Looking back on a pivotal moment
Michigan whipped PSU into shape
In 2016, Penn State faced Michigan in what seemed like a pretty important, early-season game, but ended in a 49-10 thrashing in favor of the Wolverines. The Nittany Lions moved to 2-2 on that young season, without much idea of what would come next.
Then, they went undefeated the rest of the regular season, defeated Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship for their first conference title since 2008.
The program has come an extraordinarily long way between then and now. During the 2016 season, Penn State had just two home games with an attendance of over 100,000 people. Since, there has only been one game at Beaver Stadium — last year’s season finale against Maryland — that has hosted less than 100,000.
The Nittany Lions have spent at least one week in the top 10 of the AP Poll in every season since 2016.
With Michigan and Penn State set to square off once again on Saturday, it’s easy to look back at that 2016 game as the darkness before the dawn of the Nittany Lions’ nationally respected program.
“It’s hard because, it’s funny, sometimes you get upset with the young players because they show up and they think almost they’re entitled to the success, and you get mad at them because you’re like, ‘You have no idea what we went through.’ ” coach James Franklin said on Tuesday. “But it’s not their fault. They just don’t know. But I do think there’s an importance to that, of those guys that have been through that adversity and built it.”
For the Nittany Lions, the 2016 matchup with the Wolverines was a complete disaster.
Michigan scored touchdowns on four of its first five drives, putting the game out of hand essentially from the beginning.
Current starting linebacker Jan Johnson was a walk-on tight end at that point. Due to attrition at the position, Johnson entered that game as a linebacker, tallied two tackles, then tore his ACL and sat out the rest of the season.
The differences between 2016 and 2019
aren’t just on the field, though. Penn State has preached multiple times through the first six games that this is a close locker room, with more interaction between younger guys and older guys. The players say there is more of a buy-in.
“I think that’s a testament to the leadership that’s been on this team from 2016 until now,” fifth-year senior Garrett Taylor said on Wednesday. “Just guys really pushing that culture and having it be a top-down thing, where leaders from the past on the team are really having an impact, and the players on Saturdays are all bought in, so it makes it easier for the young guys to buy in.”
The Nittany Lions and Wolverines have traded blowouts since and including 2016. Penn State ran away from Michigan, 42-13, in front of a whiteout crowd in 2017. The Wolverines then dominated, 42-7, last season.
This year brings with it differing levels of hope. The Nittany Lions are 6-0, with aspirations of repeating their accomplishments from 2016. Michigan, at 5-1, still controls its own destiny, but it was dominated by Wisconsin earlier this season, bringing skeptics out of the woodwork.
That alone should tell you just how far Penn State has come since 2016. There is an argument to be made that Franklin has built a more consistently successful program as of late than Wolverines. If the Nittany Lions win on Saturday, that argument will be even stronger.
Suffice to say, Franklin is battling a far different battle now than he was in 2016. Penn State has gone from a rebuilding program trying to break in to the Big Ten title picture three years ago, to a program trying to again compete with the blue bloods and prove it belongs on a national level.
Now, Franklin says, it’s about combating complacency and the aforementioned sense of belonging.
“I am very proud. I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in a rather short period of time under very, very difficult circumstances,” Franklin said. “And there’s been a lot of people that have been a part of that. But like I’ve said and like I continue to say, the thing we can’t do is take a deep breath and feel like we’re back. Because the programs that we’re competing with, they haven’t taken a deep breath or pushed the pause button in 50 years.”