The last time Penn State played in Champaign, Ill., it was a .500 team still raw and bloodied from scandal, sanctions and stolen teammates.
Mike Mauti, Matt McGloin and Bill O’Brien helped change all that.
On Saturday, the Nittany Lions return to the scene of the sublime – where they beat their mortal enemy, Tim Beckman, and the Illini, 35-7, back in 2012. It was a statement game and one that set the tenor for the next three seasons.
From that day forward, Penn State was not going away — Mark Twain their words: “…the report of my death was an exaggeration.”
For 2012-2014, Penn State has been in the top third of college football. Its 21-13 record over the three most-recent seasons represents a .618 winning percentage, No. 43 among the 123 BCS teams playing all three seasons.
That ranks them fifth among the 14 teams in the Big Ten, behind Ohio State (No. 2 nationally, 33-3), Michigan State (13th, 28-9), Nebraska (20th, 27-10) and Wisconsin (30th, 25-12). Among those behind Penn State is Michigan, at No. 65 with a 20-16 record, while Florida State (36-2, 94.7%) is No. 1. (Numbers crunched by Andy Wiesner, the official Sports Stats Prof for this column.)
What’s been the constant for Penn State? Its players.
McSAGE McGLOIN ADVICE
Listen to McGloin, who was a force of nature at quarterback in the 2012 season, passing and discount double-checking Penn State to an 8-5 record, winning eight of their last 10 games. Now in his second season with the Oakland Raiders, McGloin gave his take this week on how and why Penn State proved nearly everyone wrong.
Then…
“I think guys realized that we had a tradition to uphold at Penn State,” McGloin said on Wednesday from California. “We understood that we could not control the situation and that we had to learn to deal with it. And once we saw the support from family, friends, alumni, the student body and so many others, we took it upon ourselves to not only try to save Penn State football but to try to save Penn State University.”
And now…
“I’m just proud of the way the current players continue to play with pride,” said McGloin, who was at the Blue-White Game and catches Penn State’s games on TV when not in Saturday team meetings. “I hope they pass down that mindset that we are now playing for so much more than just football.”
FRANKLIN’S THICK SKIN
Let’s get this straight. It’s not like Norman Vincent Franklin is hitting the recruiting trail exclaiming, “We’re No. 43, we’re No. 43.”
But again, Penn State is in the upper one-third of college football and, basically, the Big Ten. That’s a lot better than having to fight your way back from a death penalty or reduced-scholarship purgatory.
Franklin, who has been at Penn State for 10 months and 10 games, offers a unique perspective on the resiliency and resolve of the Penn State players who went to Illinois 26 months ago. Many are still on the team. That line of players extends into the present-day. Players like Christian Hackenberg (having displayed great loyalty and eschewed opportunities to leave PSU time and time again) and Mike Hull have been bearers of the standards articulated by McGloin. They all came to Penn State thinking, at the very least, that they would bowl-less.
When Franklin arrived at Vanderbilt in December 2010, the Commodores were coming off back-to-back 2-10 seasons. Only six teams in all of major college football had fewer wins than Vandy’s four victories in the 2009-10 seasons. Although he’s a forward-looking kind of guy, Franklin has an appreciation for what and how Penn State’s players made it through the storm.
“The more you go through it, the better you get at it,” Franklin offered on Wednesday evening, just after practice concluded in Holuba Hall. “Let’s be honest. Those guys over the past three years have heard a lot of stuff, from a lot of different angles and a lot of different perspectives.
“And you become a little bit more thick-skinned. Whether it’s specifically about you or your family or your team or organization or community, it affects you. It affects you because you care so much. That’s what I want. I want them to care. People making comments doesn’t bother you unless you care – what you care about what you’re doing, care about what you represent.
“The fact that the guys have been through a lot in the past three, four years – whether it’s change or criticism – I think it helps.”
O’Brien’s take on it all was a bit more succinct, as we learned after Penn State beat Wisconsin, 24-21, in overtime in the 2012 season finale. AS he noted seconds off the game, “Those kids are a bunch of f(ight)ers.” Watch it here.
CELEBRATE IN CHAMPAIGN
The Sept. 29, 2012, game on a very sunny day in Champaign was a turning point for Penn State. And it didn’t turn downward.
Penn State entered that contest — their first Big Ten game of the season and O’Brien’s first conference game as a head coach – with a 2-2 record after losing to Ohio and Virginia in games they would have won under normal circumstances, and beating then Navy and Temple.
Mauti was the star of the show. The senior linebacker and team leader grabbed a pair of interceptions, taking the first one 99 yards at the end of the first half, only to be tackled a yard from the goal line as time expired. He also had six tackles, a half-sack and a crunching hit on the punt team that caused an Illinois fumble, which led to a Penn State touchdown. Watch that tackle and pick-almost-six by clicking here. The interception, followed by lots of replays and good angles, is at the 3:56 mark.
Against the Illini, McGloin threw for 211 yards and a TD on 18 of 30 passing, and ran for a pair of scores. Zach Zwinak added 100 yards on 19 carries, while Bill Belton rushed 19 times for 65 yards.
“It was sweet,” Mauti said after the game, still fired up after beating Beckman, whose entire staff trolled State College a few months earlier in hopes of convincing Mauti’s teammates to transfer. All they got was third-stringer Ryan Nowicki. “We hadn’t forgotten what happened over the summer. To be honest with you, that was at the back of mind and it kept us going.”
Just for reference’s sake, with Beckman at the helm (and likely for not much longer) over the past three seasons, the Illini have had a 10-24 record. That’s a winning percentage of 29.4% and ranks them 105th among major college programs from 2012-2014.
PENN STATE’S NUMBER: 62%
Meantime and somewhat amazingly, the Penn State players and two distinctly different head coaches and their staffs have literally matched the status quo for Penn State football. Penn State went a solid 27-10 (69.2%) from 2009-2011, but that was actually an anomaly, believe it or not. Right around 62% has been the Nittany Lion norm.
Over the course of its 183 games in the 21st century, Penn State has won 62.3% of them (114-69). Over Joe Paterno’s final 200 games (I long ago vacated any notion of acknowledging the vacating), his teams went 125-75, which means they won 62.5% of their games. Bill O’Brien had a 15-9 record … yep, 62.5%.
And if the 2014 edition of the Nittany Lions go a conceivable 2-1 in their final three games – Illinois, Michigan State, bowl game – they’ll finish having won 62.16% of their games.
The NCAA may have been bluffing, but on the field Penn State football didn’t fold. They just made 62% the hard way.
On Saturday, Champaign for everyone.
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