Penn State rights the ship against Minnesota and proves its resiliency in the process
James Franklin momentarily donned a cowboy hat presented to him by his daughter Saturday night on the Beaver Stadium field. He smiled and laughed as he celebrated with her and his players, doling out hugs to anyone he crossed paths with.
There was a genuine nature to Franklin’s interactions as he made his way across the field following his team’s 45-17 win over Minnesota in the White Out. He was celebrating as he always would, but there was something more real about this night.
Franklin and his players responded as well as they could have following last week’s blowout loss to Michigan and in turn may have righted the ship before it had a chance to get lost at sea.
The Penn State head coach didn’t receive the warmest welcome when the starters were announced — he and quarterback Sean Clifford saw a mix of cheers and boos — but his response was clear.
“I have no reaction to those types of things. ... I’m not going to talk or get into any of those other things,” Franklin said after the game.
Franklin and Clifford responded in their own ways — the former by leading his team to a blowout victory and the latter by rebounding with an excellent second half after early game struggles.
The head coach was particularly proud of his senior quarterback. Clifford started the game 7-of-11 for 61 yards but more importantly he threw an interception that allowed Minnesota to take the first lead of the matchup. He turned it around by going 16-of-20 and throwing for four touchdowns and 234 yards.
Franklin emphasized once again that he’s in full support of his entrenched starter.
“As you guys know, I’m proud of Sean,” he said. “He’s a battler and he’s resilient and he’s tough. And he played really well. I think if you look around the country, there’s a lot of programs that would be super excited and happy about Sean Clifford being the quarterback. What he was able to do tonight, against one of the better defenses in the country, I’m real proud of him.”
The offense did its part this week after failing to string together drives last week, but the unit wasn’t alone in its turnaround. Penn State’s defense responded resoundingly to last week’s disaster. Michigan ran for over 400 yards against the Nittany Lions and got whatever they wanted whenever they wanted it. There was reason to believe Minnesota would be able to do the same thanks to its high powered rushing attack.
That wasn’t even close to the case.
Sure, Mohamed Ibrahim ran for over 100 yards, but he had to earn it. His 102 yards came on only 3.4 yards and when Penn State was able to allow the Gophers to run because the score and time were on their side.
The defense made a point to focus on getting back to what it wanted to be against the run after last week’s performance.
“It gives you another test (against) a running offense,” safety Ji’Ayir Brown said. “Last week, we didn’t do a good job of being gap responsible. So we got another opportunity to play another team who loves running the ball. ... Having that challenge back to back weeks and watching our improvement from the first time to the second time, we took a big step this week.”
The group’s ability to turn the page fits with Franklin’s “1-0” mantra but came into play this week. Last week, senior defensive tackle PJ Mustipher said he was going to have to sit with the loss and it was going to take some time to turn the page.
Brown said he had a plan in place to help get the unit back on track after a difficult game and the need to contemplate the loss. This week, he said he executed that plan and made sure his teammates knew he had their back, while cornerback Daequan Hardy said he saw the team turn the page and get ready to prepare.
“Since it was an earlier game, we had to watch the rest of the college football world play,” Hardy said. “It was just a recurring thing in my head about the loss we took. ... We’ve got Sunday practice where we focus on the next week’s opponent. When we did that, after watching film and got our corrections made, when we got to that practice field the page got turned.”
There was pessimism galore after last week’s game, but that has subsided for at least week. Who knows how long that will last, because next week is now everything to this team. Beyond it lie winnable games — the kind Penn State should be able to finish with convincing victories. But before that, the Nittany Lions must conquer their Goliath.
Franklin said he knows the Ohio State Buckeyes — next week’s opponent — present a challenge, but he hasn’t taken any time to plan just yet.
That will soon change. The calendar will flip to game week soon enough and the team will face its new biggest challenge of the season.
A loss would not be a surprise — in fact, it is expected — but a win can change things. For one more week everything lies ahead of this Penn State team and it will be allowed to dream on what it can be once again — a liberty it did not seem to possess just one week ago.
This story was originally published October 23, 2022 at 1:33 AM.
