Sunday Saturday Column: Domination in ‘The D’ Leaves Penn State Wondering ‘What Could Have Been?’ and Asking ‘What’s Next?’

Sometimes marketing slogans wind up being just a bit too on the nose.

For the last few years, we’ve been told, if only by promotional materials, that Penn State was “unrivaled” but it was only during the 2023 season, perhaps, that this was actually true.

The Nittany Lions, you see, spent essentially the entire season playing only against themselves. In the 10 wins, including Friday’s ho-hum, 42-0 defeat of a tired-looking group of Michigan State Spartans in Detroit, they were almost always in command, thanks to an incredible defense and an overall talent advantage on offense that mitigated most of their discombobulation on that side of the ball. They were trying to win the game, but because those games were essentially in hand before they even started, they were really trying to reach a standard that they never quite found.

In the two losses, against teams who were almost humorously superior to the others on the schedule, Penn State brought no shortage of fight to the field, but it often seemed as though it was fighting itself, struggling to disprove the notion that it didn’t belong on the same stage as the Big Ten’s big boys while — largely but not entirely because of that offensive discombobulation — showing that it didn’t belong on that stage.

It’s a strange place to spend an entire season. And as we reach the finish line of the 12-game slate and await Penn State’s bowl opponent, it’s hard to definitively say if the Nittany Lions won or lost that battle within, mostly because of that incredible disparity in quality of opponent.

The defense was dominant Friday, as it had been for just about the entire season. But do all the sacks and the takeaways erase the day the defense couldn’t stop Marvin Harrison Jr., or the day Michigan ran for 227 yards? Were those aberrations, lessons learned, or would we see similar performances against other elite teams? Or, perhaps, slightly less severe versions of those performances against good-but-not-great teams?

The answers are even trickier for the offense. The Nittany Lions went up and down the field against the hapless Spartans in a way that would have made Larry Johnson Jr. proud. The long-lost explosive plays were finally found, but even those were somewhat telling; the 50-yard run from Kaytron Allen and the 53-yard reception by Nick Singleton led to a grand total of … 3 points. And the gorgeous 60-yard bomb from Drew Allar to Omari Evans resulted in Evans, who was three steps behind the entire Spartan defense, stumbling and landing short of the goal line. It was a moot point, of course, as the drive ended with a touchdown anyway, but strangely symbolic of the way the year has gone for Allar and his beleaguered wideouts.

Then there’s Allar, who less than a full week ago did not finish the game due to an injury but showed no ill effects of that Friday; if anything, he had more touch on some of his short and intermediate throws than he had displayed for much of the year. He saw the field well, checked the ball down when he had to, and generally looked comfortable while granted ample time to throw. It could be argued that their young quarterback closing the season with momentum and confidence is perhaps the most important development of 2023 for the Nittany Lions. It could just as easily be argued that he had plenty of confidence heading into the Ohio State and Michigan games, which didn’t seem to help him or the offense in either affair. A new offensive coordinator will have the opportunity to clean up some of the systematic issues that plagued this group, but if the Nittany Lions don’t rebuild both the ineffective receiving core and an offensive line that will get hit hard by graduation/attrition, there might be too many issues for one offseason.

Perspective, of course, is needed. There is discombobulation that involves not being able to truly unlock your five-star quarterback’s talent or get your five-star running back daylight, and then there is snapping the football a foot over your quarterback’s head or having two players simultaneously catch a kickoff. The Nittany Lions were reminded again Friday where but for the grace of God (and maybe the transfer portal) they might be.

Where they are in actuality is sitting on another 10-win-and-counting season that, despite the 700-pound trophy the players hoisted Friday night, feels strangely unsatisfying. We expected Penn State to win a bunch of games this season, and it did, most of them handily. We also expected the Lions to play competitively in the biggest contests, and they did not. Maybe, hopefully, the bowl will present an opportunity for the Lions to face a team that isn’t quite in the class of the Buckeyes or Wolverines but is a damn sight better than the Spartans or Scarlet Knights or … sigh … Minutemen, and we might learn something of value about this Penn State team. Until then, fans should settle for another night in which its team was the team it was supposed to be … and take their best guess if it can be that version if and when it encounters a team that is actually capable of fighting back.