Blue White Illustrated

n football, as in life, timing is every- thing. Penn State did not 8eld a domi- nant football team in the 8rst half of the 2015 season but it ended up with a 5-1 record. How is it possible that a team whose o:ense su:ered from fre- quent catatonic spells, a team that lost a number of its best players to injury for multiple games and in one devastat- ing case (Nyeem Wartman-White) for the entire season, a team that doesn't punt very well despite getting lots of practice over the past season and a half, a team that had actual, literal dark clouds hanging over it for much of the season's 8rst half was somehow receiv- ing votes (albeit only four) in the Asso- ciated Press poll heading into the Ohio State game? Two reasons: First, the Nittany Lions, for all their 9aws, were impressively resourceful. Except for their opener against Temple, in which they fell prey to nearly every calamity listed above, they found a way to overcome their de8ciencies – as when defensive tackle Austin Johnson did what the o:ense couldn't do in the sec- ond half of the San Diego State game, scoring a 71-yard touchdown on a fum- ble recovery to put away the Aztecs. Second, they had a penchant for catching opponents at just the right time. Penn State opened its Big Ten sea- son against a Rutgers team that had just seen its head coach and its best player suspended. The Lions romped, 28-3, but the game might have been a bit closer if the Scarlet Knights' top playmaker, sen- ior receiver Leonte Carroo, had been available. Two weeks later, they faced an Army team that was without its top playmak- er, quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw, due to an injury he su:ered a week earlier at Eastern Michigan. Given that Penn State barely held on for a 20-14 win, and that the decisive play was a sack in which backup A.J. Schurr was unable to escape a collapsing pocket, it's only natural to wonder what might have happened had Bradshaw been available. The week a

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