Penn State Football: All Told, Nittany Lions Did Better Than You Expected and Better Than Everyone Else

COLUMBUS, Ohio — As his teammates changed out of their pads and took an accounting of their new bruises, Penn State safety Lamont Wade had to break the silence.

‘I just told those guys that this sucks, you know? This is tough pill to swallow. It’s hard,’ Wade, who forced a Big Ten record-tying three fumbles and made 10 tackles, recalled. ‘But we fought so hard that it helped me hold my tears back. It held my tears back because of how hard we fought and I had to let those guys know that I was proud of every single one of them because we didn’t lay down when we could have and we punched back.’

It was a bittersweet moment for those in the room, one that underscored both the realities of the day — a hard-fought 28-17 loss to No. 2 Ohio State — but was also met by new standards the program holds itself to.

On the one hand, Penn State’s effort Saturday far surpassed the expectations of nearly all who watched from home or in person. The Nittany Lions were effectively a three touchdown underdog and a suddenly suspect defense paired with an inconsistent offense did little to provide confidence for fans hoping Penn State could land punches against perhaps the best team in America.

To a certain extent those things turned out to be true. Penn State’s offense, led by a hobbled Sean Clifford, was not particularly potent. And while the defense turned in a performance that gave the Nittany Lions just enough stops and turnovers to stay within reach, it was essentially overmatched from start to finish.

All the same, down 21-0 the Nittany Lions could have packed it in. They could have called it a day. Nobody would have blamed them and Ohio State would have been happy to provide the required bludgeoning to ease the pain.

But that moment never came.

‘We’ve got a strong locker room. We’ve got a bunch of really good guys,’ coach James Franklin said. ‘Everybody in there is totally invested and had a lot of confidence that we could come here and win and obviously going down 21-nothing against the number two team in the country is not ideal, but we battled… We’ve got to give them credit, they’ve done a really good job. They’re well coached are talented, but we got a pretty good team as well.’

The reality of course is that Penn State has passed the moment where it can feel good about well-intended defeats. The Nittany Lions have won nine or more games going on four straight seasons and have a conference title to show for it. Penn State is not burdened by sanctions, nor lacking for depth at most positions.

Still, the Nittany Lions are not Ohio State. The Buckeyes are supremely talented, well coached and deep at every level and at every position. Penn State’s march toward the elusive status as an ‘elite’ program in college football is a slog because becoming elite is a matter of splitting hairs. It is the accumulation of small battles won on and off the field, in the hearts and minds as well as the coffers and investments. There is no venue where James Franklin’s feet touch the ground where he is not competing.

Even so, Franklin, his staff and his player no longer accept those moral victories. Rejecting that notion is, in a sense, a battle won in its own right.

So there is a pain that lingers in Penn State’s locker room as Wade finishes his speech. They are proud, but they hurt. They are prideful but they have come up short. There will be no trip to Indy, no trip to the playoffs, no more big dreams to end 2019. There is Rutgers, and a bowl.

So how do you get back on that horse?

‘We’re fighting for the culture,’ linebacker Cam Brown said. ‘You can’t just look like a bunch of front runners and give up at the end of the year because your goals aren’t met. You gotta set new goals and you meet those.’

‘We have high standards and expectations for ourselves and we’ll never lose that for ourselves. That’s just kind of how Penn State is,’ running back Journey Brown added. ‘People thought we were a young team and wouldn’t be able to do what we did this year and we proved a lot of people wrong and we’re still going to.’

In the end, there is something to be said for that. The Nittany Lions showed up and played better than anyone expected, and better than everyone else who has tried the same.

Maybe it’s not elite, but if Penn State can continue to chase 10 or 11 wins and give Ohio State a scare even in the years when it shouldn’t, elite might not be that far off.