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still under the scholarship limit. Next year will be the :rst year we'll be back at full scholarships. Last year, halfway through the season, we found out we were able to go to a bowl game. So there have just been challenges. Limits in scholarships, sanctions for multiple years, a $60 million :ne – there have been a lot of things we have been work- ing though. "I'm the :=h di;erent head coach at Penn State in 27 months," he added, "so there have been a lot of challenges we've needed to work through. But our players have been unbelievable. I'm so proud of them. They're killing it in the classroom, they're doing unbelievable things in the community and they have stuck togeth- er at a very, very challenging time in Penn State's history. "So the program is headed in the right direction. People are really, really excit- ed, and we're starting to do some really good things as a program. We still have a lot of work to do. This bowl game will give us a great opportunity to get extra practice time with our players, and then hopefully go out and play well and springboard into next season on a real positive, high note." A victory over the Bulldogs wouldn't, in itself, get the Nittany Lions where they want to be, and recent history suggests that there isn't actually much carryover from one season to the next. If there were, the Lions certainly wouldn't have followed up their rousing overtime victory over Boston College in the 2014 Pinstripe Bowl with a dismal season-opening loss to Temple this past September in which they gave up 10 sacks. But if they're going to start trending back upward a=er dropping three in a row to end the regular season, a victory over an SEC opponent in a January bowl wouldn't be a bad starting point. Every journey begins with a single step. ■ TIM OWEN ASSISTANT EDITOR There are avenues with which Penn State can pull this o;. A strong dose of Saquon Barkley, an e

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