Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/916653
V S . W A S H I N G T O N P enn State's relationship with the Fiesta Bowl is like that of a 40-year long-distance love af- fair. It is truly unique among all the postseason football bowls that have in- undated the collegiate landscape since the creation in 1902 of the game that became known as the Rose Bowl. Of the 41 bowl appearances that Penn State has made since its first – in the 1923 Rose – the Fiesta has been the team's most frequent destination. This year's game against Washington will mark the Nittany Lions' seventh ap- pearance in the Fiesta Bowl, two more than they've made in the Orange Bowl and Gator Bowl (counting the renamed TaxSlayer Bowl) and three more than they've made in the Sugar Bowl. Even though the Fiesta was created decades after the other three, there is a special bond with Penn State because the Lions were so instrumental in transforming it into one of the elite New Year's Six postseason games. For more than 33 years, the Rose Bowl was the only recognized postseason collegiate game. As college football as- cended to national popularity rivaling major league baseball in the 1920s and '30s, along came the Orange (1935), Sugar (1935), Sun (1936) and Cotton (1937) bowls, and nary another one until the Gator in 1946. Essential to the suc- cess of these bowls was that they were played on a holiday, New Year's Day, in warm weather cities By the early 1960s, several other cities joined the December holiday tradition by avoiding the behemoths on Jan. 1 with so-called second-tier bowls in the preceding days. Cue Phoenix and the Fiesta Bowl. In 1971, the civic-oriented citizens of that popular Arizona city, | Long association has boosted both Fiesta Bowl and PSU MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY H I S T O R Y PENN STATE'S FIESTA BOWL APPEARANCES DATE RESULT SCORE Dec. 25, 1977 W Penn State 42, Arizona State 30 Dec. 26, 1980 W Penn State 31, Ohio State 19 Jan. 1, 1982 W Penn State 26, Southern California 10 Jan. 2, 1987 W Penn State 14, Miami 10 Jan. 1, 1992 W Penn State 42, Tennessee 17 Jan. 1, 1997 W Penn State 38, Texas 15 fathom their careers unfolding any other way. But it isn't hard to imagine an alternate scenario in which everything might have come together differently. For example, if the early signing period that is now in ef- fect had been an option in December 2013, Franklin would still have been at Vanderbilt when the Class of 2014 was able to begin signing its letters of intent. (O'Brien didn't leave Penn State until late December, and Franklin wasn't hired until January.) Vanderbilt's December signees would have been bound to the Commodores even after the subsequent coaching change. Asked recently how he would have handled such a situation, Mc- Sorley said, "That's a little bit out of my realm." One week after Haley and McSorley flipped their school allegiances, defensive back Amani Oruwariye of Tampa became the next out-of-region prospect to join the Nittany Lions. Oruwariye was the only other Commodore to jump ship, but Penn State also signed four players who were being heavily recruited by Vander- bilt before the staff headed to University Park. Those players were athlete Koa Farmer of Sherman Oaks, Calif., wide re- ceiver Saeed Blacknall of Manalapan, N.J., cornerback Christian Campbell of Phenix City, Ala., and defensive end Tor- rence Brown of Tuscaloosa, Ala. An argument can be made that with the 2014 class, Penn State opened up path- ways to parts of the country that the school hadn't recruited in some time. Five recruits in the upcoming Class of 2018 hail from outside Penn State's normal recruit- ing territory, as the staff has been able to build a level of trust with prospects that has allowed it to overcome the concerns about the distances involved. Players such as Brown and Campbell played a part in opening up those possi- bilities. Neither one had even seen Penn State's campus in person before signing in 2014. They just had that feeling and a be- lief that treasure awaited. "I don't regret anything right now," Campbell said, "because I know I made the right decision. I just had a lot of faith." ■