Penn State’s new jerseys are old again.
Penn State’s old jerseys are new again.
Times change. And sometimes they change again. No Names On Jerseys is the New No Names On Jerseys.
For James Franklin and Nittany Lion football, it’s another two steps forward by taking one step back in Penn State history.
It’s hard to market a 128-year-old tradition and sell the Blue and White brand when a hallmark of the program is something that’s nothing (no names on the jerseys) and it’s no longer there (but player names are).
It’s hard to say there’s no “I” in team – Penn State – but it’s there, on the backs of Lewis and Hamilton and Gesicki (twice!) and Galimberti (twice again!!) and Sickels and Smith and Idemudia.
Adroitly, Franklin waited a season until pulling his own version of “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall.” The Penn State second-year coach tested the waters in his first year, unveiling nameless jerseys for Penn State’s Homecoming game last season against Northwestern after a 4-0 start. Emotion and offense were namely missing for the Nittany Lions that day as they mustered only two (Sam) FICKEN field goals against Northwestern’s 29 points.
WIT AND WITOUT
That made Penn State 7-5 while wearing names in 2014. Under naming architect Bill O’Brien, the Nittany Lions were 8-4 in 2012 and 7-5 in 2013. That makes Penn State 22-14 wearing names and 827-362-42 when not. In Philly cheesesteak parlance – which Langhorne native Franklin can certainly understand – that’s 61.1% wit and 68.9% witout.
So, traditionally, the percentages are witout.
Franklin, correctly, put O’Brien’s decision to add names to Penn State’s jerseys at the start of the 2012 into perspective. “It was the right thing to do at the right time.” I concur.
To further add an A-OK to B-OB’s decision: The names on the jerseys were a reward for the players who stayed with the program after the draconian penalties issued by the NCAA. O’Brien wanted fans to know, and in plain view, who committed to Penn State.
It would have made quite the statement if the announcement had come next Thursday – a week from now. That would have been the three-year anniversary of the day the NCAA first announced the sanctions against Penn State. It would’ve truly been back to the future next week, but not starring Michael J. Fox. The stars then were – and should still be remembered as such now and forever – Michael Mauti and Michael Zordich.
It was 1,088 days ago when the NCAA dictated that this is what it wanted Penn State football to look like in 2015: a third straight 15-scholarship recruiting class, a 65-scholarship roster and no postseason play.
Instead, this is what Penn State football looks like in 2015: consecutive 25-scholarship recruiting classes, as many as 85 scholarship players on the roster and almost a lock to go to their second straight postseason game. Heck, it’s possible to even conceive of a 6-0 start.
SUPER SIX
Six current Penn State football players truly knew Mike & Mike a year before that 2012 lion in the sand. Their unis have come been full circle, back to where they started. A half-dozen players on today’s roster began their Penn State careers in 2011, wearing jerseys with no names. Now, those players – Anthony Zettel, Ben Kline, Angelo Mangiro, Carl Nassib, Kyle Carter and Matt Zanellato — finish their PSU careers in 2015 wearing jerseys with no names.
Mangiro, from New Jersey, will be wearing an old jersey.
We’ll no longer have on-the-field visual verification on how in the L to spell Zettel or Zanellato. Nassib can go back to being Nassab and Kline can be Klein.
And Carter sans moniker may or may not invoke memories of such nameless – and faceless — Penn State tight ends who also wore 87s, like Gino Raneri and Derek Van Nort.
You can bet the program vets won’t miss the eyes on their backs.
Mangiro Tweeted this on Thursday: “When Coach O’Brien came and put names on the uniforms to honor the players that stayed; I was extremely moved. I understood the history that surrounded our program and the basic whites and blues. I was thankful for Coach O’Brien to make that tough decision, and I felt that it was very appropriate at that time. But, that was then and this is now.”
And Kline succinctly Tweeted this, earning 323 favorites and 165 Retweets in nine hours: “No names, all game.”
GONE IN A SWOOSH
So once again, Penn State’s jerseys are different. But not totally. Thirteen other teams wear the Big Ten logo. That’s understandable.
But if Penn State’s jerseys are to truly stand alone, maybe the Nike logo should go next, cut off by a Barbour or shaved away by a smooth-pated head coach. Probably not, though. While there is an “i” in Nike, there is also traditionally plenty of $$$. Then again, traditionally, the swoosh has not been on PSU jerseys very long – since just 1994. That was Year No. 108 of Penn State football.
Ironically, the last time – and maybe, the very last time — that Penn State’s iconic jersey was adorned with a player’s name came in the 2014 Pinstripe Bowl, itself an eponymous postseason nod to perhaps the most iconic, biggest no-name jersey in all of sport.
That means the extra point by FICKEN not only meant a walk-off victory, but also the demise of another symbol of the Sanction Error.
