State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, sits about 25 miles from Solar Satan Stadium, the unique house of the Fiesta Bowl and the location of maybe the best triumph in Penn State soccer historical past.
It’s becoming that, so near the place the Nittany Lions claimed their final nationwide championship, Penn State took considered one of its most important steps towards the school soccer mountaintop within the 38 years for the reason that 1986 crew shocked the Miami Hurricanes in Tempe.
In the identical manner that the placement through which they had been performed isn’t precisely the identical, the Nittany Lions’ 31-14 win within the December 2024 model of the Fiesta Bowl isn’t a direct comparability to the 14-10 victory over Miami within the recreation’s January 1987 installment.
The latter sealed the nationwide championship, the second of Penn State’s two claimed titles, each gained throughout the Nineteen Eighties. Tuesday’s win was a step in an extended course of, inching the Nittany Lions two video games away from the crown.
However in a manner, incomes a spot within the gridiron Ultimate 4 is the closest any Penn State crew has come to the championship since Shane Conlan and Co. shut down a boisterous Miami squad that arrived in Arizona sporting army fatigues.
Definitely, some studying the previous assertion are already pounding out a response: What about 1994? And it’s a legitimate level.
Penn State’s 1994 squad did certainly run the desk, capping a 12-0 season with a 38-20 romp towards Oregon in that yr’s Rose Bowl. In line with some retailers, Kerry Collins, Ki-Jana Carter, and the remainder of that Nittany Lions squad had been nationwide champions.
Nonetheless, not one of the sources bestowing such a designation on Penn State had been sufficient for this system to say a title for 1994. Nebraska’s 13-0 end, with wins over the end-of-season Related Press Ballot’s No. 3 (Colorado) and No. 6 (Miami) groups, trumped Penn State’s resume.
The Nittany Lions had no actual management over their championship destiny, because it was left as much as pollsters. The state of affairs’s bitter irony is that had Penn State joined the fledgling Large East earlier than accepting its invite to the Large Ten Convention in 1990, a league matchup with Miami and a hypothetical Orange Bowl showdown with Nebraska would have allowed the Nittany Lions to settle this dispute on the sphere.
On condition that this Penn State crew controls its title future, advancing to the semifinals of the Faculty Soccer Playoff is certainly the closest Penn State has come for the reason that 1987 Fiesta Bowl.
There have been loads of seasons within the evolution of how faculty soccer champions are decided that may be pointed to as a particular turning level. The Nineties alone noticed the cut up championships between Colorado and Georgia Tech, shrouded in controversy due to CU’s “Fifth Down” win over Missouri in October 1990; Miami and Washington working roughshod over all comers in 1991 however not dealing with off; and the Michigan-Nebraska shared crown within the ultimate yr earlier than the introduction of the Bowl Championship Collection.
One may contend that Penn State, not even sniffing a cut up championship in 1994—Nebraska garnered 5 occasions as many first-place votes within the ultimate AP Ballot—could have supplied the strongest argument for a playoff system on the time.
But, whereas Penn State was among the many applications most on the forefront of public sentiment pushing for modifications to the championship course of, the Nittany Lions by no means factored into the BCS title image. Through the decade of the four-team Faculty Soccer Playoff, James Franklin-coached squads would have maybe been the best beneficiaries of a barely expanded discipline.
It’s arduous to not take into account the 2016 Penn State crew that gained the Large Ten, beat Ohio State head-to-head, was handed over for the Playoff in favor of the Buckeyes, earlier than laying an egg in that season’s Fiesta Bowl, and never acknowledge that one flawed system was exchanged for an additional.
However now, with the possibility in entrance of them, the Nittany Lions are working with it. And that’s not all Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton ran with, going for 134 and 87 yards towards Boise State.
Drew Allar throwing touchdowns on nearly 1 / 4 of his move completions—three scores out of 13—punctuated a formidable efficiency from the offense. And whereas the ultimate rating of 31-14 suggests dominance, which has been the theme of the inaugural 12-team Playoff, the Fiesta Bowl was something however one other one-sided rout.
Boise State, which loved its personal program highs within the Phoenix-area bowl recreation, appeared poised for extra Fiesta magic when it drove deep into Penn State’s territory twice within the second half. The Nittany Lions’ protection responded each occasions, with Defensive MVP Zakee Wheatley’s interception of Maddux Madson in the long run zone and Amin Vanover’s red-zone sack on the Broncos’ subsequent possession.
Just like the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, the opposition arrived in particular garb: Boise State didn’t don fatigues just like the ‘86 Hurricanes however as a substitute wore shirts that learn “Rely Us Out.” And, like Penn State did within the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, the Nittany Lions rose to the event.
“We weren’t counting these guys out,” Franklin stated emphatically in his postgame press convention. “That they had our consideration, and I feel that confirmed up right now…When issues don’t go effectively, [Penn State’s players] don’t panic.”
Subsequent up for the Nittany Lions is the nationwide semifinal within the Orange Bowl. It isn’t the identical Orange Bowl the place Nebraska celebrated a nationwide championship that Penn State was denied 30 years in the past, however that’s the least of the modifications.
The largest change is that the Nittany Lions now have the chance to win a title on the sphere for the primary time for the reason that 1987 Fiesta Bowl.
