Penn State’s perfect season remains intact after ‘resilient’ win over USC

LOS ANGELES — High above the sun-splashed turf at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where a 36-yard field goal from kicker Ryan Barker had given No. 4 Penn State an overtime victory over USC, the Nittany Lions’ celebrations spilled into the hallway from the visiting coaches’ booth. Out came offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and his placemat-sized play card that housed more magic and sleight of hand than an improved Trojans’ defense could handle. The back-clapping embraces between Kotelnicki and his coaching comrades reverberated around the press box. “Let’s f—— go, baby!” someone shouted. And the joyous howls attached to a 33-30 overtime victory in which Penn State trailed by double digits began to echo through the elevator shaft on their six-story descent to the field.

The scene that awaited them was one of catharsis mixed with hope and possibility regarding what this Penn State team, which improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the Big Ten, might achieve in the first year of an expanded College Football Playoff for which they seem destined to qualify. Quarterback Drew Allar, who completed 30 of 43 passes for a career-high 391 yards and two touchdowns, waved his arms from waist height to an altitude well above his sweat-soaked hair while imploring the Nittany Lion faithful to roar in a lower corner of the stadium. “Come on!” Allar shouted. “Come on!” The fans obliged by greeting tight end Tyler Warren, who set a new school record with 17 catches for 224 yards and one touchdown, with a line of high-fives along the front row of seats and a cheer that bifurcated his name adoringly. “Ty-ler War-ren! … Ty-ler War-ren!” they sang.

And out near midfield, where defensive end Amin Vanover careened toward the intertwined “SC” logo for an emphatic stomp after Barker’s winning kick, head coach James Franklin hijacked an attempted flag-planting celebration that began with defensive tackle Hakeem Beamon and continued with cornerback Audavion Collins before cooler heads prevailed. That’s how Franklin, who had nearly lost his voice from screaming throughout the game, came to be holding a giant “We Are” banner on his way toward the tunnel.

“We found a way to get a tough win on the road,” Franklin said. “This is going to make the bye week awesome because it would not have been awesome without this. Just proud of our guys and, again, appreciate the fans and the support that we got, and we’re going to need to spend this bye week getting better. There’s still a ton of stuff that we can get better at. But we’re 1-0 [for six consecutive games and that equals 6-0. And I’m going to take it and run to the airport.

“You guys ever see the movie Soul Plane? … That’s what it’s going to be like on the ride home.”

Franklin understood the snatch-and-grab undertone of a game his team trailed by 14 points on two separate occasions in the first half, the Penn State run defense lacerated by USC’s tailback tandem of Woody Marks and Quinten Joyner, who combined for 193 yards and a score on 23 carries. The Nittany Lions lost the turnover battle, 3-to-1, as Allar, who entered the weekend having only thrown three career interceptions, including just a single INT this season, tossed three on Saturday afternoon alone. Penn State also finished on the wrong side of the field position battle and surrendered 7.1 yards per play to an offense that failed to surpass 17 points in a dispiriting road loss to Minnesota last week. Those were the micro elements of a quasi-heist in which the visitors never led in the second, third or fourth quarters.

But everyone associated with Penn State was keenly aware of the larger context surrounding Saturday’s game, which was technically a matchup between the No. 4 team in the country and an unranked opponent but could just as easily have been a top-10 showdown were it not for a questionable officiating decision on a fourth-down sneak that sunk the Trojans against the Gophers. They knew that Big Ten teams traveling across two or more time zones were just 1-8 so far this season, the conference’s first with a West Coast contingent. They knew that Franklin had dedicated a portion of his weekly news conference to railing against the travel difficulties associated with a shorter runway at the State College Regional Airport, which prompted the Nittany Lions to drive 90 minutes to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, before flying to California a day earlier than normal. They knew that Penn State had won 21 of 22 games against teams not named Michigan and Ohio State the last two seasons, which meant any loss to someone other than the Wolverines or Buckeyes would invite more questions about where the program stands in a conference that recently added two more historical powers in USC and Oregon. They knew that a favorable 2024 schedule gave the program its best chance of reaching the College Football Playoff in years, perhaps ever, as long as silly defeats were avoided. And now the Nittany Lions are likely to be favored in every game the rest of the year save for a home date with Ohio State on Nov. 2. 

“You’re going to have to find different ways throughout a season to win,” Franklin said. “Some are going to be blowouts — hopefully more of them are blowouts — but some of them are going to be comebacks. Some are going to be home [games] where you get the fans and they’re supporting you. Some are going to be on the road where things are going against you and you don’t have a whole lot of support in the stadium. Maybe weather, or whatever it may be, that’s big. I think the word ‘resilient’ was probably the best word to define our team today.”

There was resiliency from Allar, who responded to a third-quarter interception by leading back-to-back scoring drives measuring 72 yards and 75 yards that knotted the score with 2:53 remaining, and a 14-yard connection to tailback Nicholas Singleton forcing overtime. There was resiliency from Warren, who absorbed one vicious tackle after another while lining up at tight end, running back, wide receiver, quarterback and even center for a brilliant trick play in which he snapped the ball and then caught a 32-yard touchdown. There was resiliency from Penn State’s defense, which rose to the occasion time and again during critical moments by only allowing six points off three turnovers, two of which gave USC the ball on the outskirts of the red zone. 

And there was resiliency from Barker, a former walk-on, who has made all six of his field goals since Franklin changed kickers two weeks ago, including a 4-for-4 showing against the Trojans. He buried the overtime winner from 36 yards and was immediately engulfed by teammates as catharsis, hope and possibility collided. 

“We grinded it out,” Warren said. “And I couldn’t be more happy with the way we played and the way we fought back after being down. It was just an awesome win.”

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.

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