We Are Penn State Football – Part I

Black Shoes. Basic Blues. No Names. All Game.  

It was a cold Saturday in early October. You know, the kind of day where just looking outside makes you gloomy inside. I was in Buffalo, NY for a baseball clinic the next morning and I arrived at the Marriott with my dad and younger brother a few hours before the Penn State vs. Michigan game was slated to start. PSU vs. scUM is more how I like to think about it. I hate Michigan. No, let me rephrase, I HATE scUM REFS! What are these guy’s real purposes? An average fan would tell you to conduct the rights and wrongs of a game/match, but then again isn’t that why instant replay was invented? An average fan would also tell you the job of a referee/umpire is to make sure things don’t get out of hand during events, but even an average fan must know that is not in fact the case (Pistons-Pacers brawl anyone?). So then why do we have referees? If you ask me, they were put on earth to give sports fans like myself a reason to complain. I’m not afraid to admit it. Sometimes it is mind-boggling the mistakes they make, makes you wonder why they even pay those sunovabitches.
On the brink of an Orange Bowl appearance and being the huge Penn State fan that I am, one may wonder why I am still insisting on bringing up a topic that literally prevented Penn State from another undefeated season. No I’m not talking about the blown coverage by Calvin Lowry on the last play of the Michigan game. I’m not even talking about the one second that showed on the clock prior to the game-ending touchdown either. I’m talking about how the scUM referees always seem to be able to stick it to Penn State, no matter what. I can still see it as if it happened today; Michael Robinson with one finger in the air, the sheer excitement on the Penn State player’s faces, moments away from improving their already unbelievable record to 7-0. Only a week before vs. Ohio State had a crowd at Beaver Stadium of 100,000 plus, and thousands more on TV, witnessed one of the most emotionally draining wins in the Joe Paterno era at Penn State. Penn State was back and what a feeling it was, especially after the heart-wrenching seasons of losses since the turn of the century.

Probably since the moment I was born, the Nittany Lions were burned into my heart, and it’s been like that ever since. My parents would always tell me stories about when I was younger and how when Penn State would score I would always start crying. No, it wasn’t because I was upset that my favorite team had scored, it was because my parents and my friends would be screaming so loud, you’d think they had just seen Bruce Springsteen in person.

You see, both of my parents are graduates of Penn State and both of them still wear their blue and white colors with pride. Both of them decided early they weren’t going to let me or my brothers turn into Syracuse fans, our current home town. All the losing Syracuse fans have experienced this season and Penn State doing as well as they have, has made 2005 one of the best. I always wear my Penn State merchandise around. The past few years were rough, I took a lot of heat but I stayed loyal to my Nittany Lions. We even have a Nittany Lion outside in front of our porch. Once, a few of my friends’ Dads decided it would be funny to steal it. It was returned back the next day in the same condition it left so all was forgiven and there have been no robberies since.

Up until this season, I really only had fuzzy memories of the great Penn State teams of the 1990’s. I was really too young to fully take in the Kerry Collins’ teams of the early to mid 90’s and I had only started to understand Penn State Football around the time of Laver Arrington and company.

When I say Penn State Football, I’m talking about the almost religion like qualities “we” fans have for our team. If Penn State loses, it’s like the Pope died… and that’s just in my family, I can only imagine how bad it is in State College. When Penn State wins, which is the majority of the time; it’s like a reenactment of the Blue Brothers movie when Jake and Elwood visit James Brown at the Chapel.

Back to Penn State now- I obviously remember all the big name Penn State players near the end of the century such as Arrington, Courtney Brown, and Curtis Enis. Then there was Zach Mills and all the Johnson’s; Larry, Tony, and Bryant. Michael Haynes stands out but otherwise, I only knew a few players who I can’t even remember as I write this. I remember only a few games, mostly from the 2002 season and they were all the losses experienced during LJ’s great season. I remember one time – must have been 1998 or ’99 – I was watching a game with my mom and right when it seemed Penn State was going to lose, an 80 yard pass or something like that was completed for the game winning touchdown. Of course I joined my mother who was jumping up and down frantically like a little kid who had just seen Santa Claus.

