In Praise of Saturday’s Whiteout: How Penn State’s Sanction Error is Better Than The Dark Years

From 2000 to 2004, Penn State was 16-24 in the Big Ten.

And 26-33 overall.

With one winning season in five, they were called The Dark Years for good – and bad – reasons.

Unlike many of the valleys Penn State has seen over the past four years, the tough times back then were not administered by the treacherous and unfair hand of the NCAA.

In fact, by comparison Penn State has performed much better during The Sanction Error, from 2012 to today, when the NCAA’s limitations on scholarships and bowl appearances deliberately hindered the Nittany Lions’ ability to compete and recruit.

Or so people thought. In reality and in its totality, Penn State has performed better on the field over the past four seasons than most reasonable people originally ever thought it would. Back then – although not now.

Now, eight losses by a touchdown or less over the past four seasons, 101 sacks of Christian Hackenberg and unsuccessful play-calls from inside the 10 stick in fans’ crawls and are not what some folks would call reasonable. However, a 43-40 four overtime win over Michigan in 2013, followed by a 63-14 loss at Ohio State were both equally understandable. The scandal and its effects were still raw, tangible.

If the NCAA had had its way, that beat-down in The Shoe would be more of the norm now and for the next few years. If the sanctions had totally played out, the 2015 version of Penn State’s football team would have only 65 scholarship players and be looking at signing its fourth consecutive class of 15 scholarship players come the 2016 National Letter of Intent Day.

Think about it.

If that had been the case, can you imagine how badly Jim Harbaugh’s veteran-laden Michigan team would have laid one on the sanction-fied Nittany Lions on Saturday? Far worse than 28-16, I would imagine.

And do you think there would have been a Whiteout crowd of 107,418 showing up for a noon kickoff on the third Saturday in November, the day after the start of Thanksgiving break? Probably not.

(Although here’s the thing about Whiteouts: Fans come, win or lose. And it’s been mostly lose. Dating back to its 21-10 loss to Iowa, Penn State is 2-5 in Whiteout games, with losses in four of its last five Whiteouts. The outlier? That 4OT victory over Michigan in 2013, a mixture of Brady Hoke give-aways and those Penn State fighters Billieving.)

SANCTIONED VICTORIES

As it is, Penn State is guaranteed to survive The Sanction Error with nary a losing record – considered nearly impossible this time four years ago. Granted, 8-4, 7-5, 7-6 and 7-4 are not great. In fact, from 2012-15 Penn State has been a decidedly middle-of-the-road team in a watered-down Big Ten (thanks Rutgers and Maryland). Its 16-15 conference record over the past four years ranks its seventh in the Big Ten, while its 29-19 overall mark has it tied for sixth with Northwestern.

Penn State has done it with a revolving door of coaches, of shifting rules, under truly unique circumstances. Compare that to 2000-04, when any of Penn State’s limitations were entirely self-imposed.

Penn State’s 16-24 conference mark during that time tied it for eighth in an 11-team league. And its 26-33 overall mark was ninth among the conference teams, ahead of only Illinois (24-33) and Indiana (16-41). A decade later, some things never change, unless you count Purdue’s movement to the Big Ten basement.

Not that Penn State fans were particularly happy about it back then, either.

Joe Paterno, for all of his hundreds of victories and two national championships, was the target of everyone’s criticism. His school president, as well as fans, alumni, and local and national media alike were calling for his resignation.

Paterno, who was 74 when the Dark Years started and 79 when they ended, called for patience. He was given the 2005 season to turn things around – and he did, as the Nittany Lions went 11-1 and finished third in the nation. Over the ensuing five-year stretch, Paterno’s teams won a share of two conference titles, with an overall record of 51-13 and a Big Ten record of 29-11.

PATIENCE: JOE VS. JAMES

This is not to say that similar patience accorded James Franklin is going to produce the same results. It’s just to point out a little context. A big difference, of course, is that Paterno built up a crater-sized bucket of goodwill, which carried him through the very tough times.

Franklin came strong out of the gate, with promises of healing and #107k and No. 1’s and a special teams coach that said back in January 2014 that his units would play at a “suicide pace; we’ll be the first fast-paced, no huddle, special teams you’ve seen. So that’s how we’re going to be. It will be fun and exciting. The fans will love it, the coaches will love it and I’ll love it.”

On Saturday, you had to look no further than Penn State’s special teams to see evidence of the sanctions’ impact. The special teams didn’t look very special – although they had a bit of that suicidal thing going on after a fumbled punt and a game- and back-breaking fourth-quarter 55-yard kickoff return by Michigan’s Jourdan Lewis.

