Penn State players stay resolute despite another frustrating loss [opinion]

Few, if any, coaches and players inside the Penn State locker room have experienced a stretch like this in their football careers.

Six straight losses. Five by a total of 16 points.

It’s enough for anyone to throw up their hands and say, “I give up.”

Remarkably, that hasn’t happened yet in this lost season.

The Nittany Lions rallied from a 13-point deficit to take the lead in the fourth quarter against No. 2 Indiana and couldn’t hold it, falling 27-24 Saturday at Beaver Stadium.

“They’re working hard,” interim head coach Terry Smith said. “They’re getting after it. We’re straining these guys. They don’t reap any reward for it, and it’s very difficult. I just feel bad for those guys. They deserve more. They deserve victory.”

Penn State outgained Indiana, held the highest-scoring team in the country to well below its season average (46.4), relentlessly hit quarterback Fernando Mendoza, scored the most points allowed by the Hoosiers this season and still lost.

“I mean, it’s tough,” linebacker Amare Campbell said. “We’re going out there every week. We’re trying to win. We’re trying to make plays at the end, but we just keep coming up short.”

It took a magnificent 80-yard drive directed by Mendoza and a spectacular toe-tapping catch by wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. in the back of the end zone with 36 seconds left to beat the Lions.

“We’re all wanting the plays to go our way,” Smith said. “We’re talking blades of grass back to the Oregon game (when the Ducks scored a TD after an apparent fumble recovery for Penn State was overturned). Right now we’re in that storm where we can’t get the blade of grass.”

The Lions played with intention and ferocity against Indiana, which wasn’t always the case earlier this season. If they had done that, maybe they would have beaten Oregon, UCLA, Northwestern and/or Iowa. Maybe they wouldn’t be in the middle of the losing streak that’s tied for the second longest in school history.

Maybe James Franklin wouldn’t have been fired.

“There’s always a lesson opportunity in chaos,” center Nick Dawkins said. “To understand what you need to do better and to really know what it is to be part of a winning team and how hard winning is.

“Sometimes we take that for granted. We absolutely took that for granted, and it’s humbling, super humbling. I think of the young guys and the future they have. Maybe this will motivate them to not allow this to happen to them in their senior season.”

Dawkins might have been suggesting that the large group of seniors who helped Penn State win 34 games the last three seasons – the winningest such stretch in school history – didn’t work hard enough in the offseason after reaching the College Football Playoff semifinals last season.

That was unclear. But the bottom line is that a team that was ranked second in August and that was expected to contend for the national title needs to win their final three games to even become bowl eligible.

“Every (loss) is hard, but this one was harder,” running back Nick Singleton said. “We were right there at the end.”

The Lions also led in the fourth quarter against Northwestern and Iowa and in overtime against Oregon and lost all three. They drove to the UCLA 9 with a chance to win and were stopped on fourth down. Their loss to Ohio State was the only one greater than six points.

“I’ve never been in a position where we’re losing these close games at the end,” Campbell said.

The effort and resilience were there against Indiana, even if the execution wasn’t at times.

Both Smith and quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer made clear statements in response to those who have questioned whether the Lions have packed it in while wondering where they’ll be after this season ends.

“(I wanted) to let you guys know how I feel,” Grunkemeyer said. “After these games there’s just disappointment and people talking, ‘Have they given up?’ That just goes to show that there’s no quit in this team. It was in my heart and I wanted to say it.”

Now they’ll try to beat Michigan State, Nebraska and Rutgers to avoid a losing season.

“Everybody’s upset,” Singleton said. “We have to finish. We have to stay together as a team. We have more games to play as a team. We’re not giving up.”

Source: Berkshire mont