How Penn State football used its bye week to recover, recalibrate after loss to Iowa
Jordan Stout made it clear to his teammates that a 23-20 loss to Iowa was not the end of the season and it was not the end of what Penn State football wanted to accomplish in 2021.
“I was one of the guys going around like, ‘Hey guys we lost, but don’t forget the goals. Don’t forget what we’re pushing for. We’re going for a national championship, a Big Ten championship, this doesn’t matter, we’re coming back stronger,’” the redshirt senior kicker/punter said following the game.
The loss could have easily set the Nittany Lions back, but Stout and the rest of the group were intent on making sure it didn’t.
Now, just under two weeks after the loss, the team has used the bye week to recalibrate, recover and get ready prove it wouldn’t be defined by the defeat at the hands of the Hawkeyes.
Senior safety Jaquan Brisker said after the loss that it wasn’t going to be the end for the team and they would use it as an opportunity rather than a setback.
“It’s adversity, but we’ve gotta see how we’re going to respond after a loss like this,” Brisker said. “We’ve just got to keep going. We can’t stop, so that’s what we’ll do. We will be better. We’re just going to get better. ... After this day we’re going to move forward and we’re going to be a better Penn State team.”
Eleven days after the loss, Brisker spoke again. This time, reiterating what he said previously after his prediction came true.
“We stayed together,” Brisker said Wednesday night after practice. “We didn’t doubt each other or anything like that. We just kept the positivity around and we moved on from the Iowa loss.”
The bye week gave the team a chance to stay united, but it also allowed for recovery time. That includes Brisker and defensive end/linebacker Jesse Luketa, who took the chance to recover and relax.
The most notable recovery could be from the team’s starting quarterback. Redshirt senior Sean Clifford left the game against the Hawkeyes with an undisclosed injury. Penn State head coach James Franklin said Clifford was constantly watching film or working on getting back on the field through his treatment with the training staff.
It seemed that recovery time and treatment has had some level of effect.
Clifford took part in drills and threw passes Wednesday afternoon when practice was open to the media. That came one day after Franklin said the reps would be split between Ta’Quan Roberson and Christian Veilleux at quarterback.
Franklin said Wednesday that those reps were still split evenly, just between three signal callers instead of two, and that it wasn’t Clifford’s first day participating in practice this week.
“All three of them took reps, a third, a third, a third,” Franklin said. “We’ll see (if Clifford will play). I don’t know at this stage. But we’ll see where he’s at by Saturday. Hopefully, obviously we’ll have an idea before that. But it was good to see him be able to get some reps today at practice, and all three of them (get reps).”
Clifford’s ability to practice is a very positive sign for the Nittany Lions. While there is no indication as to whether or not he’ll play against Illinois, Saturday’s game may not be of utmost importance. Penn State is clearly superior to Illinois and should be able to win whether the team’s redshirt senior quarterback plays or not.
The real test will come the next week, when the team travels to Columbus to take on Ohio State in a matchup that will go a long way toward dictating if the team will be able to achieve its goals. A win over the Buckeyes would almost certainly put the Nittany Lions well on their way to the goals Stout mentioned after the loss to Iowa — both a Big Ten title and a chance at the national title by making the College Football Playoff.
A loss would quickly derail those thoughts, putting both nearly out of reach.
But Luketa and the Nittany Lions aren’t worried about that yet. Instead, they remain focused on the task at hand as they always do. There’s no thought that the team will simply walk over the Fighting Illini Saturday afternoon, regardless of the outside perception that Penn State is superior to Illinois.
“It doesn’t matter,” Luketa said. “Biggest thing with us is that we respect our opponent. You never want to underestimate your opponent.”
