Penn State Football: Still One Team

Since the fall of 2011 Penn State football has gone through a transformation that no one thought they would ever see. Under coach Joe Paterno Penn State was a traditional run first team. The offense was highly predictable at times which frustrated fans but it always seemed to work. They won games, they won Big Ten championships, and made it to the postseason. They never really had to worry about the defense, which was always the strength of the team. It would keep them in games when the offense would struggle to put points on the board. It seemed that every year we were waiting for a new type of offense to take the field but for the most part it stayed the same. However, the 2008 and 2009 seasons  brought a little hope of something that we might see down the road. With Daryll Clark at quarterback, Evan Royster in the backfield, and the trio of Derrick Williams, Deon Butler, and Jordan Norwood catching passes, the Nittany Lions developed what was called the "spread HD" offense. It was an up-tempo, point scoring offense with big play potential. The 2008 season ended on a sour note though with a 38-24 Rose Bowl loss to USC. The 2009 season saw much of the same type of offense. With Williams, Butler, and Norwood moving on, they were replaced by Derek Moye, Graham Zug and tight end Andrew Quarless. The spread HD offense kept the same trend as the year before with the up-tempo and highly productive offense. The Nittany Lions made it to another bowl game, this time with a better result beating Les Miles and his LSU Tigers in the Capital One Bowl 19-17. The following season saw a quarterback battle between freshman Rob Bolden and walk on Matt McGloin go well into the season before McGloin would eventually get the nod. The offense struggled at times and couldn't seem to find a rhythm throughout the season. The defense was on par with its normal self for the most part but did have its struggles. The team would go on to lose in the Outback Bowl to Urban Meyer and the Florida Gators 37-24. The 2011 season saw Matt McGloin take over the leader position on offense. The former walk on saw his fair share of criticism for some of his mistakes which were costly at times. Little did we know that those mistakes would be the least of his worries, and the worries of those who supported the Nittany Lions. 

November 2011 would be a month that no Penn State fan or anyone who watched TV would forget. The Penn State sex abuse scandal opened up, and boy did a lot fall out. The season ended with a 30-14 loss in the Ticket City Bowl to Houston but no one really cared too much about that. Everyone focused on the scandal and focused on who was involved, or who wasn't involved. We're not going to look at the past because people seem to be doing that a lot lately with the scandal, almost three years after the fact. 

The search was on for the next head coach at Penn State. A search many Penn Staters thought should stay within the current staff. Former President Rodney Erickson and Athletic Director Dave Joyner created a search committee to find that new head coach, and they had to make it a good one. On January 7th, 2012, the search committee introduced their choice in former New England Patriots head coach Bill O'Brien. The man who had been known for his verbal fight with Tom Brady on the sidelines took over as Penn State's 15th head coach. Just over six months after being named head coach, O'Brien had to deal with his first hurdle as the leader of the Nittany Lions, and it was a big one. Around 11AM on July 24th, NCAA President Mark Emmert handed down the most intense penalties any school had ever received. Those penalties included a four-year postseason ban, a loss of 40 scholarships over a four-year span, the vacating of all wins from 1998-2011 (112 wins total), and perhaps the most significant penalty was that any current player could transfer away from Penn State to any school and play right away. The goal of the sanctions handed down by Emmert was to essentially shut down the football program without actually doing so. That might have been their goal but Penn State fans were not about to let that happen. 

The 2012 season began with more questions than any other season in Penn State history. It was different to say the least. The first season without Joe Paterno as head coach since 1966. The team had names on the back of the jerseys. Bill O'Brien had never been a head coach. Everything was stacked against the team but that's never been a real surprise for Penn State. The team was led by a group of seniors who meant more to the program than any win could ever bring. It was a group of seniors who when everyone else left, they stayed. When people doubted them, they made them second-guess. When their backs were against the wall, they came out fighting. Moral of the story is they never gave up and never listened to the talk. They just did the only thing they could do, play football. 

Back-to-back losses to open the season was not the way Bill O'Brien wanted to start. Especially with those losses coming to Ohio and on the road against Virginia. In their return to Beaver Stadium, the Nittany Lions got their first win by defeating Navy 34-7. The resilient team came to play every week after that winning 8 of their last 10 games and finishing 8-4 including a Senior Day win against Wisconsin. That would be good enough for a New Years Day bowl or potential BCS game but due to the sanctions Penn State was not eligible for postseason play. Coming into the 2013 season and his second season as head coach, Bill O'Brien brought in high school standout and one of the top recruits in the nation, quarterback Christian Hackenberg. O'Brien also had to replace that senior class that included All American defensive tackle Jordan Hill, fullback Michael Zordich, linebackers Michael Mauti and Gerald Hodges. Mauti was the heart and soul of not only the defense, but the entire team. The season started with a bang with wins against Syracuse and Eastern Michigan. The first loss of the season came in the third week of the season against future first round pick Blake Bortles and Central Florida. The Nittany Lions would go 5-4 over the next nine games and go on the finish with a 7-5 record. Questions arose after the season as to whether or not Bill O'Brien would stick around or head off to the NFL. When the Houston Texans came calling, O'Brien could not turn it down. The search for a new head coach was on again. Enter James Franklin. 

January 11th, 2014, James Franklin is named the 16th head coach at Penn State. Much like Bill O'Brien, people knew very little about Franklin. A native of Langhorn, Pennsylvania, Franklin made his name at Vanderbilt where he led the Commodores to three straight winning seasons and three straight bowl appearances (2-1 in those games). Vanderbilt had been a doormat for SEC teams to beat up on but after Franklin took over, he brought a little bit of swagger to the program. Along with being a great coach, he might be an even better recruiter. In his introductory press conference he said that Penn State would "dominate the state" in recruiting and so far up until this point he hasn't disappointed boasting a top 5 class for 2015. Don't forget he still has to deal with the limited scholarships. Franklin hasn't coached a game yet but has brought a certain level of energy to the team and it's being felt throughout the community. He wants to sell out every game the team plays in Beaver Stadium. More importantly he wants to win. The past two season have come around with much anticipation and excitement and this season looks to follow that trend. 

Penn State football has changed recently in more ways than one but one thing that will never change are the fans. From the season ticket holders of 50 years to the newborns going to their first game, and everyone in between. Those fans are what makes Penn State such a special and unique place. We've seen the dark times in Happy Valley and they were as dark as you could possibly get but no matter what is happening, winning or losing, and no matter who the head coach is, Penn State fans will always show up. The NCAA tried to decimate the program. They tried to take everything away from a proud university. They tried to kill the spirits of 107,000 strong. They did the opposite of those thing. All the negativity brought upon the school made it stronger and at the end of the day it brought a community closer together and made a group of fans proud to yell out "We Are!", with the hopes of an even louder response of "Penn State!"