Nittany Lions confound the pundits
No one foresaw trip to title game
Madison — Who predicted in August that Penn State coach James Franklin and his players would win the Big Ten East Division last weekend? No one. Writers who cover the Big Ten picked the Nittany Lions to finish fourth in the division.
Four Big Ten teams appeared in the preseason coaches poll: No. 5 Ohio State, No. 8 Michigan, No. 11 Michigan State and No. 15 Iowa.
Wisconsin, Northwestern, Nebraska and Indiana received at least one vote. Penn State? Zip. Yet the Nittany Lions finished 8-1 in the Big Ten and take a 10-2 overall mark and No. 8 ranking in the coaches poll into the Big Ten title game against UW (10-2, 7-2) Saturday night in Indianapolis.
“It means so much man,” cornerback Amani Oruwariye said after the Nittany Lions secured a berth in the title game with a 45-12 victory over Michigan State. “This team has been through hell and back with so much adversity and to just get this trophy. It means the world to us.”
Penn State’s path to the division title was a bit more circuitous than most teams.
Remember that in the wake of a child abuse scandal involving former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky, the NCAA hammered the program in the summer of 2012.
The sanctions included a four-year post-season ban, the loss of 40 initial scholarships from 2013 through ’17 and a scholarship cap of 65 per year.
The NCAA eventually backed off, however, and rescinded most of the sanctions. Penn State became eligible for postseason play in 2014 and the Nittany Lions are at the limit of 85 scholarships this year.
“When I committed I wasn’t expecting to play in a bowl,” redshirt junior defensive end Garrett Sickels said. “And we weren’t going to be bowl eligible, so I was just going to play for Penn State and my teammates. To have this opportunity is unbelievable.”
Penn State finished 7-6 in 2014, James Franklin’s first season as head coach. The Nittany Lions capped the season with a 31-30 overtime victory in the Pinstripe Bowl. They finished 7-6 last season, suffering a 24-17 loss to Georgia in the TaxSlayer Bowl.
The Nittany Lions went a combined 0-6 against Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State in Franklin’s first two seasons.
Penn State this season lost at Michigan and upset Ohio State before throttling Michigan State.
The most critical victory, however, came in Week 5 against Minnesota.
Penn State was 0-1 in the Big Ten and 2-2 overall after suffering a 49-10 loss at Michigan.
The Nittany Lions returned home to face the Gophers and trailed at halftime, 13-3. The season appeared to be on the brink until quarterback Trace McSorley hit wide receiver Irvin Charles for an 80-yard touchdown with 9 minutes 54 seconds left in the third quarter. The Nittany Lions eventually won, 29-26, in overtime on Saquon Barkley’s 25-yard touchdown run.
“You look at Minnesota’s season,” Franklin said. “They’ve won a bunch of games and they played everyone tough.
“We had a receiver who made a play that kind of turned that game around and turned our season around . ... We really kind of made plays from that game on.”
That was the first of an eight-game Big Ten winning streak, the Nittany Lions’ longest since 1994.
Penn State has never participated in the Big Ten title game, first held in 2011.
“It’s awesome and a great opportunity,” fifthyear senior defensive end Evan Schwan said.
“We’ve talked about it. We talked about it all last season. That this was our goal and this is where we wanted to go so we put our head down and went to work.
“Every week we have improved and gotten better and now we have a tremendous opportunity to go Indianapolis and finish this thing and get a Big Ten Championship.”