One senior captain was in the Hershey Medical Center, recovering after being admitted in critical condition.
A fifth-year captain, sidelined all season and many hope on the cusp of coming back soon, was at midfield for the pre-game non-handshake — wearing blue sweats and not in uniform.
The 2,108-yard career rusher – also a fifth-year senior – didn’t play, his career over after a leg injury suffered on the opening kickoff last week.
A three-year starting offensive tackle, the only O-lineman with any starts heading into the 2014 season, hadn’t practiced all week and did not play.
Ryan Keiser, Miles Dieffenbach, Zach Zwinak, Donovan Smith. Owners of 73 starts, over 20% of the entire roster. Out, out, out, and out.
Still, Penn State held a lead over Maryland for 32:17 of Saturday’s 60-minute contest in Beaver Stadium, all the way down to the final 51 seconds of the game. That’s when Maryland’s Brad Craddock made a 43-yard field goal to beat Penn State, 20-19.
“It’s rough losing,” said defensive tackle Austin Johnson. “No one likes losing. No matter how you play or the defense plays, it doesn’t matter. It sucks to lose. Winning …,” he started talking slowly and very surely, “… is … what you want to do.”
GETTING DEFENSIVE
Johnson and his defensive teammates did almost everything you need to do to win. They had six sacks, including one by Johnson and two by defensive end Deion Barnes. They had nine tackles for a loss, including one by Johnson, two by Barnes and two by defensive tackle Garrett Sickels.
They recovered two fumbles and allowed Maryland just one first down on 14 third-down attempts. They gave up just 33 yards on 30 Terrapin rushes. They held Maryland to 18 yards or less on 14 of the Terps’ 18 drives – three of those drives actually lost yards and seven more were for nine yards or less.
Doesn’t matter, said Johnson. Both he and Barnes said after the game that the Nittany Lion defense needs to bow up. (Merriam-Webster.com: intransitive verbdialectal; bow up: to reach the limit of one’s patience and rebel.)
“When we have a change of possession we have to bow up like we have the entire season,” Johnson said. “We just have to do it more. We have to allow less touchdowns, less yards, and hopefully come out of it with a W.”
“Well, how much more can you really do at this point?” I asked Johnson, a leader on a Penn State defense that is just one of three teams in college football’s Top 10 for rushing defense, fewest points allowed and fewest yards allowed.
“The other team doesn’t score, we win,” Johnson said. With a straight face.
IT’S OFFENSIVE
Penn State’s offense has been scoring-challenged all season. Take away the game against UMass (which is in the midst of a three-season, 4-29 run), and the Nittany Lions have averaged 17.4 points per game. In five Big Ten contests, they are averaging 15 ppg. Not counting TDs by defensive lineman Anthony Zettel in conference games, it’s down to 13.6 ppg.
This may be the most telling number of them all: In 2013, Penn State scored 43 touchdowns and made 15 field goals. Two-thirds of the way through the 2014 season, the Nittany Lions have scored 17 touchdowns and made 17 field goals – thanks to Sam Ficken’s four kicks of 25, 46, 47 and 48 yards on Saturday.
“Since Week One we understand that (not scoring points) is an adversity we have to face,” Barnes said. “We have to bow up and do better than what we did.
“The young guys have to understand that we need to get better. We have to do better, because obviously it’s not enough. We have to do enough to the point where we can get that win. Bust that streak.”
In a lot of ways – OK, more ways than any college football program has ever experienced – it’s been a streak of bad luck. The list of reasons why is incredibly long. No need repeating everything again, although it is interesting to note that this week will mark three years since the Sandusky scandal broke.
A HULL-ISTIC REALISTIC VIEW
Fifth-year senior linebacker Mike Hull – having a Positively Posluszny-like season – knew exactly what I was getting at when I asked him, “Are there any challenges you guys haven’t faced the past four years?”
Hull offered a half-grin and a quarter-chuckle. “I don’t think so,” he replied. “In the grand scheme of things, four losses are really nothing compared to what we’ve been through the last four, five years.”
Then Hull drifted back into captain-speak: “The seniors and the guys who have been around for a few years need to get the team ready to play every week. Especially from a defensive standpoint, we need to come out and focus on what we’ve done all year … We’ll have a team meeting. Talk to them about where we stand. And then go out there and show them what we mean.”
By them, he means the younger players. Of which there are dozens. We know the Nittany Lions are in theory the second-youngest team in all of major college football team. Here are some of the numbers to show you what that looks like in practice:
Coach James Franklin has 13 first-time starters in 2014, two on defense and 11 on offense. That includes Saturday’s trio of tight end Mike Gesicki (part of a three-tight end set), center Wendy Laurent (at center, since Smith and Dieffenbach were on the sidelines and regular center Angelo Mangiro was pitching relief to his far right) and running back Akeel Lynch (in part because Zwinak is out). Troy Apke played in his first game on Saturday, eschewing a very likely freshman redshirt season after Keiser’s college career ended due to internal injuries. Apke is one of nine true freshmen who has played in 2014.
CENTERED APPROACH
Mangiro is a senior with junior eligibility. He never started a game until 63 days ago in Ireland. That was at center. Now, he’s a starting right tackle and has played three different positions on the O-line. He’s what passes for a grizzled veteran these days.
“It’s tough,” Mangiro said. “Zach’s a good friend of mine. So is Keiser. We missed those guys this week. Not just having them on the field, but being around. Hopefully they have a speedy recovery.”
But…
“You have to play with who you have,” Mangiro added. “Fans want results and the team needs results. It’s next guy up and do what we have to in order to win a game.
“We prepared this week like we weren’t going to have those guys. You just have to be ready to play because there are a whole lot of fans who don’t care if you’re switching positions. They just want results.”
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