As Coach Franklin said in his post-game remarks, “I'd like to be happy for 15 minutes and then get on to the next opponent.” Next week is the only thing anybody wants to talk about. Will the Penn State team we saw today be enough to win against Michigan? Who’s on upset alert now?
It wasn’t a pretty win, and this is a trend for us now, the hangover performance after a big loss. It’s a game we have lost in the past, but won this time. We saw some sparks and the final score was in our favor. We could ask for more. Or, we could be satisfied to add another tally to the W column. It’s all about perspective.
Take heart Nittany Lions, it feels like the season is over, but it is not. It’s not all anger out there. Look around and you’ll see plenty of lionhearted fans telling our players to keep their heads up. It may feel as if our program will never be elite but I do believe if we put our emotions aside momentarily there is evidence that we already are. Losing a game is heartbreaking. Let us not lose our sense of excellence or worth.
And what a DAE it was! Daequan Hardy became the first Penn State player ever to record two punt return touchdowns in the same game and was the first Big Ten player to do so in a decade. Daequan Hardy added a new wrinkle to our special teams that will hopefully, as James Franklin predicted, cause some long nights for opponents looking at film and trying to figure out how to defend this weapon.
We all see Ohio State and Michigan looming. We all want to beat them, convincingly if possible. Take heart in the fact that our Nittany Lions want to see the Buckeyes and the Wolverines go down even more than we do.
And so we exacted our 2021 season revenge in front of the second largest Beaver Stadium crowd, dismantling Iowa bit by bit, small yardage gain by small yardage gain.
Even if it was more blah than beautiful, it’s nevertheless one more tally in the win column. Even if a coach doesn’t publicly shame his players for their mistakes, it doesn't mean he’s not going to work to correct them in practice. And, as we all know by now, Penn State is bound to surprise us. Let’s take this win and hope for the best as the season progresses one game at a time.
Delaware may have been a tune-up game for us, but it sure was fun to watch... As Jack Ham said at the close of his radio broadcast: “They were expected to win and they’ve done the expected.” We are off to a 2-0 start and up a spot in the rankings. Let's keep this momentum roaring in Champaign next week for our conference opener. Go State! Beat the Fighting Illini!
Welcome back to the 110,000+ fans who made the season opener the fourth highest attended game in Beaver Stadium history. Welcome back to the West Virginia Mountaineers, whom we have not battled since 1992.
