the Nittany Lions reach this milestone, however, now is as good a time as ever to remember what this team did for so many years and what it’s done recently despite some unprecedented challenges.

2020 has been a less than stellar season, but let’s not forget what this team could do in the years to come.