ARLINGTON, Texas — Micah Parsons is smiling. He ought to be; for nearly his entire life people have wanted this moment from him. He has always been burdened by his own potential, saddled with the weight of his own talent and the expectations that come with it. His talent crackles like a fission reactor; he is dangerous to the touch, and quietly growing stronger.
Micah Parsons is smiling because he has reached something different inside of himself. Expectations are becoming reality. His talents are becoming a weapon that he is able to wield without hesitation or caution.
One would be hard-pressed to call his performance (14 tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles, a quarterback hurry that led to an interception and nearly two interceptions of his own) anything but transcendent. Penn State’s 53-39 victory over Memphis in the Cotton Bowl was important in the broad history of the Nittany Lion football program, but even more so in the life of Micah Parsons, a player who has been very good since the day he stepped on campus, but always chasing the player he can still become — the player he was for nearly four hours on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Dallas.
If it felt as though the feeling of awe Saquon Barkley gave onlookers as he danced across the field was a generational thing, Parsons was not far behind on Saturday, flying untouched around the field, tackling with no fear, breaking up plays and changing the game nearly by a force of will.
“This was another level. This was my best game,” Parsons says, a Cotton Bowl championship t-shirt covering his shoulder pads, a smile still flashed across his face.
Deeper into AT&T Stadium, Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry is looking for Parsons. He wants a picture with the trophy, but he can’t find his soon-to-be junior linebacker. He motions to senior Jan Johnson.
“Go find Micah!”
But he can’t. Nobody can. Then again, they’re looking in the wrong room.
“Right now, you’re going to have to show me somebody going into next football season better than Micah Parsons,” Pry says in his southern drawl. According to Pry there was nothing surprising about Parson’s performance, and in fairness there shouldn’t have been. Parsons, a first team All-American, has been excellent all year and has shined in the season’s biggest moments.
Why would this Saturday be any different than all the others?
“On the biggest stage, he’s going to perform his best,” Pry says. “He is an absolute top-notch competitor. He’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met. There are guys who are clutch guys. He wants his number called, he beat me up all game to blitz his ass. He’s just one of those guys. He can perform under pressure.”
All the same, Pry still can’t find him, so he waits for that photo.
Senior linebacker Cam Brown just shakes his head when he talks about Parsons. There may not be surprise attached to what Parsons has just done, but there is appreciation both of the performance itself and the passing of the torch. As a player who has played his final game of college football, Brown can breathe a sigh of relief knowing Penn State is better than how he found it. The ship is in good hands.
“He told me he was going to give me 110% my last game and he was a man of his word after that,” Brown says, a hat cocked sideways on his head.
“The kid plays hard all the time.”
Down the hall that kid is holding court. He’s answering questions about the Heisman trophy in 2020. He’s talking about his mistakes, his strengths and weaknesses. He’s talking about the rain. He loves playing in the rain, apparently, and as the clouds rolled through Dallas and fat drops rolled down the glass windows of AT&T Stadium, Parsons texted his mother. There was a storm coming.
And it hit Memphis.
“You don’t live by a standard. You set the standard,” Parsons says.
Still waiting for that photo, Pry is thinking about the week that was. He swears to God that Parsons wanted to be named the defensive MVP of the bowl, that nobody was more excited about this game than Parsons, that nobody was ready to show their skills more than him.
Ever the critical and guiding hand, Pry laughs when he thinks about all the times Parsons told him about winning that award during practice.
“I said, ‘You might be (named MVP) but get your pads rolled over and get your knees bent because you look sloppy as shit today.”
Parsons has finally finished his media session and beings to navigate the crowd, he shakes a hand, says thank you a lot and finally glides into the locker room where a picture with Pry awaits, and a bright future beyond it.
A good reason to smile in the rain.
