Micah Shrewsberry, in the parlance of our times, has got that dawg in him.

The, um, underdawg, that is.

“I’m one of the ultimate underdog kind of guys,” the Nittany Lions’ basketball coach told The Athletic’s Brian Hamilton last spring. “Toughness will make up for it. We may not be as big as other people. Just be tougher than them.”

This quote, occurring more in the postseason of Shrewsberry’s first year at Penn State than the preseason of his second, was more than prophetic about the current rendition of the Nittany Lions. The roster, as he noted, does not have a lot of size, and Shrewsberry has arguably made it even smaller by eschewing the center position altogether for large stretches of the game. Six-foot-4 senior wing Myles Dread, not unaccustomed to guarding fours at various points of his career, is often seen playing man defense on fives, including Purdue’s behemoth center Zach Edey.

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Introduction

Operating a bit in the shadows, away from the main stage, away from the spotlight that felt more like an interrogation lamp in 2021, with all the burdensome hype and fanfare now piled on Coordinateur du Jour, Manny Diaz, Penn State offensive playcaller Mike Yurcich cobbled together a stealthy bounceback campaign in 2022. Dare we say it…Mike Yurcich’s offense actually looked like a Mike Yurcich offense! More points, more plays, more explosivity, more formational diversity, more of the stuff that was promised when we – among another media outlets – sunshine-pumped Yurcich’s surprise hire 24 months ago.

The 2022 Penn State offense saw tremendous improvement in virtually EVERY basic and advanced stat versus the flat-tire, low-bar-setting 2021 group. Led by a veteran quarterback that stuck around to clean up his own mess, a much-improved offensive line, and an injection of young but mature skill position players, the 2022 offense was something to remember. So, like we do every year, let’s put a number-laden bow on the 2022 Penn State offense by examining some of the statistics that delineate the massive Year 1 to Year 2 jump – a vast improvement that fueled the Nittany Lions’ 11-win return to form.

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James Franklin likes to talk about the four core values of his program, mantras that don’t seem to go too far below surface level but are easy to remember, widely applicable and, most importantly, well-suited to the cutthroat world of college football: Positive Attitude, Work Ethic, Compete, and Sacrifice.

After a bounce-back season that he and his program desperately needed, Penn State’s head football coach should consider adding a fifth core value, one that would slot nicely among the other four and just might be more responsible for the Nittany Lions’ current and future successes as any of the others: Adaptability.

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There aren’t a lot of perfect endings in sport. At least, very, very few that don’t take place on a national championship stage.

But Penn State, as the rain poured down in Southern California on Monday night, got as near to a perfect close to the 2022 season as circumstances were going to allow. A team that had frustrated and confused its fans throughout a promising but inconsistent season blew the doors off a good Utah team with a flurry of second-half strikes to win 35-21. The Nittany Lions checked so many of the boxes that had eluded them in losses to Michigan and Ohio State and even a few of their grittier wins—big plays on offense AND defense, run-pass balance, turnover-free football and, really, as clean of a game as we’ve seen from them in several years.

And it was a win that provided equal parts hope for the near future and satisfaction with the present.

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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…

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This is the last Sean Clifford column I will write*.

*-this year

Monday’s Rose Bowl game will mark the final time in a Penn State uniform for Clifford, the gregarious and steadfast quarterback from Cincinnati, Ohio. Few players who have worn that uniform have inspired as much consternation from fans, or as many words from those who write about the team, with very few in either group in want of opinions.

As the Nittany Lions prepare to turn the page to just the fourth (full-time) starting quarterback in the soon-to-be 10-year James Franklin Era, it’s worth exploring exactly what has made Clifford such a lightning rod for criticism and exactly how much of it he has earned.

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For our readers who have been A) abducted for the past month or B) experiencing never-ending rolling power blackouts or C) stuck in line at PHL, DTW, IAH, or some other three-lettered torture chamber/airport since early December trying to reschedule your canceled Southwest flight, All-American Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr. will be the only healthy-ish Nittany Lion defender choosing to sit the Rose Bowl on January 2. If not the greatest cornerback who ever called Beaver Stadium home, then certainly slated to be the highest-drafted, JPJ opted to forego the free trip to Pasadena, thus eliminating any chance that a tweak, pull, sprain, or tear might jeopardize the millions of dollars that await him on future Sundays. We certainly wish JPJ luck, but as his famous father’s former boss like to say: “We’ll focus our attentions on the players who make themselves available to us.”

Now, let’s talk about Ji’Ayir Brown. Can we talk about Ji’Ayir please, Mac? I’ve been dying to talk about Ji’Ayir with you all day. After setting the pace for all of College Football in interceptions last year (6), Brown leads all B1G safeties in PFF pass rush grade (88.5), pass rushes (44), sacks (3) and QB pressures (10). If we expand our search parameters to include the Pac-12, the only guy who tops any of those numbers is (ironically) Utah’s Cole Bishop. Coincidence…or conspiracy?

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