From Hawkeyes loss, Nittany Lions can draw on fortitude: Final thoughts

The storyline for Penn State’s game with Indiana last Saturday night was inescapable during the lead-in.

Having dropped a controversial 36-35 overtime thriller in Bloomington last year, the Nittany Lions had not only an opportunity to improve to 5-0 on the 2021 season but also to avenge the slide to the start of the 2020 campaign.

At least, that was the thinking outside the Penn State football program as head coach James Franklin, his staff, and players all avoided the conversation in its entirety. With enough motivation already in place for a team trying to make the most of each day, one in which development on top of potential already demonstrated has become a paramount talking point, the need to excise the demons of 2020 took a backseat.

That demon vanquished in a 24-0 blowout win over the Hoosiers, what’s next for the Nittany Lions might be even more interesting, though.

Set to face a similarly unbeaten No. 3-ranked Hawkeyes outfit in Iowa on Saturday afternoon, the Nittany Lions have their first matchup of top five-ranked teams since No. 3 Penn State beat No. 4 Arizona to open the 1999 season. Having never beaten a third-ranked opponent on the road in program history, a potential win would mark Penn State’s best road win since a 24-21 decision over No. 1 Notre Dame in 1990.

For as tantalizing as a road win against a top-five opponent might appear, though, the Nittany Lions don’t need to study the record books or look ahead at implications for the rest of the 2021 season to contextualize a game against the Hawkeyes. While Penn State will surely choose the same approach as it held when facing the Hoosiers, the program’s most recent pairing with Iowa will once again serve as a critical barometer for the trajectory that has brought it to this point.

Already having dropped four games to start the COVID-19-amended 2020 season, the Nittany Lions falling from a preseason No. 8 ranking to the bottom of the Big Ten standings in a matter of just four weeks, Penn State hosted Iowa on Nov. 21 for a 3:30 p.m. kick at Beaver Stadium.

Sharing many of the same qualities as the losses that preceded it, that game amounted to an unmitigated disaster for the Nittany Lions.

With Will Levis named the starter after Sean Clifford was benched the week prior at Nebraska, Penn State managed a 7-3 lead after the first quarter. The cushion wouldn’t last as the Hawkeyes concluded a six-play, 75-yard scoring drive in the opening stanza of the second quarter, then went on to twice more add two Mekhi Sargent rushing touchdowns to take a 24-7 halftime lead, thanks in part to another costly Penn State turnover.

While Clifford would come on in relief in the second half to spark something of a Penn State comeback at 31-21 heading into the fourth quarter, Iowa iced the win for itself on the back of two more interceptions including a 71-yard pick-six by defensive lineman Daviyon Nixon late in the fourth quarter.

“You can't turn the ball over, and that's been the story of the season, turnovers. Four turnovers by us, one by our opponent. You can't turn the ball over and when you have opportunities to get turnovers, you got to get them,” Franklin told reporters following the 41-21 final. “That is the story of the game. That is the story of the season.”

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What came next proved to be an inflection point for the Penn State football program that will take the field next Saturday as one of the nation’s best, though.

Sinking to the lowest depths of Franklin’s tenure at Penn State, not to mention setting a program record for futility to begin any season in its history, the head coach pointed forward. Unable to undo what’d already taken place, the notion that Penn State would carry on through the same trajectory was flatly rejected.

“We got in this situation together, we're going to get out of this situation together,” Franklin said. “Give Iowa credit. We got to get these things corrected. We got to get these things fixed. But the story of the game and the story of the season is turnovers.”

In the time since Penn State has reeled off nine straight wins bridging the end of the 2020 and start of the 2021 season. Iowa, meanwhile, has done the same in building its streak to 11 wins, topping its final six opponents of the ’20 campaign after an 0-2 start and building on it with five more to begin the new year.

Transforming a moment of dejection and disappointment into something else entirely, it’s a moment Penn State football likely won’t forget as it prepares for Saturday’s next opportunity.

“We got to stick together as a family and as a team and stay positive,” Franklin said. “We're being challenged right now. We've had to learn how to handle success and now we're having to learn how to handle adversity… But we got to stay together as a family, closer than we've ever been, and find a way through this.”

Penn State did last fall and winter into spring and summer sessions that have set the Nittany Lions up for their unblemished start to the year. Saturday, they will get another opportunity to continue their walk down that path.

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