The Beginning Of The End. A Chance To Get Better.

You can't ask for a better trap to be set. 

Coming off of a poison pill of a loss, where every single aspect of the loss eventually just boiled down to the injury to the starting quarterback and how the entire team reacted to that loss.  If that injury doesn't occur, you would have a hard time convincing anyone that the result isn't going be flipped.

Thankfully, the injury doesn't appear to be season threatening and the potential is there that the starter might be back even as soon as the Ohio State game at the end of the month.

Now coming in for Homecoming is an Illinois team that has won just 2 games to start the year and is coming off a 24-0 loss to Wisconsin.  The only thing left to play for are the upsets in mostly filled away stadiums.  To try and spoil someone else's homecoming.

Yet expectations seem to abound that Penn State will simply roll over this Illinois team by simply showing up.  The buzz that was in the air throughout State College has been replaced with a sense of apathy.  A sense that this Penn State team might have already peaked and that this Illinois team is an unmotivated sorry program that just had their head coach question whether he has a single player with any talent.

That can't be allowed to be the case.

The culture of Penn State needs to be present and involved in this moment.

This is the beginning of the end.  Six games left and the potential to play for the Big Ten championship and get and even the National Championship.  Every game matters.  Every play.  Including this week at noon.

Penn State needs to use this week to get better.  They need to use this week to focus on Illinois and doing the every little thing right.  Not because they seriously believe that Illinois is as formidable as Auburn or Iowa, but that this process is how they are going to win the next week and the week after that.

That is the crux of the 1-0 mentality.  It places all of our energy not on future problems that we can't control, but on the immediate processes that we can.  Each workout, each study hall, each film session, every class, it's all in service to our greater goals.

It is the process of preparing with the set goals of improving and getting better than you were the day before.  It isn't enough to maintain in the middle of the season.  Instead it's the perfect time to get better.

While other team's hit their metaphorical wall's, we need to attempt to separate from our prior standards and improve on them.  Improving through out the season and aware of the curse of complacency.

So when the ball is kicked off this Saturday, I expect Penn State as an entire community to be excited, to be tuned in and ready to celebrate this homecoming.

A Mid-Fall Classic

We are in the thick of it now aren't we? 

Two teams, both still undefeated and thought of as potential champions of the Big Ten, square off today in what I can only describe as a far more anticipated game than when the schedule first came out.  It is a game that some are calling the epitome of College football, and well, it's hard to argue they aren't having a great time at the bars at the very least.

The buzz is starting to get everyone's attention in town, and the level of hype is starting to spill over into the national scene.  Sadly, Philadelphia icon Chris Long, who helped win a Super Bowl for the cherished Birds picked Iowa as his lock of the week in his podcast (It's at 48:44).

This Iowa team is good.  Rumor has it they're the best team Kirk Ferentz has ever really had and legitimately has a path to the College Football Playoff.

This year's Penn State team on the other hand is looking much better than the debacle of last year and seems to be plugged into this season like few others before it.

I suspect that come Saturday we will see a whale of a game.  An epic show that comes down to execution through the entirety of the game.  That comes down to the grit and effort by those involved.  That comes down to all that, and probably a little luck too.

In order to get ready for a game like that, to perform in an environment like that, it takes a lot of trust.  Trust in one's self, trust in teammates, trust in coaches both in the moment as well as in the preparation.  

As fans, we should drink it all in and enjoy this moment.  Because for better or worse, we can't control it.

For one team, after what is sure to be one of the hardest fought games this year, it means the end of their perfect season and they will go 0-1 for the the first time this year.  It will feel devastating and horrible.  The players and coaches will feel sick to their stomachs and so will their fan base.

For the other, a moment of sheer jubilation as they are once again victorious in one of the best settings in College Football.  A moment to pause and then party on.

That is the reality.

The magic of the collegiate game rests in its regular season.  Flocks of alumni coming back to their college haunts for a connection to their youth.  Undergrads and graduate students inviting friends over to partake in the festivities.  Local bars and restaurants filled with patrons and live music.  It brings a sense of life to a season that is fading to the colds of winter. 

Penn State's last loss was against Iowa.  Both teams know it.  Both fan bases know it. 

But I think, maybe, what the National fan base hasn't recognized yet is that Iowa went 0-2 last year, then won out, smashing more than a few Big Ten mid to upper tier teams in the process.  Ferentz called it one of his favorite teams he's ever coached.  They were denied a bowl game due to Covid-19. 

I think people and teams might still be underestimating how hungry Iowa is for this season and this game.

I doubt Penn State, however, will be one of them. 

Fans can be quick to forget aspects of last year's game, especially depending on whose broadcast you were listening to.

I happened to be listening to the Fox broadcast with former Penn State Defensive Tackle Matt Millen on the call.  One of the things I appreciate about Matt during his football broadcasts is his ability to identify aspects of line play and his earnestness about what is going on.

And what was going on was that Penn State got absolutely worked on the line of scrimmage.  He replayed play after play of Penn State defenders down, offensive lineman unable to sustain blocks and at the end of the game the stat sheet said everything. 

Iowa's top two backs combined for 35 carries and 175 yards.  Penn State finished as a team for 35 carries and 62 yards.

I do not think a complete reversal is going to happen in just one year, but I suspect that battle in the trenches will be one for the ages.

If Penn State can find the grit and determination to grind with what might be the most mentally and physically tough team in the Conference, then I like their chances to leave Kinnick with a celebration.