Penn State still has belief

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‘The Most American Sport’ is a four-part series exploring the culture of college football. | Part 1: Texas A&M

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STATE COLLEGE, Penn. – Before heartbreak, there was hope. Of course there was.

It was eight hours before kickoff of the Penn State-Oregon “White Out” game – one of the most electric, deafening, passionate environments in sports. I’m walking through the endless tailgates around Beaver Stadium, talking to the Penn State faithful about their chance to finally beat a team ranked in the top 10.

Penn State ended up losing – again – adding to the ugly numbers that define Penn State’s struggle under head coach James Franklin to beat the best teams. But before last Saturday’s game, on a perfect football afternoon, both the skies and the mood were sunny. The air was filled with music, the aroma of grilled meats, and talk of overdue redemption.

Optimism abounded. Of course it did. This is college football, The Most American Sport.

I went to State College to continue Andscape’s exploration of the culture of college football – the traditions and characteristics that reflect the ways of our nation. In this central Pennsylvania town surrounded by farms, forests, and the Appalachian mountains, I met fans from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York. I heard aspirations of Franklin becoming the first Black coach to win a college football national championship. Between RVs pulling up Thursday and the standstill exiting traffic at 1 a.m. Sunday, it was a closeup of the American tapestry.

“American” is a loaded term these days, but universal themes endure: the value of hard work; the pursuit of opportunity; the reality of diversity; and the belief that progress is always possible – that we can shape our own destiny.

At Penn State, they believe.

“I’ve seen the progress. I’ve seen the trajectory,” former athletic director Sandy Barbour told me before the game.

“It’s different tonight, bro. It’s different,” said J.P. Romano, tailgating with relatives who attended Penn State.

“I feel like Penn State’s gonna drag them down to the deep end and drown ‘em,” said former receiver Joe Nastasi, whose son Donte is a sophomore cornerback.

“I have to believe. I have to believe. I just have to,” said Gary Abdullah, a lifelong resident of State College, son of two Penn State alums, holder of two Penn State degrees, and an assistant dean in the school’s Bellisario College of Communications.

“Otherwise,” Abdullah said, “I just have to stop watching.”

But as the Nittany Lions’ offense spun their wheels for three and a half quarters, bringing boos raining down from the White Out crowd of 111,015, the question loomed:

How long can they keep hope alive?

Penn State knows how to climb out of a dark place.

In 2011, as head coach Joe Paterno prepared to retire after 46 seasons, five undefeated campaigns and two national championships, his former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested. Sandusky was charged with sexually abusing 10 boys, some of them in Penn State football facilities.

Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to up to 60 years in prison. An investigation alleged that Paterno and other top officials concealed Sandusky’s actions. Paterno and the university president maintained their innocence, but were fired. The athletic director and a vice president went to jail. The football team received some of the harshest penalties in NCAA history, short of shutting down the entire program. The Penn State community shattered into finger-pointing factions. In 2012, Paterno’s statue outside the stadium was moved to an undisclosed location. Some celebrated; others wept.

Nothing could have been worse for a university whose motto is “Success with Honor.” The “We Are!” chant is famous because of football, but it also comes from a stellar academic reputation and more than 750,000 living alumni who include a Nobel Prize winner, CEOs, Hollywood stars, and the first Black astronaut to fly into space.

When Barbour arrived as athletic director in 2014, Franklin’s first season as head coach, she found a lingering darkness – and the belief that Penn State could not only recover, but rejoin the elite.

“I knew what was in our heart,” she said. “I knew the resources and the effort that we were going to apply to being great.” Why did she think greatness was even possible? “Because it’s Penn State. It’s excellence in everything.”

Today, the scandal is no longer the program’s defining narrative. A new story has taken hold: Penn State football can’t beat the best teams.

That in itself is testament to how well the program has recovered: Franklin is 104-43 in his 12th year at the helm, with a run to the College Football Playoff semifinals last season. He has helped stars like Saquon Barkley and Micah Parsons reach the NFL. But Franklin is 1-15 against top-5 ranked teams and 4-21 against the top 10. He’s 3-7 against Big Ten conference rival Michigan and 1-10 against Ohio State.

Those are the numbers that were not being talked about before the White Out.

The pent-up energy was palpable. Due to the Big Ten Conference TV contract, many of Penn State’s recent big games started at noon ET. It’s hard for fans to get properly revved up that early. Plus, the White Out only happens at night.

