College Football: Unrivaled in their own minds

It started with the 1987 Fiesta Bowl.

Oh sure, Penn State alums and fans had an over-the-top take on their football team brewing for decades by then. But they hadn’t quite jumped the shark into full-blown delusion.

They did that night, though, and they’ve never quite come back to reality, despite enough bad seasons, disappointing defeats, and a near “death to the program” scandal to have even the most diehard supporters of teams anywhere snap out of it.

Just not these guys and gals who bleed blue.

Nope. After that legendary, 14-10, umm, ass-whuppin’ the Nittany Lions put on favored Miami in Tempe, Ariz., they were forever cemented with Nittany Nation as an elite program, a top-5 program, the best of the best – for good.

Never mind that the Hurricanes kicked PSU’s collective face in time and again throughout that game, racking up 445 yards to the Lions’ 162. Ray Isom had that hit on Michael Irvin, remember?

Actually, yeah – and it was one play and, considering it supposedly set the tone, then the tone was, “please, beat us up because maybe, hopefully, you’ll hurt yourself doing so.”

There was no statement of greatness that night or what it might portend for the future.

Look, it wasn’t just on paper. Miami mauled PSU that night. Dominated all over the field … and lost. That’s it. Shit happens.

Turnovers killed the ’Canes, the final one coming on Heisman winner Vinny Testaverde’s fifth interception of the contest – at the goal line with Miami on the doorstep of scoring the game-winning TD with 15 seconds to go – as the Lions took their 1980s style of “winning despite being beaten” under Joe Paterno to a level not even the current defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles can match.

Sorry, never been a fan of that. Not by any team. It’s a recipe for disaster. Eventually, it’ll catch up to you. Your “success” is predicated on escaping into the abyss before the jig is up.

Thing is, Penn State has had legit great teams that performed great – before that last national title-winning one led by Shane Conlan and D.J. Dozier and after, particularly the unbeaten 1994 squad headlined by Ki-Jana Carter, Kerry Collins and Kyle Brady, all of whom were drafted within the first nine picks by NFL teams the following April.

But it hasn’t been an elite, top-5 program – one that you can bank on to be there, in the hunt for a national title, every year – since, ironically, that ’87 Fiesta Bowl. That capped a 21-year stretch to kick off Paterno’s head coaching career in State College which saw him direct 14 teams to top-10 finishes and two national titles. They’ve had 11 top-10 finishes and no national titles in the 39 years since.

If anything, that victory – and the way it occurred – signaled the end, not the start or continuation, of PSU’s run of greatness.

Of all the BS games to cast your lot in life with …

But distorted storytelling, apparently, can impact generations well into the future, forming beliefs far removed from the boundaries of self-awareness. Not to mention the sense of entitlement that automatically comes with that.

Which brings us to today, where, by any measure or any words, the PSU football program has become a laughingstock.

It has become that because of the arrogance that manifested itself with that one, friggin’ utter fantasy of “we kicked their ass” four decades ago and grew over the years to the point where the school’s administration, particularly the current AD, caved into its toxic energy.

Can’t find a head coach. Can’t recruit because of that. Can’t stop the steamrolling humiliation that presents itself on a daily basis with middle-aged men and teenagers alike turning down the Lions’ overtures.

Gee, what a shock.

The Lions had a head coach. A good one. A good one who could recruit. A good one who could recruit and was worthy of leading that program. Hell, any program.

But the fans didn’t like James Franklin. Didn’t think he was the right guy. Felt he was holding back the program. From Day 1, mind you, after a mind-boggling stint of success (albeit brief) at what had been ever-lowly Vanderbilt.

The reality is, his program at PSU, which lasted 11.5 seasons, was better than what the immortalized Paterno’s was in his final 12 seasons. The Lions went 104-45 under Franklin, winning a Big Ten title, appearing in a national semifinal, and finishing with five top-10 rankings. They went 92-53 under Paterno from 2000 through 2011, sharing two Big Ten titles, and finishing with three top-10 rankings.

Other coaches know this, know that Franklin is a good coach, a good recruiter, and saw how Franklin was viewed by that fan base, and how it essentially ran him outta town with simp-like Pat Kraft doing the bidding for it, and, truth be told, they don’t want anything to do with that fan base or Penn State.

Why would they? It’s not like Penn State is LSU. Or Florida. Or, gulp, South Florida.

So, here we are. Almost two full months removed from Franklin’s forced ouster. With the worst FBS recruiting class in the country, thanks in large part to Franklin poaching much of the meat it previously had on its bone for his new place of employment, Virginia Tech, and no head coach in sight.

But, no worries, delusion is still running rampant in Nittany Nation. Just kicking butt and claiming greatness since 1987.

They are … unrivaled in their own minds.

Truth? Some fan bases don’t deserve the crap that comes their way at times. This one does. Richly so.