As I grew older it seemed as if Penn State Football was a never-ending class and that I would never be able to take in all I needed to know to become a true Nittany Lion.

“Slow and steady, steady and slow, that’s the way to always go.”
– As quoted by Goofy in my favorite book as a child, Goofy’s Big Race.

I was soon becoming a student of Penn State Football. My dad once told me the story about the 1979 Sugar Bowl between Joe Paterno and Penn State and the legendary Paul “Bear” Bryant and the Alabama Crimson Tide. My dad was in his early 20’s and he watched the game at a bar with a few of his buddies. He only briefly would describe the end of the game, when Paterno decided to run the ball after a 3rd and goal at the 1 yard line. After being stuffed the first time, Penn State would attempt to run through the great `Bama defense and was stuffed again, essentially losing the Sugar Bowl and the National Championship. Joe, in later years, would say if he could do it over again he would do it different and stated it was the offensive coaches who said, “If we can’t run the ball 1 yard we don’t deserve to be National Champions.” My dad still insists after all his years of being a Penn State fan that the loss to ‘Bama was the most crushing loss of them all.

On the flip side, my dad was quick to follow up that story with the more successful stories, such as the 1982 and 1986 National Championships. The 1986 National Championship turned out to be, and still is, the most watched College Football game ever. The underdog Nittany Lions shocked the world by defeating a powerhouse Miami Hurricane squad that was led by Vinny Testaverde.

As always with good, there is always the bad, as was the case in 1994. Probably the best team under JoePa, the Nittany Lions finished the season undefeated but the National Championship was given to Nebraska instead. Why you ask? Well, the only logical reason Penn State fans have come up since then is because it was legendary head coach Tom Osborne’s last season before retiring. Since he had yet to win a National Championship, the AP and Coaches decided they should give the edge to him because Paterno had won two National Championships already. As stupid as it may sound what other logical reason is there out there? In true Penn Stater’s hearts, Joe has three National Championships, not the official two on his transcript.

Its funny how things change and it just goes to show you how much of a difference a year really can make.

Was I too late?

Finally, I had begun to understand the power of Penn State Football. When all the pieces of the puzzle were put together, I experienced the most bizarre and most unexpected event in the history of Penn State; losing. Not just one or two games a year, I’m talking about that big fat “L”. The Penn State Losers could have been an appropriate title, for these teams of the new millennium were no Nittany Lions. What had happened? No one seemed to know the answer. Not the fans, the players, or Paterno himself.

The real steep, downhill slide started with a humiliating loss on national television vs. the eventual National Champion Miami Hurricanes in 2001. Things never got better from that point on. Dating back to the Joe Paterno era (1966) Penn State’s overall record during that stretch was an astounding 307 wins vs. just 83 loses going into the 2000 season. After 2000 and up till the start of 2005, Penn States record was a disappointing 26-33; certainly a major change in events.

Who was to blame for this sudden swing in national power? Was it the players? Was it the coaches? Was it Paterno himself? Or was it the fans, who over the years had seemed to take every great season for granted? Players put the blames on themselves while the coaches insisted it was their fault. But the fans, they took the liberty of placing the blame on Joe Paterno.

Let’s take a breather and re-read what you just read, shall we?

But the fans, they took the liberty of placing the blame on Joe Paterno.
Joe who?

Joe Paterno. You know, JoePa. The same guy with two National Championships and five undefeated seasons. The same guy you see on TV running over to grab onto a ref over a bad call. Could that really be the answer? Surely not many fans probably thought at first, but as the seasons wore on and fans experienced more losing then ever, most fans, including myself, started to turn on Paterno.

Basically, Joe wasn’t getting the job done anymore. He was being too damn stubborn and wasn’t recruiting great players like he used to. There were so many times where Joe made bad play calls; you basically were almost wishing he would retire.

