Sunday Tuesday Column: Nittany Lions Close One Chapter and Set Up Another In Satisfying Rose Bowl Rout

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.

Sean Clifford earned his curtain call, first with some precision strikes through traffic and then two deep balls that broke open the game. But it was the running of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen that helped lure more Ute defenders into the box and open up those downfield opportunities and, oh by the way, led to three more touchdowns on the ground for the freshman combo, bringing their season total tuddy tally to 25.

On a night when Penn State wore decals on its helmets to honor the late Franco Harris, Singleton scored on an 87-yard romp up the middle that was shades of Ki-Jana Carter and Saquon Barkley in the historic building, surging over 1,000 yards for the season. Allen, as usual, wasn’t as flashy but made short gains out of very little to work with, picking up 53 total yards on 14 touches.

Whatever the Penn State offense looks like next season—more helpings of the T-formation, RPO, toss sweeps, what have you—10 and 13 need to be the focal points. Penn State wants to have explosive plays on offense in the run and the pass game, and we saw the game-changing value of both on Monday, but building around these two dynamic running backs, who started strong and got better as the weather grew colder, will make whatever sort of building James Franklin and Mike Yurcich decide to do that much easier. It will take pressure off what will be a second-year starting quarterback, allow an improving but forever-a-work-in-progress offensive line to be less than perfect, and it will keep a Penn State defense that thrives on aggression and big plays of its own on the sidelines for longer chunks of the game.

Manny Diaz’s unit had a few hiccups and more than a few missed tackles Monday, and the Nittany Lions benefited greatly from the early exit of injured quarterback Cam Rising, who turned several near-sacks into positive gains. But the defense also forced two turnovers, bringing its season total to 28, and built off the offensive momentum brilliantly, following the 88-yard touchdown pass from Clifford to KeAndre Lambert Smith—the longest scoring pass play in Rose Bowl history—and the quick five-play, 47-yard scoring drive with a pair of respective defensive series that resulted in six totals plays and a net of minus-26 yards. While veterans like Tig Brown, Nick Tarburton and P.J. Mustipher will be sorely missed, the defense returns young stars Kalen King and Abdul Carter, who showed again Monday the ability to impact a game in numerous ways.

If the September blowout of Auburn grew less impressive as the Tigers’ disappointing season went on, the quality of this one should stay fresh throughout the winter, spring and summer for the Nittany Lions, who beat a top-10 team by double digits in a bowl game for the first time since the 1994 Citrus Bowl against Tennessee. It evened Franklin’s bowl record at Penn State at 4-4 and in the Rose Bowl at 1-1 and supplanted that Auburn game as the season’s signature win, if such things are required.

College football is all about the playoff these days, and if you’re not in it, it can be hard for players and coaches to recalibrate their goals and subsequent motivation to achieve them. But every team wants to win the last game of the season, to have the hard work that the players and coaches put in pay off in a meaningful way. A win in your last game that was—with the possible exception of the Auburn game—the most complete performance of the season likely surpassed whatever revised goals the Nittany Lions entered bowl season with. And it was the sort of performance that makes future playoff games seem a lot more likely than they did a few months ago.