Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1511150
1 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M "In years past, we've let things linger into Tuesday and Wednesday prac- tice. But that wasn't the case [this year]. It really did hurt, but I think that we did a good job of being intentional with flipping the switch." — Junior tight end THEO JOHNSON on Penn State's efforts to bounce back from its 20-12 loss to Ohio State on Oct. 21 "Penn State looked like an average team. Good teams aren't supposed to look anywhere near av- erage after eight games. They're not supposed to have their hands full with Indiana at home. [James] Franklin's Lions took a small step backward two weeks ago in Columbus. And while Allar's 57-yard scoring toss to Lambert-Smith was noteworthy, the majority of Penn State's play against a two-win team was not. This was a bigger step backward." — Bob Flounders of PennLive.com on Penn State's performance in a 33-24 victory over In- diana on Oct. 28, a game that was decided by a long pass from Drew Allar to KeAndre Lambert- Smith in the final minutes "I didn't even know I threw an interception until I got to the sideline after I got hit, because usu- ally you hear the crowd react, and there was no reaction. Honestly, I thought it was an incomplete pass. And then I looked back and saw the defense on the field and I was like, 'Oh, I really just threw an interception right there?'" — Sophomore quarterback Drew Allar after throwing his first career interception against In- diana "We were very picky in the transfer portal. We had a lot of people reach out to us because of our style of play. It's a fun way to play, but we also wanted to make sure they were young men that fit Penn State, what we were trying to do to build our foundation to get off to a great start. I'm really proud of our staff. I think we got 10 players in 59 days. So, yes, we were in the transfer portal pretty intensely." — First-year PSU men's basketball coach Mike Rhoades on how he rebuilt the team's gradua- tion- and transfer-depleted roster "It's a gift to have her back for her fifth year. She's everything you could hope for in a student- athlete, and she wants nothing more than to put Penn State back in the NCAA Tournament. I believe her dedication and loyalty to Penn State are going to pay off this season." — PSU women's basketball coach Carolyn Kieger on the return of All-Big Ten senior guard Makenna Marisa for her final season "This Penn State team is not, by any stretch of the imagination, overwhelmingly sexy and finds itself too far into the season to suddenly redefine itself. If the 2016 iteration of Penn State football had anything going for it, it was the time that it had to reinvent the wheel. Now in 2023, the late stages of October are not the best time to switch to the wish- bone, but for an offensive group that is ostensibly not lacking talent, backed by a defense that is going to send plenty of players to the NFL in a few months, it's not outrageous to think it can catch lightning in a bottle like it did in 2016. Sometimes it just takes a moment to turn doubt into belief, to turn a poorly timed career-first interception into the biggest pass of a collegiate career so far. It may turn out that all of this is just a nice way to polish up an offense and a team that is better than 95 percent of its schedule but not anywhere near where it needs to be to beat Michigan and Ohio State." — Ben Jones, StateCollege.com columnist, fol- lowing Penn State's 33-24 win over Indiana "Johnny Dixon is having a phenomenal year. I don't know if he's getting talked about enough locally or nationally as a blitzer. Being able to fin- ish sacks, being physical on the perimeter, making plays on the ball — he's having a really good year. I'm proud of him." — James Franklin on the performance of senior cornerback Johnny Dixon, who has occasionally been deployed as a blitzer and was tied for sec- ond on the team with 3 sacks through nine games They Said It Junior tight end Theo Johnson had a 16-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter against Indiana to give the Lions a 24-14 lead. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL