The entire football-loving Nittany Nation was feeling confident with a 17-3 lead midway through the second quarter in the battle of unbeatens between No.3 Iowa and our own No. 4 Penn State. Then the football gods threw the proverbial curveball our way and we watched our team, especially our defense, valiantly struggle to hang on in a very hostile environment in Iowa City.
Oh, what could have been.
I think most of us believed we would have won the game if quarterback Sean Clifford didn’t get hurt. I believe we may have even won convincingly and would be sitting at No. 2 in the college football rankings thanks to Texas A&M’s upset of No. 1 Alabama. When Sean was in the game, Penn State outgained the Hawkeyes 193 yards to 49 yards. With Clifford out, the Hawkeyes outgained Penn State 256-94.
Oh, what could have been.
With a bye week to heal up, and a struggling Illini team visiting Beaver stadium for Homecoming, I still believe that we have a great chance to rise to the occasion as we enter the toughest stretch against Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State. Perhaps the very same football gods who treated us so cruelly against the Hawkeyes would conjure up a scenario that pits us against the Hawkeyes for a rematch in the Big Ten Championship game in December.
I have a lot of respect for the job that coach James Franklin and his staff have done over the years, especially the turnaround from last season’s 0-5 start. I am really impressed with our new offensive coordinator, Mike Yurcich. He’s brought such a fun and exciting philosophy to our offense. As a former coach for the Penn State Icers, I feel for the staff because the injuries are simply outside of their control. Been there, done that.
In hockey, having a back-up goalie ready to replace a starter was always a priority for my staff and over the years we were blessed to have depth at the position most closely related in importance to a starting quarterback. Injuries are a part of any season and having back-ups ready to go was essential. It was an annual part of our scenario planning and situational awareness to be ready for many situations, because, well, “stuff happens.” So, when the football message boards lit up with criticism of back-up quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson, I felt a kinship with Coach Franklin at that moment because I have lived it, albeit on a much smaller stage.
Look, I guarantee you that our staff had the “what if” scenarios covered in practice and that they had confidence that Roberson would be able to adequately fill in for our injured starter. What we coaches never know is how the young replacement will actually perform when thrust into a pressure filled situation. Saturday at Iowa would qualify as the most stressful situation for a team dealing with the injuries that we suffered in the first half.
If I could humbly suggest one thing to the coaches, in hindsight of course, it would have been to call a timeout and calm everyone down after we had the second consecutive false start due to crowd noise. We needed a different solution to the snap process. Roberson was at his best when he was free to run the ball. But Iowa’s unsung hero for the games was their punter, Tory Taylor, and he had us pinned by our own goal line, often not allowing Roberson much time or space to operate. In fact, Roberson had to start inside his own 11-yard line six times. If even two or three of those punts went into the endzone it would have made a huge difference.
Oh, what could have been.
Speaking of the whole concept of what-could-have-been, I started watching a new NBC show called “Ordinary Joe” that imagines the three different lives that one man might lead. It takes “Life is full of endless possibilities” to a whole different level. The title character jumps back and forth in three alternative life paths, illustrating that our lives could go one way or another with every decision we make. I love the concept that literally shows what could have been. In one life path, Joe is a single police officer. In another he is a rock star married to a political analyst without kids, and in a third, he’s a nurse, married to a paralegal with a son. It’s interesting to fantasize what our lives might look like “if only I had done this.”
So, despite all the angst and frustrations that you may have felt this past Saturday afternoon, there are still plenty of reasons for the team, and our sometimes overly fickle fan base (yours truly included) to have hope. If the injured players, especially Sean Clifford, get healthy, we just might write one of those great scripts of redemption and poetic justice. Our players may be filled with a resolve that only athletes who have dealt with this type of adversity truly understand. Call it a chip on the shoulder, “eye of the tiger,” or whatever you like. If our boys have that mindset, it could inspire them to rise to the occasion and create a finish to the season for the ages.
Oh, what could be!
