Over the last eight or so years, patience has been harder to come by. Patience as it relates to Penn State football hasn’t always been easy to find either.
In an afternoon in Los Angeles, it was patience that tested again.
This time, that patience paid off.
For Penn State, for James Franklin, for Tyler Warren, for Julian Fleming, for Drew Allar, for Ryan Barker and maybe most of all, for Penn State fans, patience now brings promise.
This season has followed what has now become the standard archetype for a Penn State season. The Nittany Lions – for the fourth time in as many years – entered a game with value and meaning at 5-0. As the No. 4 team in the country, it was handed an opportunity to once again take a step forward. That record and ranking also offered a half-hearted belief that Penn State over the body of their prior 20 quarters of football entering Saturday could do that too. Penn State could truly turn the corner. It could play well when the moment was bright. It could play well on the road, with a high ranking, with pressure to perform.
Yet by halftime, Penn State was once again in one of its usual spots at that moment. Down – and big. Somewhat out-coached. Somewhat out-schemed, and it showed in the form of a 75-yard touchdown on USC’s second possession of the game.
With a 14-point deficit at the break, it’s not fair to say the Lions had been completely written off by their fans, as it was not a large gap to overcome. But in that spot before, you’d seen Penn State struggle. In 2021, you’d watch Iowa take over the game in the second half. You’d watch Penn State fail to close the door against Ohio State in 2018 or even against Michigan last year. The problem is there’s too many to pick just one of those moments and your Rolodex of those seemed to be getting a new addition through 30 minutes in SoCal.
It was also a body of work that’s only proof was an outcome unenjoyable.
Franklin-coached teams – maybe caricatured to an extent – do not generally come back from deficits like that one. They can not meet the moment like the one they were handed on Saturday – even prior to kick off. It’s the single reason why for the 11-year head coach’s fanbase, patience hasn’t been thick lately.
It’s also a fair criticism particularly when what ailed him – opponents like Michigan and Ohio State – were not on the slate Saturday but still a mighty challenge against an offensive style Franklin-led teams have struggled with.
Penn State found a way to change all of that in the second half.
Started in part by Warren’s hike-to-TD-catch play on the third quarter’s opening drive, Penn State’s offense began to return to the aspirational level fans have been clamoring – and show it was ready for the moment. That play, in sum, served as the first sign patience was worth it, and individually, Warren has gone from the relative unknown of a former high school quarterback turned tight end to now a rock star – long hair included – in the college football world.
His Penn State record-breaking 17-catch, 224-yard afternoon typified that, too. A guy you didn’t expect to make an impact a few years ago now had one of the greatest offensive games by anyone to ever wear a Penn State uniform. It is patience in the form of development in the off-to-the-portal world, which is harder to come by.
Still, Penn State fans and its team were asked to be patient again on the afternoon, as Allar’s day took another set back when he forced a ball to Khalil Dinkins that was tipped and picked off at the Penn State 24 yard-line. Allar, uncharacteristically, had now thrown two interceptions in the afternoon to that point – matching his total from all of 2023.
But patient with himself, Allar bounced back, where he found Fleming, not once but twice, on fourth down conversions to keep a drive and the game alive for Penn State.
For Penn State fans, moments like the ones Fleming provided on Saturday were something they’d also been patiently waiting for. Fleming, the dream recruit for many in the Keystone State, turned his sights toward Columbus, playing several years at Ohio State. It was a move that served as a direct slap in the face to Franklin’s “Dominate The State” strategy he’d touted years ago.
Now, after some retrospective patience, Fleming had returned to his home state through the transfer portal – where he’d largely been quiet so far in 2024. In Fleming’s defense, he was never going to be Penn State’s go-to guy. The move — or return to PA — was more akin to a veteran leader role you’d see at the next level when a team or even position group needs it.
But oftentimes, those guys are also the ones you go to in the moments where Allar and company needed him. The two catches were the first real cash out of all of that Fleming-sown patience, setting up a Nicholas Singleton receiving touchdown with two-plus minutes remaining.
On the following drive, Penn State had been patiently searching for a turnover by USC all afternoon and found one when Miller Moss’s pass ended up in the hands of Jaylen Reed, preventing any chance at Trojan game-winning field goal attempt.
Once again, in overtime, Penn State’s defense stood stout and a missed field goal by USC gave Penn State fans and players, patiently hoping for a crack at a win, an opportunity.
An opportunity was also what kicker Ryan Barker had also received just a week ago, when handed the starting role because of repeated misses by Sander Sahaydak.
On a 36-yard kick, Barker solidified himself as Penn State’s kicker – finishing with an exclamation point to a 14-point deficit erased – and turned into promise.
There’s legitimate belief now – more importantly with legitimate proof – that this Penn State football team has what it takes to chase down many of the opportunities fans, players and coaches alike have wanted over the years.
It proved Saturday it can go on the road. It can hang with offenses that pass well. It proved it can – when the spotlight is bright – grab the patience you’ve sown into this team and make something out of it.
While there are other opportunities lurking over the next 25-or-so days, there’s at least a sense that the patience is beginning to pay off.
That’s a refreshing feeling well worth the wait.
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