ORLANDO, Fla. -- Tailback Larry Johnson wasn't too pleased about the way his last game as a Penn State football player played out.
After the game, he made sure that every media member present at the Capital One Bowl and everyone who watched the evening news that night or read the newspaper the next morning knew it.
Johnson rushed for 72 yards on 20 carries and caught two passes for eight yards in the Nittany Lions' 13-9 loss to Auburn. It was the first time since the Ohio State game that the 2,000-yard rusher did not pass the century mark in rushing yardage, and the first time this season that the NCAA's all-purpose yardage leader didn't amass at least 100 total yards.
Johnson felt much of the blame for his sub-par statistics and the Lions' loss had to do with a play-calling scheme that didn't get him the ball quite as much as he would have liked. He would have much rather received the 37 carries Auburn tailback Ronnie Brown got, which the Tiger used to rush for 184 yards and two touchdowns to win the game's MVP award.
"If you have 32 carries, you better have 100 some yards," Johnson said. "If you get 20 carries, there's no way in the world you're going to get over 100 yards against a good defense. They pounded and pounded and pounded. You saw the outcome of it. If we tried to do that, maybe the score would have been reversed."
Johnson did admit that he played a part in shutting himself down. He slipped on two carries, fumbled a pitch for a loss of six yards, and dropped a screen pass when he was wide open.
He had a very hard time finding holes, and his numbers would have been even less impressive had it not been for a 17-yard run at the end of the first half when Auburn was playing back in case the Lions tried to go for the end zone.
He only had two carries in the first quarter, and any time he did seem to get the beginnings of a rhythm, the Lions drive would stall.
"We tried to get the ball to Larry," quarterback Zack Mills said. "Obviously he was a Heisman Trophy candidate, so I wish we could get it to him more, but that's how the game goes."
However, his own faults didn't make his verbal attacks any less venomous. Johnson, who complained about the offense being too predictable two years ago after the Lions' embarrassing loss to Toledo, said that the Lions were trying to be too cute.
Calmly and deliberately, but with his frustration clear in his words, Johnson began airing out his complaints at a postgame press conference, then continued in the Lions' locker room afterward.
"We're trying to do too much stuff, we're taking out this, putting in this, and everything's just jumbled," he said. "The last thing I would have done is try to pass the ball around. I'd try to pound their ass and see what they can take ... We were trying to find other ways to trick them. Those guys aren't dumb. They're going to slide and do whatever. I would just wear their asses out. If we're going to lose, I'd rather lose and have them taking an ass beating, and I don't think they did."
Johnson also said that to some extent, he felt that the game had passed Penn State football coach Joe Paterno by. Though he said Paterno still has the energy to coach, and is not too old for the game, he said he thought Paterno wasn't used to having a player like him who he could "really say, 'Hey, give him the game' and do that."
At his postseason press conference the day after the game, Paterno said that he had been told about Johnson's comments, but that he had not read them, and that he would not read them.
"Larry's Larry. He's frustrated probably," Paterno said. "Obviously I'd always rather have them keep their mouth shut ... but in all fairness to Larry, I haven't read what he said, so I don't want to get into that. It's not fair. It's not fair to the kid. So I don't know exactly what he said, and I'm not interested. He's a great asset to the program, and I want him to know I appreciate what he's done."
