STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The fireworks atop Beaver Stadium were the official cue that this College Football Playoff game was finished, even if in reality Penn State’s first-round matchup with SMU was over by halftime.
The sentence that so many Penn State fans have longed to read was now reverberating through the stadium’s sound system: The Nittany Lions are advancing in the Playoff, with a quarterfinal against Boise State next.
Out came the Fiesta Bowl hats as senior defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas turned toward the crowd behind the bench and matched the feeling of the moment that many of the 106,013 in Beaver Stadium stayed to witness and celebrate together despite the brutally cold weather.
“We got one,” J-Thomas yelled at the top of his lungs.
These were moments James Franklin, with his 100th career victory at Penn State now secured, said he’s long wanted more for his players than himself. As the team and Nittany Lions fans savored the moment, Zombie Nation’s song “Kernkraft 400,” the Nittany Lions’ beloved big-play anthem, blared.
J-Thomas’ proclamation was followed by the kind of cathartic scream that the sixth-year senior and so many in the fan base have waited to share. After all of the gut punches, the nervousness, the measuring-stick games and the never-ending questions about whether such a euphoric postseason moment would ever materialize here, one Playoff win now feels like it’s not enough for a roster this talented and confident.
Saturday’s 38-10 win against SMU shouldn’t be a referendum on whether or not the Mustangs deserved to be here (they absolutely did). It should more so be viewed as a small taste of what the Nittany Lions are capable of this postseason.
“We’re in a one-game season,” Franklin said, “and we just extended our season one more game, 65 more plays.”
Penn State will play Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl at 7:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 31. Franklin is already crunching the number of hours until kickoff. Each day of preparation will be precious, he explained.
The Nittany Lions opened as a 10.5-point favorite, according to BetMGM. When the Playoff path was laid two weeks ago, the Nittany Lions’ advantageous spot in the bracket as the No. 6 seed sure felt like a massive win at the time. Now, with how suffocating Tom Allen’s defense played — headlined by two defensive touchdowns — and with how powerful Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen have run the football recently, and with all the game-wreckers up and down the roster from Abdul Carter and Dani Dennis-Sutton to Tyler Warren and first-round Playoff darling Dominic DeLuca, Penn State is playing and acting like a national title contender.
It also has the confidence of one.
One unsuccessful play shed light on just how daring Penn State plans to be this postseason. With a 14-0 lead thanks to the two pick sixes by DeLuca and Tony Rojas, Franklin opted to keep the offense on the field on fourth-and-1 at his own 19-yard line. It felt like the wrong move from the moment the offense stayed on the field deep in its own territory. It officially became the wrong decision when Drew Allar was stopped short. Penn State couldn’t pick up a yard.
There were groans from the crowd. Franklin had kept the door open for SMU with a gift-wrapped scoring opportunity in a two-possession game in the second quarter. But why Penn State went for it is exactly why this team could be dangerous this postseason: It isn’t afraid to be aggressive and to take chances. Like it did late in the game at Minnesota when it slammed the door shut by killing the clock with three fourth-down conversions, Penn State is pushing the envelope to see how far it can go.
“I told the guys we were going to call the game aggressively,” Franklin said. “I wanted them to play aggressively. I wanted (coordinators) Tom Allen and Andy Kotelnicki and Justin Lustig to call the game aggressively. Don’t play on your heels, play on your toes.”
Kotelnicki said there was no surprise or hesitation when Franklin told them this was a chance to go for it. Franklin said given the opportunity, he’d do the same thing again.
“It’s the mentality of playing to win,” Kotelnicki said. “Let’s not play on our heels. Let’s not play reactive football. Knowing that when there is adversity, a championship football team is going to respond.”
The fact that Penn State got out of that situation unscathed after DeLuca picked off Kevin Jennings for the second time was a reminder that great teams often find ways to limit or mitigate the damage when put in adverse situations.
The Playoff bracket feels wide-open, and Penn State has shown it can hang with anyone, like it did in the close Big Ten title game loss against unbeaten Oregon. According to The Athletic’s projections model, the Nittany Lions have a 75 percent chance to beat Boise State and a 39 percent chance to win the Orange Bowl and make the national title game. The latter is the second-best odds, as of Saturday evening.
“I truly believe we are the best defense in the country by far,” J-Thomas said. “Today was just another opportunity for us to show that.”
J-Thomas, one of the vocal leaders on the team, made that comment while flanked by Rojas, Allar, Singleton, Carter and DeLuca at the front of the media room. Carter showed a slight smile when J-Thomas said it, and Allar nodded.
Singleton said he believes the backfield with him and Allen is the best in the country. After Singleton delivered one punishing touchdown run, he retreated to the sideline with confidence and swagger that he hadn’t outwardly displayed much until this season.
“I said, ‘That was a violent run,’ and he screamed at me and used some words that I can’t use in this setting,” Franklin said, “and he said, ‘I’m a violent man.”
Singleton smiled when asked about it afterward.
“I’m just trying to go win,” he said.
Penn State could be doing more of that in coming weeks. For now, Saturday felt like a significant step for a program and a fan base that is reveling in the reality of a Playoff win but also dreaming about what’s still ahead.
(Top photo: Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