How’s this for a metaphor:

The Nittany Lions’ third field goal attempt against Michigan was partially blocked yet whimpered crazily over the goal post from all of 18 yards out, good for three points that tightened Michigan’s lead to 21-16. It was a play that many fans booed (they wanted to Franklin to go for it on fourth-and-1). It was kicked by Tyler Davis, who never played a snap of high school football and as a former soccer player at Bradley came to Penn State in 2013, figuring it was his best shot at being a major college place-kicker. (The sanctions, you know.) Davis was kicking in place of the lovable and voluminous Big Toe Julius, another former soccer player and another walk-on who came to Penn State in hopes of fighting for a place on a roster stretched thin enough to make room for a 261-pound kicker.

And by the time the day was done, returning punts was 5-foot-10, 158-pound Gregg Garrity, a walk-on and legacy who came to campus in hopes of earning playing time and helping out the short-handed football team that once featured his grandfather (Jim, 1954 team captain) and father (Gregg, 1983 Sugar Bowl star).

There was a punt blocked by senior captain Von Walker, a former walk-on who came to Penn State under O’Brien and the early clouds of the sanction. Walker was a poster boy for O’Brien’s run-on program, which was to be the salvation and the heart and soul of Penn State football while the sanctions did their dirty work. Walker, Big Toe, Garrity – all true student-athletes, and all Pennsylvania natives with a Penn State heart and Nittany Lion dreams magnified by the onerous rulings of the NCAA.

Franklin came to Penn State on the 11-day heels of O’Brien, who came on the heels of the biggest scandal in college athletics. And while that was four years ago – and counting — for six years, Penn State been basically status so-so quo. Penn State went 7-6 under Paterno in 2010. After an 8-1 start in 2011, he was fired and Tom Bradley tried to hold things together. But the result was a 1-3 finish and a record of 16-10 in 2010-11. In 2012-13, O’Brien went 15-9. Franklin is 14-11.

They’re all kind of the same thing. But we know they are not. Fans – short for fanatics – want more.

EXPECTATIONS

Franklin knows that. He lives it. But for now, with a lay of the land and an understanding that expectations have not been lessened due to the sanctions – or, especially, now that all the sanctions have been lifted – he’s laid off the promises. And has kept pushing hard on the recruiting.

Incoming players are a big part of the Nittany Lions’ future. But only part. Penn State fans want success at a rate much higher than The Dark Years or even The Sanction Error. For many, losing 28-16 to Michigan, with three field goals to show for three trips to the red zone, is not acceptable.

Then again, losing nine consecutive times to Michigan from 1997 to 2007 wasn’t acceptable, either. But it happened.

People don’t really forget that Penn State last beat a Top 5 team in 1999. Or that its last national championship came three decades ago. They just act like they do. And they don’t like to be reminded about, either – whether it’s by an Ohio State Buckeye or their own head coach.

Franklin has said managing expectations has been the toughest part of his job. That will not subside any time soon, if ever. In fact, it will only get more difficult. Those unfulfilled expectations are reason, in part, that volumes of former players and former coaches and huge blocks of alumni have not flocked to Franklin’s side – which has made his job all the tougher.

It’s a climb. Penn State is 1-5 over its last six Senior Days and 5-7 in Whiteouts since 2004. Penn State was late getting into the facilities and arms races, Paterno eschewing the high-end financial investments many have made in 21st century major college football.

Fiscally, it helped Penn State immeasurably. On the field? Maybe not so much. If Penn State loses to Michigan State on Saturday and finishes 4-4 in the Big Ten, it will be the ninth season since 2000 that the Nittany Lions have finished .500 – or worse – in the Big Ten Conference.

A DISPATCH FROM COLUMBUS

A friend of mine covered Saturday’s Penn State-Michigan for a newspaper in Columbus, in advance of The Game this weekend. He has a front-row seat for the Big Ten East division, with Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State on his regular beat. He’s been at it for quite awhile, so I trust his judgment. He’s smart and clever. And honest.

“What do people think of James Franklin and Penn State?” I asked him in the press box, watching warm-ups.

“They don’t,” he replied, matter-of-factly.

“They don’t think much of Franklin?” I asked, as he raised an eyebrow.

“No, they don’t think much about him or Penn State,” he answered. “They don’t come up. They don’t matter.”

I get what he means. All those 4-4’s.

Of course, Penn State matters. Beaver Stadium showed that again on Saturday. The 107,418 who had come despite the hell of a noon kick and the high water of the Thanksgiving break that started Friday afternoon for 22,000 Penn State student ticket-holders proved it, too.

The sanctions didn’t defeat Penn State. The Nittany Lions showed that 29 times over the past four seasons.

Penn State has just about made it through its second set of dark years over the past 15. But how soon the next 2005 — let alone the next 1982 or 1986 or 1994 — arrives is anyone’s guess.