“We Are the Champions,” was the concluding number in the marching Blue Band’s final 2008 halftime show, featuring the music of the 1970s British band, Queen.
After 30 more minutes of football Saturday, the Blue Band had the opportunity to reprise the number, before a singing, dancing group of players and fans celebrating Penn State’s second Big Ten championship in four years.
Relishing a convincing 49-18 domination of pretender to the throne Michigan State, the Nittany Lions went into the locker room to receive some emotional words from Coach Joe Paterno and the Big Ten Trophy from Conference Commissioner Jim Delaney. Wearing Big Ten Champion T-shirts and hats, they ran back into Beaver Stadium to share the trophy with the loyal fans they call the best in the land.
The Spartans, who came to town ranked 15th in the country and tied with the Nittany Lions and Ohio State for first place in the Big Ten with a 6-1 conference mark, left in third place with a 6-2 Big Ten and 9-3 overall record.
Because of their 13-6 win at No. 10 Ohio State last month, the No. 6 Lions earned the conference’s automatic berth in a BCS bowl.
And Corky Consonire, president of the Tournament of Roses, handed a big bouquet of red ones to Coach Paterno, along with an invitation to play in the “granddaddy of them all” on Jan. 1.
Barring a highly improbable sequence of losses by teams ranked higher in the national championship countdown, Penn State will spend New Year’s Day in Pasadena, playing the Pacific-10 champ. This likely means either a rematch with current Pac-10 leader Oregon State or a date with the 5th-ranked USC Trojans, whose only loss was an upset by the Beavers.
Winning 11 games in a season for the 14th time, the Nittany Lions posted the 800th win in Penn State history to join the ranks of Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas, Nebraska and Ohio State as the only teams to reach this milestone. It was the NCAA record 383rd win for Paterno—who was also on hand for 104 earlier Lion victories as an assistant to Rip Engle.
The dean of Division I-A coaches, who will turn 82 next month, underwent successful hip replacement surgery at the Mount Nittany Medical Center Sunday, after spending the last seven games in the coaches’ booth and the last two months riding around at team practices in a golf cart. The cane that he had been using as an assist in walking during that period was a prominent pointer for him at the Rally in the Valley in Rec Hall Friday night, where he saluted the team and the fans who, he said, have been such a vital part of its success. He expressed supreme confidence that the Lions would win Saturday, and they emphatically proved him to be prophetic.
“The team had practiced very well all week. They were on a mission,” he told the media after the game, explaining his Friday night feelings. “I felt we would play as well as we could play.”
And that the Lions did, jumping out to a 28-0 lead by late in the second quarter and continuing just as strong after halftime until the score reached 49-7, before the first-stringers began retiring to the sidelines.
Quarterback Daryll Clark passed for a career-high 341 yards and four touchdowns. Wide receiver Jordan Norwood caught five passes for a career-high 127 yards. Wideout Deon Butler nabbed only three aerials, but he scored with each one of them—going four yards, 70 yards and 59 yards to pay dirt. “Mr. Everything” Derrick Williams caught four passes for 51 yards, including a 32-yard touchdown, in addition to returning two kickoffs for 29 yards, two punts for 19 yards and carrying three times from scrimmage for 10 yards. Sophomore receiver Graham Zug caught two tosses for 33 yards, including a five-yard TD.
Running behind an offensive line that was winning the battle in the trenches, the Lion rushers gained four times as much yardage as the Spartan ball carriers.
At the same time, the Penn State defense held Javon Ringer, the nation’s third leading rusher, to nearly 100 yards below his per-game average, sacked QB Brian Hoyer three times for 24 yards and harassed him into two interceptions and 15 incompletions, while limiting the Spartans to nine fewer points than their average per game.
Beaver Stadium was not filled with 18 inches of snow, as it was before the 1995 contest against Michigan. But workmen did have to use blowers to clear the yard lines so the largest crowd watching a college football game in the United States Saturday could tell where the officials placed the ball after each down.
One banner displayed in the student section said it all: “As long as we’ve got Joe, Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.”
