Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1524108
A U G U S T 2 0 2 4 2 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / T H E B I G P I C T U R E / / / / / / / State's 45-yard field goal attempt with 4:39 to play. Then the junior cornerback dashed 60 yards into blue-and-white immortality. Franklin admitted later that as he watched perhaps the biggest play of his coaching career unfold in front of him, all he could think about was that Ohio State's kicker and holder were "hauling ass" as they chased after Haley. "I have no idea where Urban Meyer found those kids," Franklin told The Play- ers' Tribune in 2017, "but they were like the two fastest specialists on the planet." They didn't catch Haley, though, and unranked Penn State stunned the sec- ond-ranked Buckeyes. No one knew it at the time, but it was one of the first big steps on a miraculous climb back to the pinnacle of the Big Ten after the dev- astating end of the Paterno era and the NCAA's imposition of major sanctions. Franklin summed up the game's impact in his first-person account in The Play- ers' Tribune. "This is a proud program, and it's sup- ported by some really good people. And it has a fan base that's been through a lot," he noted. "It was a place that had been talked about for all the wrong reasons for a long time. And when that kick was blocked, it was like all this bundled up angst and emotion was just released, not just inside that stadium, but all over the country and the world — wherever there are Penn State fans and alumni." 2 Penn State 38, Wisconsin 31 Dec. 3, 2016 | Indianapolis The Nittany Lions added a bravura ending to their show-stopping 2016 Big Ten season when they rallied to defeat Wisconsin in the conference champion- ship game. The sixth-ranked Badgers had looked as though they were going to romp, sprinting out to a 28-7 lead in the second quarter. But when seventh-ranked Penn State unleashed its big-play offense late in the first half, Wisconsin couldn't keep pace. Trace McSorley set Big Ten Cham- pionship Game records by throwing for 384 yards and 4 touchdowns. Two of those scores came on connections of 40 and 70 yards to Saeed Blacknall, who en- joyed the greatest day of his career with 155 yards on 6 catches. As for the defense, after giving up 4 touchdowns in the game's first 25 min- utes, it surrendered only a field goal the rest of the way. Collaborating on another of the season's biggest plays, Haley and Allen clinched the victory when they dropped running back Corey Clem- ent short of the first-down marker on fourth-and-1 with a minute left. Their stop delivered Penn State its first confer- ence title since 2008. 3 Penn State 35, Utah 21 Jan. 2, 2023 | Pasadena, Calif. The Lions hadn't won a Rose Bowl since the 1994 season, their second year as Big Ten members. With Sean Clifford play- ing his final as starting quarterback, 11th- ranked PSU rolled up 448 yards of offense to beat the Pac-12 champs. Two big scoring plays in the second half — an 87-yard run by Nicholas Singleton and an 88-yard completion from Clifford to KeAndre Lambert-Smith — were the highlights. Another turning point occurred when Utah quarterback Cam Rising got crunched by three Penn State tacklers at the end of a scramble midway through the third quarter. The knee injury that Rising suffered knocked him out of the game. Without their All-Pac-12 quar- terback, the eighth-ranked Utes simply didn't have enough offense to rally, and the Lions coasted to victory. During the game, Clifford passed Mc- Sorley as Penn State's leader in total of- fense, finishing his career with 11,734 yards. In the postgame presser, he re- flected on his football journey, which in- cluded a stop in Pasadena years earlier when he was just starting to take an inter- est in the sport. "I was in fifth grade or fourth grade, and my dad surprised me with the oppor- tunity to fly out here with a good friend of mine and his dad," Clifford recalled. "I remember really falling in love with foot- ball, specifically falling in love with the quarterback position. For it to come full circle and then to be able to just be a spoke in the wheel for this team in the Rose Bowl is such a blessing." 4 Penn State 35, Washington 28 Dec. 30, 2017 | Glendale, Ariz. With the 2018 NFL Draft less than four months way, no one would have blamed Saquon Barkley if he had opted out of the Fiesta Bowl. The junior running back opted in, though, eager to test himself against a Washington defense that was allowing an FBS-low 92.3 rushing yards per game. Cornerback Grant Haley dashed 60 yards to score the decisive touchdown in Penn State's 2016 win over the Buckeyes. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL