The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: A final look at Penn State football’s Rose Bowl win over Utah
The confetti streamed down onto the field at the Rose Bowl Monday evening, falling atop the roses that already lay strewn all over the ground. The remnants of both could be found all over players, coaches and staff members from the Nittany Lions as they celebrated their 35-21 win over the Utah Utes to close out the season.
Some had roses in their mouths, others tucked behind their ears, but almost all had the same shirt on, emblazoned with the phrase signifying what they had done — Rose Bowl Game champs.
Five years after they last made it to Pasadena under head coach James Franklin, the Nittany Lions had earned redemption.
“I’m just proud of these guys,” he said after the win. “I was here in 2016, one of the better Rose Bowl games, and watched somebody else celebrate, and I wanted this for them. I couldn’t have wrote the script any better for Sean Clifford to be the offensive MVP, and my man Tig (Brown) to be the defensive MVP. It’s awesome, sending these guys out the right way, in a time in college football that I think it’s more challenging than ever.”
There is also a level of history involved in the win for Penn State.
The game is the last “traditional” Rose Bowl — one that pits one of the best of the Big Ten against one of the best of the Pac-12. Next year, the game will be a College Football Playoff semifinal and the following year the playoff expands to 12 — which the bowl will always be involved in.
Franklin said that and another aspect made it an even more special win.
“I also understand that it’s the 100th anniversary of Penn State playing in this in 1923, as well,” he said. “So much tradition and history with this bowl and then obviously specific to Penn State, and then playing Utah, there’s not too many things in 2023 where you can say it’s never happened before. Penn State had never played Utah before. A lot of really cool things.”
Good
Sean Clifford: I have been plenty critical of Clifford since he took over at quarterback for Penn State in 2019, but it’s time to give him his flowers. Monday was the best game of his career. Nearly flawless as a passer, he made every single throw and then some. When things were available he took them. When they weren’t he made them available. That’s as good as I’ve seen him play in his four years as the starter.
There wasn’t much of anything Utah could do. Clifford diced them up from the first whistle until he came off the field for an emotional curtain call late in the fourth quarter. It says a lot about him that he was able to ignore all of the outside noise and save his absolute best for his final game as a Nittany Lion. Credit to him, he’s earned all of the praise he’s getting.
Mike Yurcich: Some of the credit for the offensive performance also has to go to the man pulling the strings. Yurcich has always been a high level play designer and has mostly been a high level play caller. Monday was the cross section of both of those things, with the designs and the calls coming, more often than not, at the perfect time.
Some of the fun was what we’ve seen all year — like the hyper efficient T formation in short yardage situations — but other calls were simply about the timing, like on KeAndre Lambert-Smith’s long touchdown reception when a well-timed double move took the top off the defense. Clifford’s eyes shifted to Lambert-Smith and he pump faked right as he broke into a slant route, before the receiver took off down the field on the double move after the defense had turned its focus to the shorter portion of the field. Frankly, this looked more like the offenses Yurcich has run in the past from a passing standpoint and it should be more of what we see next season from the offensive coordinator.
Nick Singleton: There’s only so much more to be said about a freshman who already looks like he’s going to go down as one of the best offensive players in Penn State history. Singleton was excellent Monday but it was the single moment he created that will be remembered and could be a launching point for a much more nationally heralded campaign next season.
On third down with under 10 minutes left in the third quarter and the game tied, Singleton took a handoff from Clifford, made a cut and blew past the entire state of Utah for an 87-yard touchdown run. He is as electric as they came from a big play standpoint and will be the focus of many conversations over the next two years — and it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear the term “Heisman” tossed around.
Ji’Ayir Brown: This spot is pretty much reserved for Brown so it makes sense that he’s here in his final game. Like Clifford, he arguably had the best game of his career in his final one. Brown has been the best player on the Penn State defense all season so it says even more that this was somehow his best game. He was as versatile as ever, playing deep down the field, covering receivers and tight ends in the slot and getting after the quarterback in the passing game.
Brown earned an interception in the matchup and had 1.5 sacks to go with it as he put on a show. He may not earn the career recognition many others have because this was only his third season at Penn State, but Brown put a bow on a great career in the Rose Bowl.
Bad
Utah’s pass defense: To be clear, this is not to take away from Clifford. He was a major reason the Utah pass defense looked bad, but oh boy was it bad. Yurcich had the entire defense in a bind most of the game with his designs and calls while Clifford executed them to near perfection. The Utes bit on double moves, pump fakes and always seemed to be a step behind both the Penn State offensive coordinator and quarterback.
Utah was not near Penn State’s level in that matchup and it showed. Frankly, with how well Clifford played, the final result could have been an even wider winning margin for the Nittany Lions had a few receivers caught passes intended for them or if the offensive line was a little bit better when it comes to run blocking to set up the passing game.
Utah’s offense post-Rising: You never want to see players get hurt, but the way Cam Rising’s game and season ended was a shame. He was keeping the Utes in the game with his dual threat ability before exiting in the third quarter. No, he was not throwing the ball well, but he was dynamic as a runner, picking up chunk yardage over and over again for Utah on the ground.
It was starting to seem like Rising and his teammates were going to need to control the game with the run with the quarterback as the centerpiece to keep the Penn State offense off the field. Once he left the game, the Pac-12 champions’ chances of winning evaporated along with their hopes of consistently driving on the Nittany Lions.
Ugly
Utah’s second half defense: Yeah, part of this is because Rising went out and the group was put between a rock and a hard place with its offense stagnating, but still — it was brutal. Penn State was gashing the Utes left and right, keeping them off balance with passes and runs and never allowing them to settle in on that end. Not to mention, the Nittany Lions utilized tempo when they got a first down, further setting back the Utah defense.
You could see the group’s energy waning toward the middle of the third quarter and once it couldn’t get off the field, those tempo plays only became more and more effective for the Nittany Lions. Utah has a very good defense, but Monday night will not be a night that goes on this season’s highlight reel.
