Paterno: Keep the Faith and Stand Your Ground, Penn State Fans

One of the great leadership lessons from Lincoln was the lesson of the letter. When he was angry, he would write a letter to the person who’d angered him. He’d put the letter in a desk drawer overnight and then re-read what he’d written the next morning. Most of the time he’d tear up the letter and use his energy toward correcting the issue and move on to the next challenge.

In the era of social media that lesson has been lost to the ages…

Friday night, as the Penn State game at Northwestern was unfolding, many took to their social media accounts to vent anger long before the game had ended. 

As I watched the game, I too was emotional, but my response was not aimed at coaches or players. It was aimed at the impatience of the critics. Rather than react in the moment, I put those emotions in a metaphorical drawer to gain perspective.

Everyone loves the blame game; coaches, the athletic director and any number of players have taken incoming fire. What no one wanted to acknowledge was this; Northwestern is an older, veteran team. If both Northwestern and Wisconsin were SEC teams they’d be ranked. 

Kentucky is No. 25 in the coaches’ poll with wins over currently unranked Texas A&M and South Carolina and a blowout loss to current No. 6 Alabama (45-17). Northwestern is unranked with double digit wins over currently unranked Colorado and Penn State and a lone 29-23 loss at current No. 7 Indiana. Wisconsin has a loss against No. 4 Notre Dame (41-13) and wins over Michigan State (31-3) and Penn State (24-20).

And just for a point of reference for some who’ve talked about the previous PSU coach, heading into Friday night’s game Penn State’s record against Northwestern since 2014 was 3-3. 

Some have complained about payroll and name, image and likeness (NIL) money issues,  largely driven by a story in The Athletic highlighting the estimated revenue sharing/NIL budgets for college football teams. That speculation has sparked more online fodder for the grist mill. 

In the summer of 2023, a cocky NIL consultant called to tell me that the NIL collective Success with Honor was going to be merged into a new entity. At the time, Success with Honor had contracts with all 85 scholarship football players and student-athletes in all 31 sports. And at the time it had raised millions of dollars; roughly 60 times the money the other collective had raised. It had even been the feature of an NBC News story that highlighted it as the gold standard.

When that consultant informed me of the merger, I stated “If you think that’s best, go ahead. Just understand that you own everything that comes after this.” 

Now that things have not gone as well as they expected, fans are venting.

But now is not the time for a Festivus-style “Airing of Grievances.” What matters is what comes next.

Knee-jerk oversteering never won a game. Panic and emotions lead to decisions that collapse when the storm arrives. Rational foundations built on rock are what will endure.

And to be fair, after a long coaching search, Matt Campbell’s journey to build the right long-term foundations started at a disadvantage. A 7-6 team roster and its recruiting class were gutted and raided, resulting in a complete rebuild of the roster and program.

But griping about that now accomplishes nothing. 

Winners don’t wallow in setbacks, or waste time blaming others; they value accountability. They jump into the fire to see where they can make the necessary changes for sustained excellence. And they do it without trading enduring fundamentals for short-term gains that never last.

That requires weathering criticism. Years ago, some people (coaches included) wanted to blow a talented freshman player’s redshirt year to get another win or two. We resisted that impatience and in 2005 that player’s redshirt senior year resulted in a Big Ten title.

Want more proof? Look no further than the winningest Division I coaches in football and men’s basketball history.

Joe Paterno took over a team that had gone 5-5. In his first year Penn State finished 5-5 with losses to Army and Syracuse and big losses at No. 5 Georgia Tech, at No. 4 UCLA, and at No. 1 Michigan State. 

The offseason was filled with second guessing. That criticism did not wane following the 1967 season-opening loss at Navy. For the faithful who remained, they were rewarded as coaches and players built a program that became a model of sustained excellence.

Mike Krzyzewski came to Duke basketball in 1980 after five seasons at Army. In his first three years he went 17-13, 10-17 and 11-17. Many wondered if the Duke job was too big for him. His long-term vision carried the day, but only because he was allowed to build it into reality.

Times have changed. People are more impatient. Money issues are everywhere. I know fans look at players and coaches making more money and see them differently than they used to. But what has not changed is that the baseline foundations of sustainable success take time to be set. And that comes from leaders who believe in things that people on the outside sometimes cannot or will not see.

In Matt Campbell, Penn State has a coach who takes accountability. Penn State has a coach and a program with long-term goals whose journey transcends the temporary setbacks that come week to week. Real leaders are too smart and too strong to have their faith shaken after just five games of a complete rebuild. 

Now is the time to ignore the braying jackasses of social media. Games are not won listening to them.

True Penn Staters are above all that. True Penn Staters will wear white on Saturday night and will put all their energy and juice into supporting this team. They will use their voices to unite in common cause to build a vision for the future that we may not be able to see just yet.

It all comes down to belief, and true Nittany Lions have never let the short-team fears shake the faith in that which is yet unseen. 

And to close, one more example from history. In Cheyenne culture, there was an elite group of warriors that were called “Dog Soldiers.” When their homes were attacked that drove a stake in the ground and attached themselves to it with a long rope. It was a statement that they would stand their ground and defend their home at all costs. It was the ultimate sign of loyalty to one another.

If I know this place and our people, we will see lots of stakes in the ground on Saturday night.