Penn State’s 35-16 victory over Michigan State on Saturday gave the Nittany Lions their fourth 10-win regular season in the past seven seasons the hard way.
Winning double-digit games in a regular season is tougher than it looks.
Since joining the Big Ten Conference in 1993, Penn State has had 10 or more regular season wins nine times. Four have come under head coach James Franklin (2016, 2017, 2019 and now 2022).
In that time, there have been 19 seasons where Penn State has played a dozen regular season games, including every year since 2005. Only twice has Penn State won 11 regular season games, in 1994 (going 11-0) and 2008 (11-1).
The 2022 Nittany Lions and their 10-2 regular season record (7-2 in the Big Ten) won’t match either of those teams. But they — and their veteran quarterback Sean Clifford — were sneaky similar. And good. At times, the Nittany Lions were even great.
Freshman running back Nicholas Singleton has 941 yards rushing, within breathing distance of the only two PSU freshmen to rush for over 1,000 yards – Saquon Barkley (1,076, 2015) and D.J. Dozier (1,002, 1983). Singleton’s running mate, fellow frosh, Kaytron Allen, has 830 yards.
Penn State’s defense, deploying an aggressive approach led by new defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, held nine opponents to 17 points or less. And they rank among the nation’s leaders, in pass break-ups, sacks and tackles for a loss.
“I’m really proud,” Franklin said of his squad, which began the 2022 season unranked. “Where this team started, in terms of how people talked about us in preseason, to where we finished, I would think [we should be inside the top 10 at the end of the regular season]. We still have one game left to play.”
In the end, the sum of Penn State’s regular season parts — like Clifford’s — was greater than the pieces. And the final result was better than what it looked, when not viewed through the lens of a single game or two, i.e., Michigan and Ohio State — losses by a combined 85-48.
Take Saturday. Please.
With just over five minutes left in the game against Michigan State, Penn State held a ho-hum 21-16 lead against a spotty Sparty squad. Then, just like that, by scoring two TDs in 35 seconds, they rallied to a decisive 10th win that also served as Cliff’s coronation.
In his final regular season start of a very unusual six-season college career, Clifford threw for four touchdown passes – the final two in that span of 35 seconds – to complete a regular season that saw the Nittany Lions win their final three games against Maryland, Rutgers and Michigan State by a cumulative score of 120-26.
Clifford was 19 of 24 for 202 yards against Michigan State, by deftly distributing those four TD passes — to tight ends Theo Johnson and Tyler Warren, running back Singleton and receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith (who had a 48-yard TD toss of his own, also to Johnson). And he didn’t throw a pick.
Clifford is 31-14 as a starting quarterback, and with a win in a bowl game, he would surpass his predecessor, Trace McSorley, for most career victories by a Nittany Lion QB.
In some ways, he mirrored his team and head coach. Penn State was a woeful 11-11 in 2021-22, but rebounded in style for the 10 wins. It was quite a turnaround from the 2-6 finish the Nittany Lions suffered in 2021, when they started 5-0 and finished 7-6.
Penn State lacked a signature win in 2022, blowing the opportunity after getting blown out by Michigan 41-17, and blowing a chance to sneak one by Ohio State after leading with 9:21 left in the game before falling 44-31.
But PSU won by 19 points or more seven times in 2022, and its early road wins at Purdue and at Auburn in the first three weeks of the season proved their mettle. Purdue was a 35-31 nail-biter where Clifford rebounded from a pick-six to lead his team on a game-winning drive in the game’s final minute. At Auburn, he survived a vicious hit that knocked off his helmet to calmly lead Penn State to a 41-12 win.
Clifford fell apart against the Buckeyes, throwing three interceptions, one of them a pick-six, and he also lost the ball on a strip-sack. But he rebounded, and threw just one interception in his last four games and 96 passes. That he did so while fans and media alike were calling for freshman QB Drew Allar made his final finish all the more impressive.
That may be why he lingered on the Beaver Stadium field, seemingly shaking hands with everyone he saw. After his last lap around the stadium, Clifford has one final go-around.
His head coach has high hopes for the Nittany Lions, who have one game to play. Franklin is hoping for a New Year’s Six Bowl, where Penn State landed after its previous 10-win regular seasons under CJF — Rose (2016), Fiesta (2017) and Cotton (2019).
“You want to try to go to the biggest games you can go to,” Franklin said.
