James Franklin was looking for a hug.
Not just any hug. A Brent Pry hug.
And for good reason.
Penn State’s Troy Apke had just recovered a fumble by Michigan State quarterback Tyler O’Connor with just 2:54 left the third quarter at Beaver Stadium.
Penn State led, 24-12, but the Spartans were driving, seemingly having regained their mojo from a first half where they ran roughshod over the Nittany Lions’ defense – yet had only a 12-10 halftime lead to show for it.
Apke’s fumble recovery set off a chain reaction of events.
Franklin quickly grabbed the guy next to him, then turned to the Penn State sidelines. Searching, searching, Franklin finally found who he was looking for: defensive coordinator Brent Pry. Franklin sprinted the six yards to Pry, grabbed him in a bear hug, then erupted into a huge CJF grin.
Pry’s Guys had come through. Again.
And Franklin’s faith in naming his long-time friend as Penn State’s defensive coordinator in the off-season was well-founded. Again.
For the eighth consecutive game, Pry had orchestrated a second-half defensive strategy that shut down the other guy while Joe Moorpoint’s offense piled on…well, the points.
Pry stepped into the void when Bob Shoop left for Tennessee in the offseason and Penn State did not miss a beat. When Shoop told Franklin that he was leaving, Penn State’s head coach walked down the hall from his second-floor office in Lasch Building and handed the keys to the defense to Pry.
The move has paid off in spades.
Pry, who had been the co-coordinator under Shoop for five seasons – three at Vandy and two at Penn State – now had sole license to the defense. After Penn State lost all three starting linebackers – Brandon Bell, Jason Cabinda and Nyeem Wartman-White — just three games into the 2016 season, Pry could have had a big “Oh, s—“ moment. He didn’t.
As Pry explained to me the day after the Temple game, after coming off the practice field, it was a matter of next man up. It would become a motto for Penn State throughout an injury-filled 2016 season.
“The guys collectively set their jaws, got down and dirty, and were determined to play well,” said Pry, who did exactly the same thing himself. “We made some mistakes, but they were aggressive mistakes.”
Pry’s defense came through on Saturday night in Beaver Stadium, with a trip to the Big Ten Championship game on the line. Penn State not only punched its ticket for its first-ever trip to the title game, but it clinched the Big Ten East division and also won the Land Grant Trophy with the 45-12 victory over Michigan State.
In the first half, Michigan State piled up 256 yards of total offense and 17 first downs, with four drives of 11 or more plays, against the Nittany Lions. But even among that bad, was some Penn State good. MSU’s Michael Geiger made four first-half field goals, but Penn State’s defense stopped the Spartans at the PSU 11-, 19-, 16- and 3-yard lines.
‘We didn’t play the way we wanted to play in the first half,’ Franklin said after the game. ‘We did a great job when we got in the red zone and held them to field goals. The defense kept us in the game, to be honest with you.’
Bend, but don’t break. That’s what the Nittany Lion D has done for most of the season. Through eight starting linebackers and eight different starting D-lineman.
Pry knew the drill:
“An important aspect of coaching is to coach, teach and train them all the same. Everybody,” he said back in a September rife with injury. “And then expect the same from everybody. You try to get everyone to prepare as if they’re ‘The guy.’ You try to set a standard in that room for everyone. If they don’t think you have confidence in them, then they won’t have confidence in themselves.”
Over Penn State’s eight-game winning streak, the Nittany Lion defense has yielded just 53 second-half points. A nice complement, indeed, to the 215 second-half points put out by the PSU offense during that time.
“We have done a great job making adjustments at halftime,” Franklin said after the game. ”I think we need a better job earlier.”
In the second half against Michigan State, Penn State’s defense didn’t yield a single point and surrendered just 87 yards of total offense as Bell, in the final Beaver Stadium performance of his career, led PSU with 18 tackles. Fellow ‘backer Manny Bowen added nine tackles, while Cabinda and defensive end Garrett Sicklels both had eight.
Enough, one would think, to earn each of them a hug from Franklin as well.
