Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1505736
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 3 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, 2018 Penn State was probably asking for trouble when it sched- uled Appalachian State to open its 2018 football season. Eleven years earlier, the Mountaineers, then still compet- ing at the FCS level, had stepped undaunted into Michigan Stadium and stunned the fifth-ranked Wolverines 34-32. The game ended up appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated the following week, with the headline blaring "Alltime Upset." That cautionary tale wasn't enough to dissuade PSU from inviting the Mountaineers to Beaver Stadium, and by the time it was over, the visitors had nearly added a Nittany Lion pelt to the jugs of Wolverine tears in their trophy room. App State had stormed back from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter and held a 38-31 lead before Trace McSorley tied the score with a 15-yard touchdown pass to KJ Hamler with 42 seconds to play. Hamler, a redshirt freshman receiver making his Penn State debut, had set up the late drive with a 52-yard kickoff return. In overtime, running back Miles Sanders gave PSU the lead on a 4-yard touchdown dash, and cornerback Amani Oru- wariye clinched the Lions' 45-38 win with an interception in the end zone on App State's ensuing possession. "I started this game at 46 years old and I ended it at 51," coach James Franklin cracked afterward. "I thought overall our offense looked really good sometimes, and other times we just looked like a young team with inexperienced players making mistakes." This game, too, was featured prominently in Sports Illus- trated, with Sanders' touchdown run gracing the cover. "You Can Exhale, Penn State," SI's headline advised. PSU has not played Appalachian State since, and there are no apparent plans for a rematch anytime soon. 10 YEARS AGO, 2013 Despite the turmoil that followed Joe Paterno's exit, Penn State was enjoying its share of success under Bill O'Brien. The harsh realities of the NCAA's scholarship reductions hadn't fully hit yet, and the Lions had won 10 of their previous 12 games when Central Florida ventured into Beaver Stadium for a nonconference matchup in Week 3 of O'Brien's second season. If anyone needed it, though, the UCF game offered a reminder that Penn State was not going to coast through the sanction years as if nothing was amiss. The Nittany Lions got 128 yards and 3 touchdowns from run- ning back Zach Zwinak, and Allen Robinson caught 9 passes for 143 yards and a score, but even with those great individual performances sparking the offense, Penn State couldn't keep pace with UCF. The Knights got 288 passing yards and 3 touchdowns from Blake Bortles and 117 yards on the ground from running back Storm Johnson. Bortles, soon to be the Jacksonville Jaguars' starting quarterback, put UCF in a good place early in the third quarter with a 25-yard touchdown pass that boosted the Knights' lead to 28-10. From there, all they needed were a couple of field goals to ride out Penn State's late comeback attempt. "I felt pretty good about the way we were playing coming in," O'Brien said. "But we made mistakes on both sides of the ball. … It's a team loss. Both sides of the ball need to improve; special teams need to improve. "Nobody's going anywhere," he added. "We're just going to go back to the drawing board tomorrow and figure out what we can do better and coach these guys better and get them to play better. "Like I told the kids after the game, 'We're with you, and you're with us through thick and thin. Everyone look in the mir- ror and see what we can do better tomorrow.' " 25 YEARS AGO, 1998 In many respects, Penn State's 48-3 trouncing of Bowl- ing Green in Week 2 of the 1998 season was not particularly noteworthy. The Nittany Lions were accustomed to handling Mid-American Conference opponents with ease, and their first play against the Falcons — a 77-yard touchdown run by Cordell Mitchell — offered a hint that this one was going to follow that familiar pattern. But the game was a milestone in that it gave Paterno his 300th career victory. He became the sixth coach in NCAA his- tory and the fourth coach at the major-college level to reach that plateau, joining Bear Bryant (323), Pop Warner (319) and Amos Alonzo Stagg (314). What's more, he had gotten there faster than any of them, needing only 380 games. With the final seconds ticking away at Beaver Stadium, Paterno was given a Gatorade shower and then carried to the middle of the field on the shoulders of his players. "I'm overwhelmed," he said. "It's hard for me to even think. So many people come to mind, so many great athletes, great coaches, administrators, my family. … I'm too choked up." — Matt Herb This Month In Penn State Athletics History Miles Sanders' touchdown run in overtime provided Penn State with its winning points in a 2018 victory over Appalachian State. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL