Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1524108
A U G U S T 2 0 2 4 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, 2019 Linebacker Micah Parsons had played only one season of college football, but he was already the biggest name on a promising Penn State de- fense. Parsons had led the Nittany Lions in tackles as a true freshman, totaling 83 stops in 2018 even though he hadn't started a single game. That was an encouraging sign as far as defensive coor- dinator Brent Pry was con- cerned, but heading into Par- sons' sophomore season, one of Pry's priorities was to en- sure that his star pupil didn't get caught up in the hype. "He's a pretty hard worker, but he's getting an awful lot of attention," Pry said. "This guy hasn't even started. He's a guy who's fun to coach, not just because he's talented, but because he's got a good per- sonality. He's fun to coach, and he's fun to watch play. "And he's also a guy who is very talk- ative and conversational. He's in my office more than anybody else, wanting to talk about this or talk about that. He's a big personality." Parsons liked to jab the coaching staff right back, but he also understood the power dynamic in play within the foot- ball program and knew when to back off. "You can't beat a guy that can control your playing time," he said. Of course, Parsons ultimately lived up to the sky-high expectations, finishing his sophomore season with a team-leading 109 stops and winning consensus All- America honors. 10 YEARS AGO, 2014 James Franklin hadn't been especially enthused about starting his Penn State head coaching tenure with a trip to Ire- land. He would have preferred to open with a conventional nonconference game at Beaver Stadium, but the PSU athletics administration had been looking for ways to keep fans engaged during the years in which the team was barred from post- season competition, and the Croke Park Classic against Central Florida — a game arranged prior to Franklin's hiring — fit nicely into their plans. In the end, it fit nicely into Franklin's plans, too. Christian Hackenberg threw for 454 yards, and Sam Ficken hit a 36- yard field goal on the final play of the game, giving the Nittany Lions a 26-24 victory on Aug. 30 in Dublin and getting the Franklin era off to a rousing start. The Lions had found themselves trail- ing by a point when they took posses- sion at their own 26-yard line with just 68 seconds remaining. Unfazed, Hacken- berg led the team on a seven-play, 55-yard drive that included an 8-yard scramble on fourth-and-3. Franklin said afterward that confidence was running high, even though UCF had erased a 10-point Penn State lead in the fourth quarter. "There was only a minute or so left in the game. I looked across the sideline and there wasn't a doubt in anybody's eye," the first-year coach said. "They believed in Hack. They believed in Ficken." 25 YEARS AGO, 1999 The Penn State women's volleyball team was coming off a heartbreaking five-set loss to Long Beach State in the championship game of the NCAA Tournament when it opened its 1999 season at the State Farm Classic in Lincoln, Neb. The Lions had fallen in the national title game in three of the previous six sea- sons, but with middle blocker Lauren Cacciamani, outside hitter Katie Schumacher and setter Bonnie Bremner all re- turning, PSU was ranked No. 1 going into the season and had every reason to believe that its moment had arrived. With eighth-ranked Florida and third-ranked Nebraska awaiting them in Lincoln, the Lions were sure to find out right away how they stacked up. They dropped their opener to the Gators, splitting the first four sets before falling, 15-12, in the fifth. They lost their opening set against the host Cornhuskers the following night, too. But then everything started to click. PSU captured the next three sets, 15-12, 15-8 and 16-14, en route to the season's first victory. Cacciamani finished with 29 kills, the most ever by an individual player in a four-set match. Those last three sets against the Husk- ers turned out to be indicative of the Lions' season. They won their next 36 matches in a row, including six at the NCAA Tournament. Only one of those half-dozen postseason matches — a five- set thriller against Pacific in the national semifinals — went more than three sets. Led by Cacciamani, the NCAA Tour- nament's Most Outstanding Player, the Lions swept second-ranked Stanford to claim the first of their seven national championships under coach Russ Rose. — Matt Herb This Month In Penn State Athletics History TixManJim@gmail.com www.TixManJim.com at The James Franklin coaching era got off to a rousing start when the Nittany Lions defeated Central Florida, 26-24, in their 2014 season opener in Ireland. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL