Dodging the Pain
With the siren song of the 2024 Nittany Lions once again bewitching a tortured fan base, the bumpy road to past perfection reminds us that the pain of disappointment isn’t inevitable.
Sponsor: FTB’s 2024 Penn State football coverage is sponsored by the Sports Medicine specialists at Concierge Medical Associates. Schedule an in-person or remote consultation at: conciergemedical.ai
“No question about it. I’m ready to get hurt again.”
-Michael Scott
It’s no, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” but this quote, often cited by sports fans of all stripes, probably captures the prevailing zeitgeist of Nittany Nation as we pass the season’s quarter post. An emboldened quarterback, an uptick in explosive plays, and a defense that smothers and stifles when it matters the most all have Penn State fans once again daring to believe. Yes, against our better judgement, we are once again ready. Are we going to get hurt?
If the internet is any indication (as dangerous a phrase as you’ll read in modern times), most college football fans think the answer is “yes.” This week, the X account for College Football Nerds (a fun podcast and good follow on social) put the question to their audience, “What do we think of Penn State?”
Guess the most common responses they got. I guarantee you imagined accurately.
One user with the interesting screenname “E.B. Beaumont, Wronged Alabama Foot Ball Coach” summed up the popular sentiment: “I feel like they’ve been the exact same team for like 9 years running. I look forward to them playing OSU to single digits without one time ever even suggesting that they might be able to win.”
(I looked it up. Turns out the original E.B. coached ‘Bama in their inaugural football season but got fired after one year on the job… probably because they lost to Auburn.)
Anyway, that commenter reflects the majority opinion. Lots of “can’t win big games” and “will lose every game they should plus maybe one they shouldn’t.” No surprises there. Who can blame them really? If we were all thinking it, then surely folks without all the emotional hangups will join us on that same page. Whether fumbling away W’s versus beatable foes like Minnesota and Iowa or adding on to a program record losing streak against Ohio State, the Nittany Lions have earned a reputation for winning games except when it matters most. Regardless of how much promise this year’s team may show, the burden of that stigma will haunt them until, and only if, their play on the field dispels it.
These Nittany Lions will have their chance to begin deconstructing the “can’t win the big one” consensus soon enough, but not this Saturday.
This week’s opponent, the University of California-Los Angeles, limps into Happy Valley with a 1-3 record, a talent-starved roster, and, in Deshaun Foster, a loyal alum who once starred for the team in better days and now suffers the indignity of coaching this woebegone version through what promises to be a season of misery. The Bruins commenced the Big Ten era in L.A. getting run off their home field by Indiana, of all teams, and last week took a beating from their former PAC-12 brethren the Oregon Ducks. Things will not get prettier for UCLA inside Beaver Stadium this weekend, but at least the visitors can (for now) claim the edge in the all-time series.
Back in the Sixties, UCLA scored four victories in six consecutive contests with Penn State, the only meetings between the two programs. After State claimed the first matchup, the Bruins rattled off four straight wins before falling victim to Joe Paterno’s first great team, the undefeated and untied juggernaut of 1968. That ’68 squad, playing the first of back-to-back unblemished campaigns, featured four future College Hall of Famers: tight end Ted Kwalick, defensive tackle Mike Reid, and linebackers Dennis Onkotz and Jack Ham. Although they would be denied a share of the national title (portending a running theme here at Penn State), they set the tone for an extended era of excellence that would persist for decades to come. Just like that, State’s last team to face and vanquish the Bruins rewired expectations around the football program with one great season. How did the landscape look before the ’68 Nittany Lions broke through?
Head coach Charles “Rip” Engle’s final team finished 5-5 in 1965 as did Joe Paterno’s first the following year. Joe improved in 1967 with an 8-2-1 squad that tied Florida State in the Gator Bowl and finished 10th in the final rankings. Earlier in the decade, the ’62 team wrapped up a run of four straight bowl appearances (bowl invites were tougher to come by in those days), losing the Gator Bowl to Florida but finishing a strong 9-2 and ranked ninth. Rip’s last few years had their high points – notably an upset of #2 Ohio State in Columbus in ’64 – but none of his teams from ’63 to ’65 finished with fewer than three losses, and they made only one brief appearance in the polls.
The seven seasons leading up to 1968…
Like Joe’s first undefeated side from ’68, his final perfect team, the 1994 Big Ten Champion Nittany Lions we honored last Saturday night at Beaver Stadium, were not recognized as national champions (except by the NYT, and yes, we should claim it). Unlike the Lions of ’68-69, who set the standard for the golden era of Penn State football, the players circa ’94 inherited championship expectations along with the burden of following predecessors who’d fallen short of them.
After a disastrous 1988 saw JoePa record his first losing season (Penn State’s first in 50 years) and the ’89 team staunched the bleeding with a record of 8-3-1 (the final tie in program history), a highly touted recruiting class led by the likes of quarterback Tony Sacca and receiver O.J. McDuffie stepped to the fore. Over the next three seasons, the Lions would peak at 11-2 in 1991, a campaign marred by road losses at USC and #2 Miami and then crater to 7-5 the following year, climbing as high as 7th in the nation before dropping five of their final seven games. For the first time, a Paterno recruiting class would graduate without going undefeated or playing for a title. During the inaugural Big Ten season of 1993, a core of young offensive talent took their lumps and learned the lessons they would apply the following year as one of the sport’s best.
The seven seasons leading up to 1994…
We know our recent history. A second straight one-point loss to Ohio State triggered a downward spiral that marred Trace McSorley’s final year in Blue and White, and then a heartbreaking loss at Minnesota cost the team a playoff trip in 2019. The fake 2020 COVID season was a colossal disaster on every level, and the injury-riddled 7-5 campaign of 2021 wasn’t much better. Since then, the Lions have recorded back-to-back 10-win regular seasons and gone 1-1 in New Year’s Six bowl games, but also finished 0-4 against Michigan and Ohio State, resulting in that reputation as perennial pussycats in the toughest contests with which we opened the column.
The seven seasons leading up to 2024…
For those of you scoring at home, Penn State finished 40-21-1 in the seven years prior to a perfect season in 1968. Their record across seven seasons before going undefeated in 1994 was 50-21-1. In the last seven years, State’s W/L total is 52-22. In each case, there were precious few hints to suggest a season for the ages was in the offing and plenty of data points to support a gloomy forecast around the team’s fortunes.
In the dynamic duo of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, are there hints of Charlie Pittman or Ki-jana Carter? Does Drew Allar to Tyler Warren recall the connection of Kerry Collins to Kyle Brady? Can the likes of Zane Durant and Abdul Carter leave a legacy to match the combo of Reid and Ham? I really don’t know. A rational and measured evaluation suggests extreme caution, and yet they are tempting me to believe. What I do know is that in the examples of ’68 and ‘94, the conventional wisdom was ironclad until it wasn’t – there was ample track record (an almost identical amount actually) indicating that the Nittany Lions were a nice team who ultimately wouldn’t disturb the halls of power.
So if you’re ready to get hurt again, know that I am right there alongside you, wincing and waiting for the hammer to fall. But take heart! There are hints, both on the field and in the program’s storied past, that maybe this time, the hurt (or the worst of it, at least) will end up haunting someone else.
Three for the Road
- UCLA is a shockingly bad football team. Lousy enough that they may challenge for worst-in-class status in the Big Ten this season. Just look at their season stats through four games. Gross.
- Last season, I ranked every Homecoming game of the Big Ten era. You can find it here. Looking back on it now, this past Saturday night would slot high on the list. It needs to be placed in context at the end of the season, but even now, everything surrounding the game – White Out… Energy, honoring ’94, the suffocating defense, the Singleton play (you know the one). We were treated to a classic.
- Last week, Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton became the second pair of Penn State running backs to each amass over 2,000 career rushing yards, joining Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell. I wrote about how these two compare to the great RB tandems in school history over the Summer. With the season now in full swing, I’m going to use this space to track their weekly progress. According to ESPN, Nick (408) and Kaytron (289) have currently combined for 697 yards, bringing their combined career total to 4,279 yards, which places them 657 behind Harris and Mitchell for tops all-time.
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