THE ROAR IS BACK
Nittany Lions finally return to prominence
Trace McSorley can’t go anywhere without hearing about last year. Fans, classmates and everyone around State College approach the senior quarterback to talk about Indianapolis — the site of last year’s Big Ten title game — and the possibilities this fall.
The buzz is back. Penn State has sky-high expectations — national championship expectations — again after winning 11 games for the first time in seven years.
“People have that feeling that Penn State is back,” McSorley said in a phone interview. “The fans have been waiting for this for a long time.”
“You can feel it in the air,” cornerback Christian Campbell said.
It’s not just a thirsty fan base desperate for a taste of a glorious past. It’s one that saw a stunning turnaround firsthand, watching the Nittany Lions win nine games in a row en route to the school’s first Big Ten crown since 2008, before narrowly missing the College Football Playoff and falling just short to USC, another one-time powerhouse with title aspirations this season, in the Rose Bowl.
Penn State is ranked sixth in the Associated Press preseason poll — its highest preseason ranking since being third in 1999. The Nittany Lions return 15 starters on offense and defense, led by Heisman Trophy-contending running back Saquon Barkley, the battle-tested McSorley, a mismatch nightmare tight end in 6-foot-5 pro prospect Mike Gesicki and senior playmaking safety Marcus Allen.
Coach James Franklin is back for his fourth season, armed with a contract extension that will keep him in State College until 2022. There are no more scholarship restrictions to worry about, as was the case his first two seasons in the wake of continued penalties from the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal.
Now, Penn State has star power and the depth to support its game-breakers, the result of four straight top-25 recruiting classes.
“This is the first time since I’ve been here that we have a three-deep at every position,” Franklin recently said on CBS Sports Radio. “We have a starter that we think we can win the Big Ten with, with a guy backing him up that we feel has the ability to play in the Big Ten and win in the Big Ten.”
Penn State was slogging along through irrelevancy last year after an ugly 49-10 loss to Michigan on Sept. 24, its second defeat in three games. Then, in the first season with new coordinators on offense (Joe Moorhead) and defense (Brent Pry), everything came together. The Nittany Lions outscored their opponents 361-174 during a nine-game winning streak.
The turning point came on Oct. 22 in a 24-21 upset over second-ranked Ohio State, when Penn State scored 17 unanswered points, capped by Grant Haley’s 60-yard blocked field-goal return for a touchdown. There was a whiteout in the crowd that night, and it became a whiteout on the field as Penn State earned its first win over a top-10 team since 1999.
“It was almost euphoric for the whole community. It was almost like a black cloud was lifted from Happy Valley, and their back,” CBS analyst Rick Neuheisel said on a conference call last week.
In Moorehead’s attacking, up-tempo system he had success with as the head coach at Fordham from 2012-15, the Nittany Lions averaged 37.6 points per game. Barkley became a huge star, producing 1,972 all-purpose yards, the second most in program history, rushing for 1,496 yards and scoring 18 touchdowns.
But more than his ability, teammates say, what separates Barkley is his blue-collar approach. He hasn’t forgotten how far he has come, from an overlooked recruit who initially had committed to Rutgers to a Heisman Trophy contender — and he acts accordingly, working like a walk-on.
“If you talk to him, you wouldn’t know he’s arguably the best payer in college football,” said McSorley, who threw for a school-record 3,614 yards with 29 touchdowns and led the nation in yards per completion (16.1) a year ago. “We think he’s the best player in college football.”
Just returning all those starters and hoping for gradual improvement from young players won’t be enough. Not in the loaded Big Ten East, arguably the best division in the country, which includes fellow playoff contenders Michigan and Ohio State.
Most of t he offseason has been spent harping on last season’s negatives. At the forefront were poor starts — in season and within games — and just a plus-one turnover differential. The defense intercepted just 10 passes, six by defensive backs.
Penn State began the year 2-2, digging itself a hole that would ruin its playoff hopes. Franklin’s kids were known as a second-half team, rallying for several come-frombehind victories, including the Ohio State win and the Big Ten title game comeback against Wisconsin.
“If we can start fast this year, get ahead early, then we won’t have to be clawing back into games,” McSorley said. “We’ll give ourselves a better shot.” The idea, of course, isn’t to replicate last season. It’s to go beyond that — no easy feat. Then again, few predicted a Big Ten title or a Rose Bowl berth last year, either.
“Obviously, we can’t do what we did last year,” Campbell said, “we have to do more than we did last year.”