Penn State hopes to take a page out of the 2012 team’s playbook to rally back from 0-2
After their 38-25 loss to Ohio State at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, the Nittany Lions found themselves in unfamiliar territory — off to an 0-2 start for the first time since 2012.
Still, veteran leaders — like redshirt senior defensive end Shaka Toney, redshirt senior defensive tackle Antonio Shelton and senior safety Lamont Wade — gathered the team in the locker room and spoke with confidence about the remainder of the season.
Their message was loud and clear.
“The message is we love each other no matter what,” senior cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields said Wednesday, “and no matter what, we’re gonna find a way. That’s as simple as I can put it — we’re gonna find a way.”
While the circumstances were different, the mood of the team was similar to the last time Penn State found itself in this situation. Those 2012 Nittany Lions did indeed find a way, finishing the season 8-4.
Bill O’Brien was in his first season as head coach of the program after legendary head coach Joe Paterno was fired toward the end of the 2011 season in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The Nittany Lions were also ineligible for the Big Ten title or a bowl berth because of sanctions imposed on the program months before the season began.
And after opening the season with two back-to-back losses to unranked Ohio and Virginia — when it appeared the Nittany Lions had nothing to play for — they found their own motivation.
“We never looked at it like the season was over,” said Matt McGloin, the redshirt senior starting quarterback on the 2012 Nittany Lions. “The way we approached that season was one game at a time, because we didn’t have a Big Ten championship game to go to. We didn’t have a bowl game to go to. So we had 12 opportunities to play football. And for us guys that were seniors or fifth-year seniors, that was it for college football at Penn State.”
Mike Hull, a redshirt sophomore linebacker on the 2012 Penn State team, said at first it was “disheartening” for the team to have lost to underdogs in Ohio and Virginia to begin the year.
But Hull and his teammates attacked each week individually instead of focusing on what an 0-2 start to their season meant for the group’s larger goals.
“You’re so immersed in the process, and just getting better week to week, you don’t really have time to think about the big picture,” Hull said. “So, man, at that point in time, I was just thinking about getting better, competing and just making more plays to help my team win.”
While the reasons the 2012 Penn State team found itself in a 0-2 hole were different from why this current group of Nittany Lions is in the same predicament, the solution could be similar.
Head coach James Franklin often talks about “going 1-0” each week. It has never been more crucial for his players to embrace that sentiment than it is now. And so far, they have.
Redshirt junior wide receiver Jahan Dotson said he and his teammates are spending more time concentrating on immediate goals — like improving on a daily basis — than they are on the all-but-lost lost opportunity to play for a Big Ten title or make a College Football Playoff appearance.
“Just going out to practice every day and making each other better and trying to win on Saturdays,” Dotson said. “Just going 1-0, executing, doing what our coaches say, that’s basically the biggest thing for us.”
That was a mentality that proved to be effective for the 2012 Nittany Lions. The group rallied to win eight of their final 10 games to finish the season, and O’Brien was named Big Ten Coach of the Year.
More than anything, players on the 2012 Penn State team played for each other.
Now, this current group of Nittany Lions is doing the same.
“The guys in this locker room, we all love each other,” Dotson said. “And we don’t want to let each other down, that’s the biggest thing at the end of the day.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