For some reason he never started Larry Johnson until his fifth year senior season, even though he was by far the team’s number one running back since he joined them. Michael Robinson was like Joe’s guinea pig for his first four seasons in Penn State. You wonder how Robinson survived his time in State College before this season, given the way he was treated. Zach Mills, the starting quarterback for most of those horrendous seasons, was just something you wish you had never seen. Mills was like a bad odor, once he starting playing badly it just kept on getting worse. The best part about Mills was that he was actually a good quarterback during his freshmen campaign.

If there was ever a “good” feeling going through Nittany Lion Nation, it was when Paterno finally passed “Bear” Bryant on the all time wins list with 324 victories. Led by Mills, Penn State won two games in a row, one to tie Bryant, and one to pass him. If ever there was a coach that deserved the record, it was and is Paterno. But with the continued losing in the seasons ahead, Paterno himself was passed by another legendary coach; Bobby Bowden of Florida State. Now Penn State fans couldn’t even talk of the record as something to brag about.

In 2002, Larry Johnson ran wild (over 2,000 yards for the season) and Penn State won nine games before losing to Auburn in the Capital One Bowl. There was a glimmer of hope in the air and fans came into 2003 full of excitement and anticipation. That was all put to rest very quickly as just when Penn State fans thought things couldn’t get worse, things went beyond that level.

The offense that was so productive a season prior was now the weakest core unit to ever play under Paterno. Mills, who had numerous injuries during his last two seasons, had no targets to pass to. The team had no playmakers. Tony Hunt was not getting the job done at running-back and Austin Scott was about as big of a bust as Hillary Duff’s attempt to become a professional singer. Robinson was about the only offensive production but that wasn’t nearly enough to get a “W” in the win column.

In retrospect, what other decisions did Joe really have?

After an ugly, ugly, ugly 6-4 (yes, the defense provided the only points) loss to Iowa in 2004, fans were prompted to start a website to petition Joe Paterno out of Penn State. The site was called www.joemustgo.com. As amusing as it may sound, these fans were not joking around. JoePa was being booed repeatedly at home games during is rough stretch and a stadium that seats well over 100,000 fans (20,000 student seats alone), was filled by only 24,000 fans for the 2004 season finale vs. Purdue. This win extended Penn States winning streak to, well, two.

When a team is going through a rough season, or seasons in this case, someone needs to step up and provide a momentum swing, or a turning point.

That turning point may have come one game earlier, in Indiana. Penn State, clinging to a slim lead and desperately needing a huge break, finally got one from its defense. The Nittany Lions stopped the Hoosiers three times in a row at the goal-line and Penn State held on for their first Big Ten victory of the season. Who would have known at the time that one goal-line stop would be just the spark the Nittany Lions needed to return to national power.

Change was in store for the 2005 season, but I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t expect to see much of a difference in the win-loss column. The Penn State core defense, which didn’t allow more then 21 points in a single game in 2004, was mostly returning. Michael Robinson was finally appointed to one position; starting quarterback. There were also a handful of freshman who were ready to take on the responsibilities of bringing Penn State back on top. The list included Derrick Williams, Justin King, Jordan Norwood, and Deon Butler. Kevin Kelley, the teams’ field goal kicker was also a pleasant surprise for the year.

I headed to State College on a beautiful Saturday in early September for the first game of Penn State’s season. What a day it turned out to be. With the stadium almost filled to capacity, the roar of the crowd was loud enough to be heard in New York. I was very excited for the game, as I expected a win vs. South Florida. Before the game I bought my new #2 jersey, to represent Derrick Williams. The game turned out to be great, a 22-13 victory, but the score really did show how inconsistent Michael Robinson played.

Robinson had basically single-handedly kept South Florida in the game with fumbles and interceptions throughout the game. I knew that kind of play would not translate into wins for the start of the Big Ten season. Honestly, if you really want to know, I was really pulling for red-shirt freshman Anthony Morelli to start over Robinson. You see, I was never a real big fan of “MRob” because he basically never showed me he could lead a winning squad. During the Penn State-Northwestern game after Penn State’s 3-0 start, I was yelling at Paterno on the TV to put Morelli in the game. By that point, Robinson had continued his inconsistent play well into the second quarter of the Northwestern game. When I saw Morelli on the sidelines warming up, a smile came about my face as big as that of the Joker from Batman.

