Culture
What a win! As Franklin said, it was both beautiful and ugly. I loved watching it. It wasn’t perfect; it never is. There’s a confidence here in this team that I haven’t seen in other years. There’s no folding. There’s no panic. It’s just an occasional ‘whoops, let's get back on track’ in the midst of a bunch of good stuff, and then we win.
And how about that Beau Pribula! He took a minute to settle in for sure– aided by a timely pick six courtesy of Jalen Reed– and then he was on his way. ''I've prepared super well all week, every week for occasions like this, just in case," he said in a post-game interview. ''I had confidence in myself. I just needed everybody to know that nothing was going to change. We were going to be just fine.''
It’s clear Beau was ready for this moment. He put in the hard work behind the scenes and sometimes on the field to be sure he was, and the same is true for the players who replaced Dani Dennis-Sutton and Anthony Donkoh. In his press conference, Coach Franklin described the game as ''Just a gutsy win. You lose your starting quarterback. You lose your starting d-end. You lose your starting offensive tackle. Next man up. No excuses. I thought it was just a gutsy culture win from my perspective.''
In the midst of a larger trend of winning at all costs, Penn State continues our time-honored tradition of developing a culture of unselfishness, of one team, of the name on the front of the jersey being the most important.
Our past is rich with stories of team unity. In 1946, the football team voted unanimously to cancel a game, rather than play without its two black players: we play all or we play none. In 1948, our famous stadium cheer was born when it was rumored that our Cotton Bowl opponents wanted to meet to discuss not playing black players: we are Penn State; there will be no meetings.
Former players like Saquan Barkley continue to carry the Penn State team-first ideal. When Eagles Coach Nick Sirianni approached Barkley about helping him achieve a career high rushing yards record, Saquan responded, “I’d rather see the young boys eat.”
We know the qualities that set Penn Staters apart: heart, passion, resilience, perseverance, loyalty, integrity. We can see the proof in this season’s team that Franklin continues to develop players and a program that embodies these ideals.
And we’ve already leaned on them in finding ways to win games we would have lost in other seasons. No way we would have attempted and made two long fourth down conversions like we did against USC and come out on top in overtime (see Illinois and the 9 OTs loss). And no way we would have survived a second half with a backup quarterback let alone thrive like we did this past weekend against Wisconsin (see the Iowa 2021 loss).
Trust the process is as true here as it ever was, because, deep breaths, here comes Ohio State. It’s the game we’ve kept one eye on all season. I’m channeling some Zen energy and attempting not to get sucked into the anxiety, which is what I wish for our players: play your best game, leave everything on the field, we’ll still be here no matter which way the chips fall. Go State! Beat the Buckeyes!
