ATLANTA – Everything is awful. Everything sucks. We were screwed and hosed. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
I am of course talking about the fact that the weather was cold in Atlanta this week when bowl trips usually include an escape to warmth.
As for Penn State’s bowl game performance, it wasn’t great but I’m not going to get too upset about it.
Those are my most immediate thoughts after Penn State’s 38-25 loss in the Peach Bowl to Ole Miss.
The sentiments of burn down the program, fire everyone and don’t play next season aren’t worth it especially when we’ve collectively decided bowl games don’t matter anymore and when that wasn’t the Penn State team you either had in your head this season or the one that actually played this season.
Well, OK, there is a bit to unpack there.
Bowl games matter in the context that they matter when you win. Think about last year when Penn State lifted a Rose Bowl trophy. Think about how great that felt to see as a fan. Think about all of the money you spent on championship merch. When you lose, there’s not much about the game you remember. You do remember the trip and experience you had with your family and friends to that game.
I also don’t want to sound revisionist about seeing Penn State lose the Peach Bowl. It was frustrating at the moment and maybe for a few after. I don’t like seeing Penn State lose. No one that cares about this program does either.
Yet when things cross a line is the anger and maybe 1980s entitlement that comes from some of this fanbase who can’t handle when things don’t grow right on a day when they probably weren’t set up to succeed. It’s like some Penn State fans think James Franklin wanted to come to the Peach Bowl and have key opt-outs, one set of interim offensive coordinators and one interim defensive coordinator.
For some reason, any type of that logic gets thrown out the window in this fanbase the second anything doesn’t go right. And the problem on Saturday was a lot of logic went out the window so much so some Penn State fans had opted out before the game even kicked off.
On the other hand, the players have every right to opt-out of the bowl game. If I was closing in on a multi-million dollar payday, I too would not be participating in an exhibition to make some corporate sponsors happier. Why risk it? What am I going to do in one glorified scrimmage game that’s going to change my draft stock?
In the context of the game, that was the storyline though. Those opt-outs on Penn State’s side and opt-ins on Ole Miss’s side mattered in the final score. Lane Kiffin and Jaxson Dart’s offense gashed Penn State’s defense over the air for 394 yards. That was mainly because Penn State was without Kalen King, who is projected to go in the early parts of this year’s NFL Draft, and without Johnny Dixon, who is also opted-out for the draft.
That left guys like Cam Miller and Zion Tracy – who weren’t true starting defenders this year – to handle the Rebels’ Tre Harris, who collected 134 yards or Caden Prieskorn, who scored twice on 136 yards. Both of those guys were starters for Ole Miss high-flying offense and it showed.
Layer on the fact Anthony Poindexter was filling in for Manny Diaz – now the head coach at Duke – plus limited playing time for guys who opted-in but not returning next year in the second half and it’s not exactly rolling into the postseason with guns blazing for one of that nation’s top defenses.
You may decry why weren’t Penn State’s back-ups ready but c’mon, you and I know there’s a massive difference between bowl practice reps and the spring practice plus training camp reps for a lot of second teamers.
Meanwhile, many of Penn State’s offensive problems throughout the season that couldn’t be fixed prior to the bowl game weren’t fixed by the bowl game.
The wide receivers weren’t going to become elite – or maybe even good – in that time. The passing game was going to have to go through the tight ends, and it did thanks to Tyler Warren, who had 127 yards on five catches. Even with the return of wide receiver Harrison Wallace III featured several big catches, including a touchdown, it was all too-little-too-late.
There too was Drew Allar’s up and down day. He at times looked poised – even after throwing his second interception of the year – and at other times looked jumpy and panicked to fleetingly find an(y) open option. As had been the story for all of Penn State’s losses this year, he never quite looked confident enough to elevate the offense.
Is it on him? Is it on the coaching staff? Or was it the fact he never had tools any better than the ones your kid opened up in the Black and Decker playset for Christmas?
I don’t know but things will be – hopefully if you’re an optimist – different by next year for him.
In fact, things will be quite different next year for the offense thanks to Andy Kotelnicki’s new plan. There will also be healthier assets like Wallace and maybe a wide receiver or two from the portal. There are also nine months for Penn State to patch up all of those offensive problems to varying degrees to give Allar and fans a reprieve from mundane performances when it matters.
Ignoring the knowledge that the reality of now isn’t going to be the reality of tomorrow is senseless. That’s where my real frustration sits. Conflating this one game into next season is going to what exactly?
It’s one thing to be upset with coaching decisions in-game and there were a couple of them like that double pass that resulted in a fumble out of bounds. But it’s another to slap sky-falling messaging on next year when Penn State entered Atlanta with at-best 80 percent of its regular season strength.
This isn’t that regular season. But it also isn’t The Postseason. It’s just bowl season. That’s why players opt-out. That’s why when things go well, you celebrate them.
And when things don’t go well for your team, there’s no reason to project that the sky is falling onto next year yet. A lot can change in the next nine months but some Penn State fans seemingly forgot that.
The weather on the other hand, you can be upset about that.
Or at least, I am.
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