In good faith, I cannot begin to write about the Nebraska game without first giving recognition to the Cornhusker fans. Talk about class acts.
It was discouraging to think about the treatment these fans received just a year ago in Happy Valley, especially for myself as a current undergraduate at Penn State. On Saturday, the "F-Nebraska" chants only a year removed were replaced with "welcome to Lincoln" greetings. The constant and malicious heckling in the stands at Beaver Stadium was substituted with a five-minute standing ovation for the exiting Lions and Joe Paterno.
As the Penn State players walked back to the locker room after the loss, hundreds of Cornhusker fans lined up to shake their hands and pat their backs. Yaacov Yisrael looked stunned when a young Nebraska fan asked him to come over and slap him five. It would be an understatement to say that the Cornhusker fans were in awe of the Nittany Lions football team. Nebraska's love for the Cornhuskers is only surmounted by its love for the integrity of college football.
But all of the appreciation from those in Lincoln did not change what occurred during the game in which Penn State got worn down and beaten 18-10, giving the Lions a losing record on the season. Since starting 9-0 in 1999 season, the Nittany Lions are 21-22.
In other words, this was no apparition. So where did it all go wrong?
As the old adage goes, defense wins championships. There was a time when Penn State football was all about defense. Teams used to fear playing the Nittany Lions and its rock-solid, no-nonsense defense. Names like Jack Ham, LaVar Arrington and Courtney Brown meant terror for opposing offenses.
No longer.
As Nebraska proved, teams enjoy exploiting Penn State's defense nowadays. Nebraska quarterback Jammal Lord smirked as he said, "We didn't need to pass the ball" after the game, referring to the 337 rushing yards he and the rest of the Cornhusker offense amassed. Thing is, Lord was absolutely right.
Flailing at Lord and I-back Josh Davis, the Lions looked as pathetic as Indiana and Northwestern against Larry Johnson last season. Just as overmatched and just as clueless.
But why the struggles? Why do teams no longer fear Penn State's defense?
Penn State lost three tremendous players in Anthony Adams, Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Haynes to the NFL draft and the common excuse now
is that because the defensive line is young, they can't stop the run or even play well.
I'm not sure how viable that is anymore. I don't think it ever really was.
Despite my alleged knowledge of college football, I will admit that I fell for one of the biggest excuses this year as to why Penn State has not been playing like, well, Penn State: Youth.
Youth is no longer an excuse for the Lions to lose, not at this point in the season. The team can't just forego 2003 just to enter the 2004 season with more experience for the sake of having more experience, no matter how badly Joe Paterno wants to.
Nowadays experience in college football is overrated.
Look at Wake Forest. The situation in Winston-Salem is very similar to that in Happy Valley. The Demon Deacons have 10 returning starters from last year's team and a large contingent of young, inexperienced talent on the field this season. Plus, they're Wake Forest, a perennial bottom-dweller in the ACC. Yet they go out and beat Boston College and NC State in consecutive weeks, and then take Purdue to the last play in Saturday's loss. Not to mention schools like Miami, Florida State and Oklahoma that build national title contenders on the shoulders of underclassmen.
How do they do it? They put their talent on the field and let it play.
High school football players in 2003 are exposed to many things that make them able to play and succeed early on in their college careers that high school football players 10 years ago never had. Personal trainers, new training regiments and playing more games in front of larger crowds prepares an incoming freshman for the transition a little bit better. Paterno does not realize that. Coach them like any other player on the field and stop holding their age or class standing against them.
Use youth to Penn State's advantage.