Kickoff was 7:52 p.m. ET. When I parked at noon, the tailgate lots were already jumping. As I walked around, dozens of people approached me and my cameraman, eager to roast the Oregon Ducks. Many weren’t even planning to enter the stadium.

“The football program creates community. It’s part of our value back to the institution,” Barbour said. “There are people that go to college football games who don’t really understand football, but they’re there to tailgate with their friends and their classmates and their fraternity or sorority sisters or brothers, or the local chamber of commerce.”

“When I cheer for the Colts or the Orioles,” said Barbour, a native of Annapolis, Maryland, “I don’t believe that I have helped them be successful. … College fans feel like they have ownership because they bought merch, tickets, donated, helped a player get an internship, served as a mentor.”

Penn State students Gabriela Smith and Zharia Ashley were among the people who approached me outside the stadium. “White Out is all about bringing the Penn State community together, keeping that culture going, and beating the f—ing Ducks,” Smith said. I asked her opinion of Oregon’s “Mummy Duck” uniform ensemble, which had the internet bubbling all week. “It’s because they know they’re gonna die,” Smith said. “They’re scared. That’s all. They’re scared. Mummy, that’s a dead person.”

Smith may have been triggered by Oregon’s glow-in-the-dark Nike Foamposite cleats because Penn State tradition is the exact opposite. Going back to the Paterno days, Penn State wears black shoes and plain jerseys without names, representing unity, strength of purpose, and solid confidence – all the ingredients of belief. That came through when I asked Smith why she thought Penn State would win.

“Because we are,” she said. “We are.”

Nastasi, the former player, was throwing a tailgate for the PIER Foundation, which supports underserved youth. He lives in State College with his wife, Aaliyah, who he met when both were students at Penn State, and their five children. Beyond the Xs and Os of the Oregon matchup, which he broke down in detail, Nastasi’s optimism came from his personal relationship with Franklin.

“He gets a lot of heat for things that maybe he’s come up short in, but he doesn’t get the credit for all the positives he’s done,” Nastasi said. “The lives that he changes, the wins that he’s gotten, the positions he puts us in.”

Nastasi recalled when the program was so down, there were only five offensive lineman on the entire roster. “Look what James has done to the university. Look what they’ve created here – look at this atmosphere right now. So I’m excited about tonight.

“James is the guy who took us from nothing to something.”

After all that, Oregon beat Penn State 30-24 in double overtime. The White Out noise helped force a false start on Oregon’s first drive as they attempted to convert on fourth-and-1, but then boos rang out as Penn State’s offense consistently failed to move the ball. After falling behind 17-3 early in the fourth quarter, Penn State rallied to tie the score at the end of regulation. But the game ended on quarterback Drew Allar’s interception, reminiscent of his pick that led to Notre Dame’s winning field goal in the playoff semifinal last season.

Afterwards, I asked Franklin: After everything that’s happened versus ranked teams, how do you personally maintain your belief?

“I kind of look at the entire picture,” Franklin said. “I get that narrative, and it’s really not a narrative. It’s factual. It’s the facts. I get it. But I try to look at the entire picture and what we’ve been able to do here. But at the end of the day, we gotta find a way to win those games.”

America has a difficult past, and present. That has implanted belief in our character. “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past,” said Thomas Jefferson. “Still I Rise,” wrote Maya Angelou.

Said Abdullah, the lifelong Penn Stater: “You don’t have to go undefeated to win the national championship.”

“I saw us break through and beat Ohio State when Tamba Hali put Troy Smith on his head. I saw the Allen Robinson catches,” Abdullah said. “I saw the blocked field goal and the return” against Ohio State.

“You live off the hope just enough, you live off the moments of success just enough, where you realize, hey, it can come again.”

Franklin’s team gets another chance to break through on Nov. 1, when it travels to No. 1 Ohio State. The following week, No. 8 Indiana comes to Beaver Stadium. If they win at least one, and don’t stumble against weaker foes, they can make the Playoff.

“We always talk about resilience, we talk about adversity,” Penn State center Nick Dawkins said after Oregon. “Well, here’s resilience right now.

“Belief is something you have to understand and truly be committed to without seeing it.”

ESPN senior college football writer Adam Rittenberg contributed to this story.