Blue White Illustrated

the season's first few weeks, scoring an unwanted touchdown that set in motion a chain of events that allowed the Hoosiers to rally for an overtime victory. That wasn't how his season was sup- posed to go, but Ford kept moving. Even when the holes weren't there, he was finding ways to be productive. He still considers the Nebraska game to be one of his best performances of the season even though he finished with 66 yards in a 30-23 Penn State loss. That's because he blocked his man on all seven of his pass-protection opportunities. But then he got swept up in the very same wave of attrition that had pushed him to the top of the depth chart in the first place. Against Iowa, he carried only three times for 2 yards before leaving the game with an unspecified injury. His availability for the following week's game against Michigan was in question in the days leading up to the Nittany Lions' trip to Ann Arbor, but that be- came a moot point when something far worse happened. On Nov. 27, his brother Shaza Davis died. Returning home to Stafford, Va., Ford missed the Michigan game to be with his family. He later penned a short tribute to his older brother on an online memorial site, reminiscing about video games and dance battles. "You were a light in a dark room," Ford wrote, "you were a beat to a song, you made every- one around you happy and put a smile on their faces." A few days later, Ford returned to Penn State – grieving, but still determined to keep moving forward. "The coaches def- initely helped me out a lot," he said, "just by being father figures, just being around me, keeping my spirits up, keep- ing my head in the game. Life sucks, people pass away. You've got to be able to move on and continue to go about your day and your life and continue to grind. I tried not to let it affect me, but it's still going to hurt." Coach James Franklin said that he talked to Ford's father and stepmother after learning of Davis's death. One of his motivations, he said, was his aware- ness that, because of the COVID-related precautions that schools like Penn State have been forced to adopt, players don't have the kind of in-person support net- works that they would normally have, and that those personal bonds have been stretched thin at a time when players and their families need them most. "This pandemic has created a lot of health issues in people's families behind the scenes, whether it's grandparents, whether it's moms and dads, whether it's siblings," Franklin said. "All these young men are having to do this on their own without the support that they nor- mally would be able to get or provide. The team has been really good about it. But all the way back to the beginning of the season, with us losing players, there have been a lot of emotional swings that the team has had to handle in a lot of ways. I'm really proud of them." Any assessment of what went wrong at Penn State during the regular season has to include an acknowledgement that the Lions' eight-game schedule was played under unprecedented circumstances that, with any luck, will never be re- peated. That PSU actually played eight games leading up to its Champions Week matchup against Illinois was an accom- plishment in itself; only three Big Ten teams were able to do that, and it's en- tirely possible that the university's proactive approach to COVID prevention was one of the reasons Penn State was less successful than expected this year. Another reason: injuries. I can't recall a season in which the Nittany Lions were hit harder by key losses. I suppose you could make a case for the 1988 season, in which a run of bad luck at quarterback resulted in true freshman Tony Sacca having to start five games, during which he compiled a 37 percent completion rate. If you're going to have a run of bad luck at a particular position group, quarterback is the last place you want it to happen. This year's team managed to keep both of its quarterbacks healthy during the regular season, as Sean Clifford played in all eight games and started seven, while Will Levis played in seven. But the team had injuries at several other key spots, forcing young players to grow up in a hurry. Ford should have been the third- team running back but instead ended up starting five games. Brenton Strange should have been the second- or third- team tight end, but he started four games after Pat Freiermuth underwent season- ending surgery in November. Keaton Ellis and Marquis Wilson should have served primarily in backup roles this year but instead combined to start five games due to undisclosed health problems that sidelined veteran cornerback Tariq Cas- tro-Fields. The late-season problems in the secondary were particularly acute, as Franklin admitted after the Michigan game that the team had only three cor- nerbacks available and had been cross- training several of its safeties in case they were needed elsewhere. Are the attrition problems that Penn State dealt with this year likely to recur in 2021 and beyond? It's possible, sure, but unlikely. Not only did the Lions lose a lot of players for some or all of the sea- son, they lost their best players. Brown, Freiermuth and Micah Parsons, the lat- ter a preseason opt-out, were getting All-Big Ten and even All-America buzz this past summer. But Freiermuth was the only one of those standout players to see action, and he ended up having to call a halt to his season just four weeks in. There are only a handful of teams in college football that could absorb those kinds of losses without having their on- field performance suffer, and Penn State is not yet one of those teams. The good news for PSU is that the kind of attrition it saw this year, in which its top players went down in quick succession, is rare. Of more concern are the problems that could recur in 2021 and beyond. The turnovers, for example. Penn State was one of the sloppiest teams in the country in that regard, ranking 115th in the Football Bowl Subdivision in turnover margin after eight games. Those problems hampered the offense mightily throughout the year, and Penn State ended its regular season ranked >>

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