The vast majority of the 109,845 fans filling the venerable arena were willing to suffer through the frigid blasts of the coldest game since the 1987 Notre Dame contest—because of the outcome. And they would rather boast that they were there for the historic battle than to have watched the game on ABC or ESPN in a warmer environment.
Snow flurries danced through Beaver Stadium at kickoff, and the white-clad student section in the southeast quadrant looked like a giant snow bank. A stiff wind and temperatures in the upper 20s did not deter the lustily cheering fans—or the players, who rested on new heated seats on the sidelines.
“I told the players, ‘if I were on the sidelines, you wouldn’t have heaters,’” Paterno said at his post-game press conference. “‘But I can’t go upstairs in the nice warm booth and tell you guys you have to freeze your butts off.’”
The Lions were as hot on the frozen field as they were on the heated seats.
Their fearsome front seven nailed Ringer for losses of two yards and four yards on his first two carries, and Abe Koroma sacked Hoyer for a seven-yard loss to end the visitors’ first possession.
On the next play from scrimmage, Clark passed to Norwood between the Michigan State safeties, and the lithe receiver scampered 49 yards to the MS-10. On third down from the five, Clark was flushed from the pocket, rolled right and fired a strike to Zug, who looked down to make sure his feet were still in bounds, before falling across the end zone sideline.
After the Lion defense forced the third straight Spartan punt, the offense mounted its second touchdown drive late in the first quarter.
On third-and-two, Clark passed to Williams for 10 yards. On third-and-eight, he flipped a screen pass to Evan Royster, which the tailback took for 19 yards. On third-and-seven, he found Norwood open down the right sideline for 26 yards to the MS-18. Royster rushed for 14 yards, and fullback Dan Lawlor followed center A.Q. Shipley, who drove Spartan linebacker Greg Jones four yards into the end zone, and the Lions had a 14-0 lead with 12 minutes left in the second quarter.
After the defense forced the fourth Michigan State punt, Clark drove the offense to its third TD, again completing crucial third-down passes. On third-and-17 from the PS-22, Stephfon Green galloped 37 yards with a screen pass, and on third-and-11 from the MS-29, Clark hit Zug on a deep post pattern to the one-yard line. The junior QB then followed guard Mike Lucian around right end for the score.
Hoyer completed his first two passes on the Spartans’ next possession, but his third toss was intercepted by senior safety Anthony Scirrotto at the MS-46 and returned 14 yards.
On the next play, Clark fired a 32-yarder to Williams, who got the inside position on Michigan State safety Danny Fortener and made the catch with Fortener on his back in the end zone.
And the sun briefly broke through the clouds to brightly reflect off the stadium suites high atop the east stands.
The visitors finally got on the scoreboard just 22 seconds before halftime, thanks to seven short completions by Hoyer and two questionable pass interference calls against Lydell Sargeant and Scirrotto.
With a 28-7 lead, the Lions turned the stadium stage over to the Blue Band and its “Champions” number.
The first 17 minutes of the second half saw three more Michigan State punts and three more Penn State touchdowns, all by Neon Deon.
In the middle of the third quarter, Royster broke loose for the game’s longest run—a 23-yarder, and Clark connected on another third-and-11 pass to Norwood for 33 yards. Three plays later, Butler made his first catch of the day—a four-yarder in the end zone.
On the visitors’ ensuing possession, Hoyer launched a bomb just before being leveled by linebacker Navorro Bowman. But Sargeant intercepted the pass on the PS-4, and the Lions began their longest scoring drive of the year. After a couple of rushes by Green and a couple of Clark completions to Norwood, Butler broke free behind the Spartan secondary, and Clark hit him with a 30-yard strike down the middle. Deon outraced the defenders 40 more yards for the longest touchdown of his illustrious four-year career.
On Penn State’s next possession, at the outset of the final frame, Pat Devlin replaced Clark at quarterback. On third-and-six, he also found Butler open behind the secondary and hit him in perfect stride for Deon’s second longest career TD—a 59-yarder.
As the final seconds wound down on a season just two points short of perfection, the Nittany Lion mascot used a bouquet of roses to direct the fans in cheers of “We Are … Penn State.”
For the glory,
