Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1476228
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 19 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M FIVE YEARS AGO, 2017 Coming off a surprising Big Ten championship the year before, Penn State found itself with expectations to uphold entering the 2017 season. The Nittany Lions were ranked sixth in the preseason Associated Press poll, and they looked like a championship-caliber team in the nonconference season, out- scoring Akron, Pitt and Georgia State by a combined margin of 141-14 in three September victories. The Big Ten opener was a different story. The Lions began their conference season at Iowa, never an easy venue in which to get a win. Against Kirk Fe- rentz's defense-minded crew, the points were a lot harder to come by. PSU gained 579 yards, including a school-record 358 all-purpose yards by running back Saquon Barkley, but it trailed the Hawk- eyes 19-15 when junior quarterback Trace McSorley took the game's final snap on fourth-and-goal from Iowa's 7-yard line. Displaying veteran poise, McSorley fired a pass into the back of the end zone, where receiver Juwan Johnson snared it for a 21-19 walk-off victory. "I told the guys in the locker room, 'If you look at any really good season, there's always one game where the team has to gut it out and find a way to win.' We were able to do that tonight," head coach James Franklin said. "Trace McSorley is one of the most mentally and physically tough players I've been around, a clutch player. Then Saquon Barkley, I cannot imagine that there's a better player in all of college football. I've been doing this for 23 years, and this guy is special. I don't know what his stats were or what he did, but every time he touched the ball … it was something special." 10 YEARS AGO, 2012 The Bill O'Brien era got off to a rocky start when Penn State dropped its first game under the new head coach, falling to Ohio 24-14 in a dreary season opener at Beaver Stadium. Allen Robinson had 9 catches for 97 yards, but it was a rough day for nearly everyone else on offense, with PSU totaling only 352 yards to the visitors' 499. "We have to coach better," said O'Brien, who had never before been a head coach at any level of football. "It starts with me." The Lions' season would get worse before it got better. In their road opener a week later, Sam Ficken missed field goal attempts of 42, 40, 38 and 20 yards, as well as an extra point, in a 17-16 loss at Virginia. It might have seemed farfetched at the time, but Penn State's fortunes were about to change … and so were Ficken's. The Nittany Lions went on to win eight of their next 10, and the sophomore kicker was a huge part of their turn- around, hitting his last 10 field goal at- tempts, including the decisive kick in a 24-21 overtime victory over Wisconsin that wrapped up a difficult but ulti- mately uplifting PSU season. 25 YEARS AGO, 1997 Ranked No. 1 in the preseason Asso- ciated Press poll, Penn State romped through its nonconference season, racking up impressive victories over Pitt (34-17), Temple (52-10) and Louisville (57-21). The visit to Louisville was a first for Penn State, which had only faced the Cardinals once previously — a 24-7 victory at Beaver Stadium one year earlier in the first game of the home- and-home series. The 39,826 fans who turned out for the rematch — it was the second-largest crowd in Cardinal Sta- dium history — saw the Nittany Lions find the end zone repeatedly even as the team's stars were compiling relatively modest statistics. Quarterback Mike McQueary only completed 10 passes in the game, but three were to wideout Joe Jurevicius for scores. Running back Curtis Enis rushed only 14 times, but he, too, had 3 touch- downs. "I think things just piled up on Louis- ville," McQueary said. "They just didn't know what to do. We took advantage of our opportunities." — Matt Herb This Month in Penn State Athletics History Saquon Barkley enjoyed one of his best days as a collegian when Penn State traveled to Iowa in 2017. Barkley set a school record with his 358 all-purpose yards, a total that included 211 yards on the ground in the Lions' 21-19 victory. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL