Penn State Sports Magazine
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5 6 J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M was facing fourth-and-15 at its own 15- yard line on its final possession. Smolko caught a 20-yard pass over the middle to keep the drive going. Moments later, with Robinson under heavy pressure from a blitzing Wild- cat defense, Williams caught a 36-yard touchdown pass with 51 seconds left, and Penn State prevailed, 34-29. "We have confidence in ourselves. We believe in ourselves," Posluszny said. "We know that when a game goes down to the wire, we can win it. We know now that we can win big games on the road, and we'll carry this confidence over to the rest of the season and keep going." After a 44-14 demolition of No. 18 Minnesota — a game in which the 6-foot- 2, 217-pound Robinson famously sent a Gophers safety sprawling backwards out of bounds at the end of a scramble — the Lions finally found themselves back in the AP poll for the first time since the end of the 2002 season. They debuted at No. 16, and they proved they were worthy of that ranking when they stunned No. 6 Ohio State, 17-10, in one of the most gratifying wins of the Paterno era. The signature moment of that vic- tory over the Buckeyes — the first White Out game played in prime time — came with just under a minute and a half left when Hali, virtually unblocked, slammed into quarterback Troy Smith and forced a fumble that Scott Paxson recovered to clinch the win. Amid the postgame jubilation, Paterno was asked by ESPN if Penn State was back. "I don't know whether we ever left," he replied. "Honest to goodness, we had a good team last year. We just couldn't make a couple of plays." Penn State came up one play short in what would turn out to be its only loss of the season, a 27-25 heartbreaker at Mich- igan the following week. A lot of Penn State fans are still salty 20 years later over the timekeeping decisions that gave the Wolverines just enough precious seconds on their final drive for Chad Henne to hit Mario Manningham for a 10-yard touch- down on the last play of the game. But a more crucial decision was made before the drive even began, when PSU opted to kick deep to Steve Breaston after going ahead 25-21. The speedy wideout, a player Penn State had tried hard to recruit out of Woodland Hills High near Pitts- burgh, returned the ball 40 yards, allow- ing Michigan to start its final drive from near midfield with 42 seconds left. The 27-25 loss dropped Penn State from eighth to 12th in the AP poll, but the Li- ons quickly regrouped. They beat Illinois, Purdue and 14th-ranked Wisconsin by a combined margin of 131-39. Then they concluded the regular season with a 31- 22 victory over Michigan State in East Lansing, clinching a share of the Big Ten championship with Ohio State. A Thrilling Finish With USC and Texas both finishing the regular season unbeaten, it's unclear whether Penn State's loss to Michigan cost it a shot at the national champion- ship. The Trojans and Longhorns ended up playing one of the all-time legendary title games, a 41-38 Texas victory in the Rose Bowl. So, other than the Nittany Li- ons and their fans, no one was particularly interested in indulging any alternate-his- tory scenarios concerning the season's ending. For most people, the ending we got was quite satisfactory. And although it didn't produce a na- tional championship, the Lions got a thoroughly enjoyable ending of their own. Matched up against Florida State in the Orange Bowl, Paterno got to finish his bounce-back season against another larger-than-life coaching figure, Bobby Bowden. In the eighth and final meeting between the two winningest coaches in FBS his- tory, the Nittany Lions prevailed in triple overtime, 26-23. Kevin Kelly supplied the winning points on a 29-yard field goal after Florida State had missed a 38-yard attempt. After starting out unranked, the Nit- tany Lions went 11-1 and finished No. 3 in the both the AP and coaches' polls, their best showing since 1994. So much for the pollsters' clairvoyance. The AP voters erred on the side of op- timism in the years that followed. Penn State opened the 2006 season 19th and finished 24th. A year later, the Nittany Lions started out 17th and finished un- ranked. It wasn't until the 2008 cam- paign, in which they opened at No. 22 and finished No. 6 with a Big Ten co-cham- pionship and a Rose Bowl loss to USC, that the Lions overshot their preseason AP ranking. So, if we've established anything here, it's that the polls are sometimes meaning- less, especially the ones that are based on nothing but preseason buzz. Most years, that's a comforting thought. This year, maybe not so much. ■ Paterno earned the last of his 13 major-bowl victories when the Nittany Lions defeated Florida State, 26-23, in triple overtime in the Orange Bowl. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL "We know that when a game goes down to the wire, we can win it. We know now that we can win big games on the road, and we'll carry this confidence over to the rest of the season and keep going." P A U L P O S L U S Z N Y