Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1400830
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 17 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M FIVE YEARS AGO, 2016 Coming off two consecutive 7-6 sea- sons, the Nittany Lions were eager to improve their fortunes and were hoping that their new offensive coordinator, Joe Moorhead, could engineer just such a turnaround in the coming years. Athletic director Sandy Barbour ex- pressed optimism heading into the 2016 season, noting that James Franklin "wants to win a national championship." But she tempered the hopeful talk with an acknowledgement of what seemed at the time to be the hard, cold reality for PSU. "I believe that we're going to have the opportunity to contend for the Big Ten championship and vie for a spot in the College Football Playoff," she said. "Is it going to be this year? Probably not. But that's why you play it. That's not the expectation this year. The expectation is: Are we building to that? Are we showing progress? Are we making progress to- ward being a Big Ten and then ultimately national championship contender?" Spoiler alert: They were, going 11-3 and winning the Big Ten title before a trip to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. 10 YEARS AGO, 2011 At a preseason practice session on Aug. 7, receiver Devon Smith crashed into Joe Paterno, putting the 84-year- old head coach in the hospital for a cou- ple of days with injuries to his pelvis and shoulder. When Penn State held its football media day on Aug. 16, Paterno conducted practice from the passenger seat of a golf cart driven by longtime football staffer Tom Venturino. At an interview session in Holuba Hall, he ad- mitted that he was in some pain, but added, "In about eight or nine days, I should be able to do everything with- out having some guy driving me around telling me what to look at." It was an ominous beginning to what would turn out to be the last of Paterno's 46 seasons as head coach of the Nittany Lions. 25 YEARS AGO, 1996 Penn State opened its football sea- son on Aug. 25 against Southern Cal in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. It seemed like an evenly matched game, with the Nittany Lions ranked 11th and the Trojans sev- enth in the preseason Associated Press poll. But the Lions romped, 24-7, with sophomore Curtis Enis rushing for 241 yards and three touchdowns. The Tro- jans' only points came on defense, when they recovered a fumble in the end zone with less than a minute to play. "The pace of the game was just ideal for us, because we didn't have to play a lot of younger kids on defense early in the ga m e ," Jo e Pa te r n o to l d ABC's Lynn Swann in a post- game interview. "That really helped us, because we were going to have to play a lot of young kids. If Southern Cal had kept the ball for long pe- riods, we would have had our hands full. But it worked out fine." Enis was dominant, but Paterno also wanted to give quarterbacks Wally Richardson and Mike McQueary a chance to throw. "We've got young wideouts, and they've got to learn how to play foot- ball," he said. "Curtis is an outstand- ing back and had a great day. We know what he can do. We wanted to win, ob- viously, but we wanted to make sure we got a little bit better for the rest of the year." ■ This Month in Penn State Athletics History Sophomore running back Curtis Enis rushed for 241 yards and three touchdowns to lead the No. 11 Nittany Lions to a convincing 24-7 win over No. 7 Southern California in the 1996 Kickoff Classic. PHOTO BY PENN STATE ATHLETICS PSUtixman@gmail.com www.PSUtixman.com Get your PSU Football Tickets at go t ti cke t s?