Something happened, however, during that second quarter; Robinson led Penn State down the field to cut the Northwestern lead to only 21-10. From that point on something clicked in Robinson. Maybe he realized that his starting job was up in the air for the next game. Or maybe Joe gave him a little speech during half-time, but from that point on, Robinson was like Superman. He led Penn State to a thrilling comeback victory with a touchdown pass to Williams in the closing minutes.

I was jumping up and down so much once Williams caught that pass, I probably could have put my brother through the ceiling with all the adrenaline pumping through my body. It was a great feeling. I never wanted it to end. Just like a kid on a merry-go-round; I wanted one more.

“One more Daddy. Please one more time around on the pony.”

I kept that feeling inside me from then on and the excitement grew in the weeks to follow.

The defense, as mentioned before, was back; led by Butkus winner Paul Posluszny and African decent Tamba Hali. Things in now once again “Happy Valley” were starting to be as good as advertised.

Penn State went on to crush Minnesota back home in a game that can be summed up by “The Hit”. You know, where Michael Robinson knocked over the Minnesota defensive player. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? That’s probably what the Minnesota player was thinking himself when he was laying flat on his back on the ground.

With that win Penn State FINALLY jumped back into the top 20. When I say FINALLY, I really mean it. It only took Notre Dame two wins to jump from unranked to the top 10, but it took the better Nittany Lions team five wins to reach #16 in the country.

It was Columbus Day weekend when Ohio State came to Happy Valley looking to re-bound from their crushing defeat vs. Texas. Beaver Stadium would be going crazy in anticipation, as it was announced to be “white out” day. “College GameDay” was in State College and so was “Cold Pizza” the morning before. “Paternoville” was the highlight of the morning show on ESPN2 as fans got up early for the surprise visit from the crew.

A sense of urgency was finally in the atmosphere. Excitement was at the highest level in years and I waited very impatiently for the 7:45 kickoff the entire week.

I had the luxury of watching the game at my house with my parents and my cousins. So since I wasn’t actually at the game I had to make it seem as if we were there. The living room was draped with Penn State jerseys and plenty of food was ready for the long game ahead. I even had some pump-up music on CD ready to keep the family in the game.

I seated myself on the couch directly in front of the TV and was on the edge of my seat, as I did every game, the entire game. Honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t had a heart attack yet from watching games. Sometimes I feel as if I want to win more then the players out there. Maybe I should think about taking this attitude with me onto the playing field when I’m actually playing.

When Derrick Williams scored early to give Penn State the lead, high-five’s went out to everyone in the room. My favorite player, safety Calvin Lowry, made a great interception and returned it all the way to the two yard line before the offense punched it in for another score. I was screaming so loud I’m sure the neighbor’s next door heard me loud and clear.

As the game progressed I can only remember seeing punt after punt go back and forth, like one of my brother’s soccer games, only this game actually meant something to me. I thought for sure Ohio State would find some crazy way to score and win the game, but as it turns out, I was wrong.

After the game was over, a 17-10 Penn State victory, I sat back on the couch and took in every second of the moment; the interview with Robinson and Paterno and the sight of seeing a Penn State fan with a sign that read “12-0. We Believe”.

It was finally happening; I was finally experiencing Penn State Football at its finest. But that night of joy and excitement would soon be followed by a week of intense nervousness. Penn State was about to head to the “Big House,” 6-0 and #6 in the country. In the moments before the game I’ll admit I had all the confidence in the world that my new and improved Nittany Lions would soon be 7-0. But I was about to be beaten at my own game and the long roller-coaster ride of a season would soon come to a complete sudden halt.

Copyright ©2005 Colin Cerniglia. All Rights Reserved.