Penn State gets obliterated by Michigan, revealing what the program has become
PJ Mustipher’s voice was sullen after his team’s 41-17 loss to Michigan. The Penn State senior defensive tackle spoke quietly, lamenting what happened on the field just a short time before he voiced his frustrations with how he and the defense had played.
But then, his voice grew. He spoke more sternly with the volume slowly increasing from his hushed tone to a much more vocal one when talking about what he can say to his teammates after the defeat.
“Just letting everybody know that there’s still time on the clock, still a lot of ball to be played,” he said. “But at the same time, we’ve got to step it up. We’re not little kids, we’re grown men. Everybody is held accountable but at the same time we still gotta go out there the next drive and get it fixed and get it corrected. We’re together, no doubt we’re together, but at the same time everybody has to be able to depend on everybody in that locker room.”
Mustipher and his teammates have to be on the same page even with the defeat and there has to be accountability — otherwise Penn State is on the precipice of once again letting its season snowball out of control.
Most good teams take losses — even the most embarrassing ones — and turn the page to the next week. But that hasn’t been the case for the Nittany Lions in recent years. A COVID-impacted 2020 season saw a season-opening loss turn into four more. A much-more-normal 2021 saw a road loss against Iowa turn into two more.
The circumstances around such losses are critical, with both previous stretches including the vaunted Ohio State Buckeyes. Bad news for the Nittany Lions. The Buckeyes are once again looming, this time in two weeks.
It’s imperative for the veterans on the team to take control and ensure the last two years’ pitfalls don’t strike again.
“I was a part of the team when it happened last year,” senior safety Ji’Ayir Brown said. “I have a very specific plan I want to do. Just get the guys to forget about it as soon as possible and come out and still be the same team that we were before this game. ... Not letting (the younger guys) dwell on it. A lot of younger guys, especially in big games like this, they take it to heart. Try not to take it to heart. ... Just get them to shake back from it. ... My goal is to make sure the whole team bounces back from it.”
As the program has proven, that’s far easier said than done. Especially with opponents like Minnesota and Ohio State coming up. The Golden Gophers are one of the best running teams in the Big Ten and the Buckeyes might be the best team in the country. Things have to change quickly for Penn State.
But in the shadows of the defeat is not the time to make those alterations. Mustipher said he would have to sit with the loss because of how it happened — a team’s rushing offense embarrassing one of the best defenses in the country — and Penn State head coach James Franklin said those alterations will come soon enough.
“This game can’t linger,” he said. “Talking about games in the future doesn’t matter. ... (Postgame locker rooms after losses are) the hardest part of the job, in my opinion. It’s not the time to critique. I tell them I love them. We all need to look at ourselves individually. It starts with me as the head coach and every player and every coach and every staff member needs to look at it the same way. ... When there’s an open wound, that is not the time — I learned that years ago as a young coach — that’s not the time to go in the locker room and start talking about what we needed to do better, and what we should’ve done better.”
And if those changes don’t happen and one turns into three? Well, who knows. Maybe this is what Penn State football is at this point. A team that can challenge some of the best in the country at times and put their backs against the wall. One that manhandles lesser opponents and takes care of early season business. But one that fades once that spotlight gets brighter.
Rarely have the Nittany Lions found the highest levels of success in the last decade when that emanating light grows. They have reached New Year’s Six bowls, they have started seasons with five straight wins and they have gone into hostile territory early in the season and taken care of business. But lately that’s where the success has ended.
Instead of capitalizing on hot starts the team succumbs to the pressure, struggling when it matters most. The blame for that is easy to spread around. Maybe it’s the head coach that is at fault, or maybe it’s the quarterback that has led the offense for four years, or maybe it’s the defense that can be eviscerated by the elite of the elite, or the recruiting that has consistently been great despite rarely being elite.
Or maybe it’s just Penn State football.
This story was originally published October 15, 2022 at 5:52 PM.
