The symmetry is amazing. Stunning, even.
The last time Penn State was ranked No. 12 in the BCS poll was five years ago.
Almost to the day.
It came on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011. The BCS rankings had the Nittany Lions, with an 8-1 record, ranked 12th.
The BCS spot was based on Penn State’s across-the-board ranking of No. 12 in The Associated Press, Coaches and Harris Interactive polls.
There was no BCS College Football Playoff committee back then, only an aggregation of the three polls – the AP and Coaches polls, constructed by humans, and the Harris, factored via a complex computer formula.
For Penn State, No. 12 came on a bye week. But as it turned out, it was hardly a weekend off.
You may recognize the date. The day before — Nov. 5, 2011 – was the Saturday when the Sandusky scandal first hit. (Yes, five years to the day from Penn State’s game this Saturday against Iowa in Beaver Stadium.)
And a lot has happened since then. (You don’t need me to recap.)
NO. 12 IN ’11
Penn State’s No. 12 ranking in 2011 was constructed on a tough Tom Bradley defense that, through the first nine games, was yielding just 11.4 points per game. Meanwhile, the Penn State offense was alternating Matt McGloin and Rob Bolden at quarterback and relying heavily on running back Silas Redd, who had already rushed for 1,006 yards, reeling off five consecutive games of 129, 142, 131, 164 and 137 yards.
Redd’s 137 yards came on a career-high 30 carries in the darkness and the wind and the sleet of Beaver Stadium against Illinois on Oct. 29, when he ran for a 3-yard TD and a 10-7 lead with 68 seconds left in the game. Illinois rallied, however, advancing to the 35-yard line to set up a 42-yard goal attempt by Derek Dimke, who had not previously missed all season.
As Dimke set up to try the field goal, the Penn State students sitting in the south end zone seats rushed to the center of their section to distract Dimke. (Watch it here.) Dimke kicked, and the ball hit the right upright as time expired. It was the 409th and final victory of Joe Paterno’s career.
The win vaulted Penn State to No. 12.
IOWA, IOWA, IOWA, IOWA
A few weeks earlier in 2011, Penn State had beaten Iowa 13-3 in Beaver Stadium, forcing three fourth-quarter turnovers and holding a Hawkeye team that averaged 37.8 points per game to a solitary field goal.
That victory over Iowa was Penn State’s first in four games against the Hawkeyes and only the third of its previous dozen against Iowa – including a 26-23 double overtime loss by PSU in Beaver Stadium in 2000; a 42-35 OT loss by PSU at home in 2002, when Paterno chased down referee Dick Honig (watch it here at the 14:27 mark
James Franklin knows all about Iowa’s dominance of Penn State.
Near the start of his weekly post-practice media scrum on Wednesday, the Penn State coach pulled out a cheat sheet and for the next 69 seconds rattled off the stats behind Kirk Ferentz’s 8-4 dominance over Penn State since 1999 — despite being outscored 239-224. It was a grand performance capped off by Franklin saying, “Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa, Iowa and Iowa.” (That’s 11 in all.) Watch it here, beginning at the 49-second mark.
Franklin warmed up for that recitation during Tuesday’s press conference in the Beaver Stadium media room, when he fought off a question about the rankings by reciting Iowa seven times.
On Thursday, during his weekly radio program, he slipped up. Just a bit.
After offering only four Iowas, buried in the midst of a long-winded answer, he admitted, “…to be honest with you, I didn’t expect to be ranked 12th in the playoff rankings.”
Other than that weak moment, Franklin did a deft job throughout the week deflecting the newest No. 12 ranking, Penn State’s highest spot in the polls since the scandal hit.
But there’s no denying it, Penn State is back to No. 12. Although Penn State is No. 19 in the AP poll and No. 23 in the Coaches poll, the CFP committee put a great deal of credence into the Nittany Lions’ 24-21 upset of Ohio State, its 45-point second-half explosion at Purdue last Saturday and a four-game winning streak.
It’s a No. 12 that comes with meaning.
BACK TO SQUARE 12
Penn State, in some important ways, is back to where it started. And although it’s been a rocky journey for everyone along for the ride, The Return to Twelve was much faster than anyone thought. Or even had a right to. Mad props to Franklin for that.
Franklin’s predecessor, Bill O’Brien, used to say with great frequency, “We understand why we are in the situation we are in.”
With even greater frequency, over his 1,027 days at Penn State, Franklin has said, “I get it.”
I like how the late essayist and social critic James Baldwin put it: “Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.”
Another famous writer once penned that the past is prologue. And, as we learned last week and again this week, all that prologue is not yet over. But 12 it is. And this 12 is different. This time, Penn Staters and Penn State are more humble. More grateful.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON 12
Twelve is a great number — 12 months, 12 disciples, 12 days of Christmas, 12 to a dozen. Twelve is also the smallest number that can be divided by 6 different digits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12.
I thought for sure – was hoping, actually — Franklin would be a 12 guy. So I checked his jersey number at East Stroudsburg. It was 9. So I checked his jersey number at Neshaminy High School. It was 11.
Then I found it: Lore has it that No. 1 means “Stay positive” and No. 2 means “Keep the faith.”
So 12?
Yeah, James Franklin has its number.
