Blue White Illustrated

January 2017

Penn State Sports Magazine

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FLOWER POWER B y the time the Rose Bowl game started on Jan. 2, the national title race was virtually over and Penn State's players knew it. Nebraska had beaten No. 3 Miami in the Orange Bowl the night before, 24-17, and most of the media reports on that game said the Cornhuskers had all but clinched the na- tional championship. It wouldn't change even if Penn State beat Oregon by 85 points, wrote Randy Hill in the Pasadena Star-News: "Hell, even that type of clouting would not enable the Snittany Lions to con pollsters into abandoning the party line that insists Nebraska should be known as the No. 1 team in America." In a team meeting after the Orange Bowl at Penn State's hotel headquarters 40 miles away from Pasadena, coach Joe Pa- terno tried to tell the players they still had a chance. But deep in their hearts, they knew otherwise. Earlier that day they had marveled at the 15,000 cheering fans who turned out for a pep rally near the Westin Plaza Hotel in Costa Mesa. The fans would enjoy the Rose Parade the next morning, and many would be tailgating before the game in the warmth and sun- shine pouring down over the San Gabriel Mountains. The Lions were 17-point fa- vorites, and Paterno cautioned against a letdown. "It would be a shame if you let anything that happened tonight affect your season," he had told them at the meeting, according to Scott Brown's book "The Lion Kings." Paterno was right. In the regular season, the team had set NCAA season records for total offense (520.2 yards per game) and scoring offense (47.8 points per game). The Lions also broke several school records, including points (526), total of- fense (5,722 yards) and passing yardage (2,962). Already, five players – quarter- back Kerry Collins, tailback Ki-Jana Carter, wide receiver Bobby Engram, tight end Kyle Brady and guard Jeff Hart- ings – had earned first-team All-America recognition, the most for Penn State since 1978. Although Collins and Carter had seemed to cancel each other out for the Heisman Trophy, Collins won the Maxwell Award as the nation's outstand- ing college player and also the Davey O'Brien Award as the best quarterback. Engram was given the first Biletnikoff Award as the country's leading receiver. Of course, none of this mattered to Ore- gon, which had not been to the Rose Bowl in 27 years. Coach Rich Brooks' team had been an underdog all season and had gone 6-1 in the Pac-10 after losing nonconfer- ence games to Hawaii and Utah at the start of the season. The Ducks had a tough defense with speed and had given up just 13.3 points a game. They also had a pair of quarterbacks in Danny O'Neil and Tony Graziani who had thrown for 1,756 yards and 20 TDs. Furthermore, the Lions' oft-criticized defense was missing several key players with injuries and was forced to start fourth-string redshirt sophomore Chuck Penzenik at a new po- sition, free safety. Penn State's offense seemed to be in typical form after the defense had stopped Oregon following the opening kickoff. On the Lions' first play from scrimmage, Carter burst over right tackle and went 83 yards for a touchdown. The rout appeared to be on. But it took Oregon only 45 seconds and four plays to go 80 yards to tie the score, and the rest of the first half was a battle. Four times, the pass-oriented Oregon offense moved deep into Penn State territory with chances to score. One drive was stopped by Penzenik's interception at the 9-yard line. Two others ended in missed field goals. And a long, last-minute march ended at the Penn State 5 as the clock ran out, ending the first half. Meanwhile, the Lions had taken a 14-7 lead with 1:26 left in the half on a quick seven-play, 73-yard drive that was highlighted by a 44-yard pass from Collins to freshman Joe Jurevi- cius. Engram also caught passes of 18 and 12 yards to help set up fullback Brian Milne's 1-yard TD. | PSU prevailed in the 1995 Rose Bowl, but it couldn't win over the pollsters P O S T S E A S O N P R E V I E W >> P E N N S T A T E H I S T O R Y Despite an undefeated regular season in 1994 behind a record-setting offense that was one of the best in college football history, the two major polls by the media and coaches had Nebraska ranked No. 1 and Penn State No. 2 since mid-November. With the Nittany Lions committed to the Rose Bowl in their second Big Ten season, all Nebraska had to do was beat No. 3 Miami in the Orange Bowl on New Year's night to win the national championship. In this edited excerpt from his book, The Penn State Football Encyclo- pedia, BWI contributor Lou Prato writes about that Rose Bowl game against Oregon.

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