Dispensing Thoughts & Opinions: Penn State vs. Utah

Sponsor: For The Blogy’s 2022 season coverage was sponsored by FANATICS. Penn State 2023 Rose Bowl championship on-field hats & T-shirts (the same ones the players wore) are available right HERE.

We just witnessed one of the greatest and most cherished traditions of a sport that is, more than any other, built on them, passing into history. With Pasadena playing host to a playoff semifinal next season and the erstwhile Granddaddy of Them All set to become just another postseason venue in the years to follow, the time of the Big Ten and PAC-12 champions meeting in the Rose Bowl has officially ended. The last paragraph of that era’s closing chapter has been written, and that’s as close you’re going to get to finality right now in the volatile world of college athletics. Whether you enthusiastically embraced the Rose Bowl mystique or dismissed it as so much Big Ten navel-gazing, it’s hard to deny there was something special – something uniquely “college football” – in the annual clash of the cold-weather Rust Belt and Sun-drenched West Coast bathed in the light of the California Golden Hour before a national audience on New Year’s Day. And now it’s over.

On to the knee-jerk Thoughts & Opinions, fresh from the Nittany Valley…

• Sean Clifford’s Swan Song: The Sean Clifford era at Penn State has gone the way of the B1G/PAC-12 Rose Bowl. It’s obvious to say he leaves behind a complicated legacy, but it’s one that will improve with time and distance. For one thing, an entire class (or two) of Penn Staters knew only one Nittany Lions signal caller for the totality of their college years, and as the nostalgia for those times grows more acute, so too will fondness for the guy who took the journey alongside them. Sean leaves Penn State at or near the top of the program record books, a leader of two 11-win seasons, and 2-0 in New Year’s Six bowl games. Always a gritty warrior, he unfailingly represented the University well off the field, and he ended his career with a masterful day to win the Rose Bowl. He walked off the field to the curtain call he deserved.

• One Last Time: To quote Bill O’Brien, “Thank you, seniors.” As things went from bad to worse to still bad over the past two seasons, those trials forged a core group of veteran leaders determined to right the ship. That they stuck around for one final ride all the way through bowl season at a time when such commitments are becoming the exception makes it all the better. Credit for this thoroughly enjoyable 11-2 season, and the hopeful future trajectory that comes with it, starts with them. Beginning with Cliff and extending to Tig Brown’s big night, PJ Mustipher’s fiery energy, Jonathan Sutherland’s heady play, and many others, the group that stayed got to enjoy the spotlight for a final time.

• Run for the Roses (sorry): What a difference a running game makes. Penn State’s 2021 season fell apart largely because the Lions’ struggles to run the ball reached historic levels of futility. Enter the electric tandem of true freshmen who transformed State’s offense from the moment they stepped on campus. Nick Singleton’s instant-classic, record-breaking performance was complemented, as happened all season, by the tough and smart running of Kaytron Allen. Penn State’s offensive line, a justifiably maligned unit that finally showed serious improvement this year, deserves credit here too. The future is now.

• Tip of the Hat: To Utah and Cam Rising. Talented team, gutsy player. Rising has been a lot of fun to watch over the years, and while he was in the game, his elusiveness gave State’s defenders fits and kept the Utes right in it.

• Prayers Up for Franco: The team’s recognition of the late Franco Harris before the game was classy and awesome. Few have embodied the Penn State ideal like Franco did, and few have reached such heights of celebrity while maintaining such humility, authenticity, and genuine warmth. Thanks to Coach Franklin and the players for paying tribute.

• Penn State in the Rose Bowl: The Nittany Lions are now 2-3 all-time in Pasadena’s postseason showcase, at .500 since joining the Big Ten. It’s only one game, but those numbers somehow feel a lot better than if this one had gone the other way. Incidentally, all three losses came versus Southern Cal, so maybe the key to winning is simply to avoid USC.

• James Franklin in the Postseason: Don’t look now, but James Franklin now owns wins in half of the New Year’s Six games (Fiesta, Cotton, Rose). Bowl record isn’t everything – just ask media darling Jim Harbaugh (or media darling Bo Schembechler) – but these showcase games, especially the kind that draw big ratings, do matter. Coach is now 4-4 overall in bowl games at Penn State, but 3-1 in the NY6, and as always in college football, the most recent result is one that matters the most. Which brings us to…

• The James Franklin Narrative: All college football fans are at least a little neurotic, meaning some of the grumbling and hand-wringing around Penn State’s head coach is as inevitable as it is, at times, a little irrational. Which isn’t to say that all (or even most) criticism has been undeserved. Since his arrival in 2014, Franklin’s teams had not made it through a regular season without at least one head-scratching, face-palming, rage-inducing inexplicable loss to a team with less talent (and possibly better coaching)… until this year. Make no mistake, that is a tremendous and critical step forward for coach and program. No risk of that versus a very good Utah team, but a decisive win on the big stage to cap off the year puts him in an advantageous position with a variety of key stakeholder groups: recruits, fans, boosters, and not not for nothing, his new bosses, AD Pat Kraft and President Neeli Bendapudi. That brings us to…

• The Signature Win: Sure, it would have taken things to a different level to knock off one or both of the playoff-caliber foes in Penn State’s division, but Ohio State and Michigan made the final four for a reason. A reasonable/manageable best-case scenario for this season, coming off 4-5 and 7-6, was to win 10 games and finish strong in a big bowl. The quirks of the non-UM/OSU schedule left many critics doubting the mettle of this team, and a dominating win in the Rose Bowl validates their entire campaign and sets the stage for what’s to come. So, finally…

• Crank up the 2023 (i.e. Drew Allar) hype train: After failing to fully capitalize on the momentum of a 2016 conference championship and struggling to navigate the on-field challenges of the pandemic years, James Franklin has been focused on building toward another shot at cracking college football’s elite tier. From assembling maybe his best top-to-bottom crop of assistant coaches to returning to form on the recruiting trail, he has earned another bite of that apple, and hopes in Happy Valley over the next eight months are about to reach heights not seen here in half a decade. The momentum of this victory pours jet fuel on all of that – let’s start the party up and keep it going all the way through next year’s Rose Bowl. #WeAre