The greatness of Penn State’s 1994 team is undeniable. They are the standard — undefeated, overpowering and unmatched — for a program that has long fought to return to national championship contention since being snubbed of a title that season. Kerry Collins, Ki-Jana Carter and more from that team will return to Beaver Stadium for the Nittany Lions’ tilt with Illinois on Saturday.
Nick Dawkins, the team’s current starting center, has studied the history books. He knows what it means to wear the same blue and white jersey that legends wore before him. Dawkins isn’t taking the opportunity to play in front of the 1994 team lightly. He wants to show that, 30 years later, Penn State is still living up to the standard that was set for them.
“The game has changed a lot. There’s no doubt about it. But one thing that hasn’t changed is blue collar, tough, hardhat Penn State football,” Dawkins said. “So that’s what I’m hoping they’re able to see when we line it up against Illinois.”
The history cannot escape the opposing team, either. Bret Bielema was a first-year graduate assistant at Iowa when he coached in Beaver Stadium for the first time. It was 1994 and the Nittany Lions scored three touchdowns in the first three minutes of the game, and won 61-21.
Bielema will never forget it. A fresh college graduate, he sat in the box next to longtime Iowa defensive coordinator Bill Brashier as Penn State ran all over the Hawkeyes, with 11 players ultimately combining for 309 rushing yards.
“It was 28-0 in the first quarter. And (Brashier) took 28 times two and came up with 56 … and then he put 56 to 56 and came up with 112. He looked at me and he goes, ‘112-0?’ And I’ll just never forget that moment, because I was watching his work right alongside me,” Bielema said.
“I just go back to that moment. It was such an incredible crowd. Been in the Big Ten a long time, but for me as a GA to see that for the first time was really overwhelmingly amazing.”
Bielema has returned to Beaver Stadium many times since, whether as a linebackers coach at Iowa, defensive coordinator and head coach at Wisconsin or over his four-year tenure with the Fighting Illini. The energy is always the same, but it’s likely that no Penn State team has quite lived up to the dominance it instilled in 1994.
It’s a team that should have been crowned national champions, if not for a flawed BCS system that didn’t give the Nittany Lions a chance to prove themselves against the nation’s other undefeated program, Nebraska, in that year’s Orange Bowl. To this day, Penn State claims just two national titles: 1982 and 1986.
The argument remains from players to coaches to fans that the Nittany Lions should have earned the championship that season. Even quarterback Drew Allar isn’t exactly sure how to describe that team’s fate three decades later.
“I know they were Big Ten champs, national champs, or something like that,” Allar said. “I know there was some controversy at some point with that team.”
There was no NIL, no transfer portal and no 18-team Big Ten in 1994. There was, however, a dominant force in blue and white that played with pride and valued tradition. Those two values have, for the most part, remained a part of James Franklin’s philosophy, especially as it relates to recruiting.
Dawkins, Allar and others weren’t brought to Penn State for the money. They came to play for a program that fit them best, expecting to win just as consistently as a handful of teams had before them. The 1994 team is the standard for the Nittany Lions, who will look to uphold their dominant nature in a top-20 matchup this weekend.
“The one thing that will never change about Penn State football is our standard of play. When we go out there, we go out there to inflict pain, we go out there to handle business and do your job for the man next to you,” Dawkins said. “And that’s one thing that will never change, and I hope they’re able to see that, just like how they established it as a standard for us.”
