Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/847744
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> TWO SHOW H I S T O R Y The Barkley-McSorley duo isn't the first at PSU to find itself in the preseason spotlight FOR THE he team. That's all that matters. At least it's the succinct sage advice from the four Penn State luminar- ies who once went through the preseason Heisman Trophy hype as teammates that running back Saquon Barkley and quar- terback Trace McSorley are now experi- encing as the 2017 football season approaches. Curt Warner and Todd Blackledge were the first Nittany Lions caught up in the Heisman teammate preseason hysteria in 1982, and Ki-Jana Carter and Kerry Collins faced it in 1994. Only Carter came close at the end, finishing second, but it was the accomplishments of their teams that were truly important. "We won the national championship," Warner said. "Our focus was the team, to be the best it could be," Blackledge said. "We had an opportunity as a team to be special, and we were," Carter said. "The team always came first," Collins said. Yet, it wasn't that simple. Every football season is filled with an infinite number of unexpected events that reverberate like an incessant earth- quake, constantly changing the fortunes and destiny of teams and individual play- ers. Each weekend is like a cosmic explo- sion caused perhaps by a fumbled punt here or an interception there, with the fates of dozens of teams and thousands of players hanging in the balance. Penn State's 1982 and '94 teams lived through it. One team came out with the school's first national championship, the other with a bittersweet ending – the Big Ten and Rose Bowl crowns but not a na- tional title. What's a little eerie is the similarity of the preseason circumstances of the 2017 team and its two Heisman candidates to what Warner-Blackledge and Carter- Collins and their teams faced in their years. After its late-season heroics last season, which included a surprising Big Ten title and a thrilling down-to-the-last-minute Rose Bowl game, Penn State has leaped back into the national championship conversation, with Barkley and McSorely touted as potential Heisman Trophy win- ners. In 1982 and '94, it was the success of the teams in the latter part of 1981 and '93, respectively, that gave impetus to the Heisman potential of their star running back and quarterback. The one major dif- ference in their situations is that the 1982 and '94 players had been used to winning in previous seasons during the Paterno era, while coach James Franklin's 2016 Nittany Lions had to overcome a four- year span of mediocrity caused by the NCAA sanctions. Actually, the 1981 team had been pro- jected as a top-10 or even top-five team and reached No. 1 at midseason before stumbling with losses to Miami and Ala- bama. A historic 48-14 blowout victory over then-No. 1 Pitt, followed by an im- pressive 26-10 win over Southern Califor- nia and its Heisman Trophy tailback, Marcus Allen, in the Fiesta Bowl thrust the '82 squad and the Warner-Blackledge combo into the limelight. Warner, who had become a first-team All-American and had outplayed Allen in the bowl game, was primed to win the Heisman in '82. What happened next should be a lesson for Barkley and McSorley. "Curt was clearly a Heisman candi- date," Blackledge recalled recently. "I don't think I was. Curt had a great junior year, a couple of high-profile games. I had a good junior year and a couple of good games at the end of the year, but not a great junior year. After the month of Sep- tember, that all changed because of the way we began throwing the football, probably by necessity and personnel. And just by sheer rushing numbers, Curt got off to what you would consider a slow start, but not in terms of what he meant to our offense and the role that he played. So in August we had one Heisman candi- date, and by the end of September and early October we had two." Warner, who was Blackledge's room- mate, laughs when he now thinks about preseason practice that August. "I thought I was going to win the Heis- man and our team was going to win the national championship," he chuckled. Warner didn't realize that Joe Paterno was planning to alter his offense from Penn State's traditional prime running game and spot passing with Warner as | T