Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all. – Ernest Shackleton
In 1915, stuck tantalizingly close to the South Pole somewhere within the ice of the Weddell Sea, Ernest Shackleton ordered his crew to fire up the engines and ram the ice.
They had come so far at this point, Shackleton, an Irish born explorer who had made his name venturing out into the world’s coldest and most inaccessible points was set on his most daring quest yet; he and his crew would travel across the whole of Antarctica nearly 3,000 kilometers in width just a year after Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first person to plant a flag at the Earth’s most southern point.
In reality the objective was far less straightforward, and as his coal and steam powered ship the Endurance fought the ice, it failed. For days the Endurance did its best to live up to its namesake, attempting to forge ahead through a dense sheet of ice, but for days it made little to no headway.
Eventually as the Endurance was slowly crushed by the surrounding ice, Shackleton and his crew would abandon ship. Shortly thereafter Shackleton and five men set out on a 16-day voyage aboard a 22-foot lifeboat named the James Caird and headed for South Shetland Island some 800 miles away. Those six men would find rescue – and return with it to save the remainder of the crew.
All told the result was one of history’s great stories of heroism, exploration and triumph against unbelievable odds.
Over 100 years since that voyage it would be a bit hyperbolic to compare the plight of a college football program to that of men fighting for their lives in the most desolate reaches of the Earth. But there are analogies – for better or worse – to be had.
In the case of Penn State there is something to be said for the Endurance, a ship built on the back of massive engines, led with the kind of fearlessness and confidence that allows it to dive headlong into a sheet of ice. The Nittany Lions are trying once again to find all the pieces to a nearly impossible puzzle, putting together a season that will finally punch their ticket to the playoffs or at the very least a trip back to Indianapolis.
By in large this quest has been more successful than not and should continue to be, especially if the playoffs do eventually expand to 12 teams. But in 2020 the ship that is Penn State football was grabbed and clenched by the ice, twisting and buckling under the pressure of forces both in and out of its control.
So in reality a season like 2021 is not so much about breaking through the ice as it is breaking free of its grasp. The Nittany Lions face a daunting schedule with games at Wisconsin, Ohio State, Iowa – not to mention home games against Auburn, Michigan, Indiana and a feisty Ball State. The ice may have melted in the summer months, but there is no passage – not yet.
Success is often a difficult thing to quantify in sports beyond the binary nature of winning [or not winning] a title. James Franklin and his staff are not setting out on another year of long hours and stressful situations just to feel good about themselves at the end, every team – for better or worse – hits the field with the biggest goals in mind.
That said, breaking free of the downward spiral that was 2020 would go a long way towards breaking free of the crushing ice that turns playoff dreams into overzealous ambitions. Win and win a lot and the status quo is returned, win the games you should and a bumpy 0-5 start and a COVID-impacted season turns into the outlier it appeared to be. Penn State has won nine or more games in four of the past five seasons, a mark only bettered on a few occasions in the program’s history. Getting back on that run would all but erase a year everyone wants to forget anyway.
Of course while not nearly as dramatic, much like Shackleton’s own survival and rescue it will take individual efforts.
It will take Sean Clifford improving his play. It will take his offensive line finding its stride and the running backs behind it to find the holes. It will take Jahan Dotson becoming a better version of the player he already is. It will take an experienced secondary stepping up to the plate and a host of new faces in the defensive trenches and at linebacker filling bigger and bigger roles.
If Penn State can do that, then the ice will recede in 2021 – at least for now, because much like in the arctic the weather only stays so good for so long in college football before you have to break through the ice again.
And programs that can’t will feel the ice tighten and the goals of glory slip away over the horizon.
The good news for the Nittany Lions, practice starts this week and breaking the ice takes plenty of it.
