"It's a great win for Penn State," head coach Bill O'Brien said just minutes after his team's four-overtime game against rival Michigan.
The Nittany Lions battled back from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit, tying the game on true freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg's 1-yard run with just 27 seconds left to play. Michigan's Brendan Gibbons, a fifth-year senior, missed a 52-yard field goal with two seconds left to play in regulation, sending the game to its first overtime and foreshadowing his team's eventual downfall.
The Wolverines should have won the game. Penn State kicker Sam Ficken pushed a 40-yard field goal wide right in the first overtime period, essentially ensuring Michigan's victory. But on the ensuing drive, the Nittany Lions blocked Gibbons' attempt, sending the game to a second overtime.
Both teams traded field goals before once again, the Wolverines seemed on their way to victory after Penn State lost a fumble on its first play of the third overtime period. But Gibbons, who holds the Michigan record with 16 consecutive made field goals from 2012 to early 2013, missed a 33-yarder wide left.
Gibbons would nail a 40-yarder to start the fourth overtime period, but it would not be enough for the Wolverines. It took the Nittany Lions eight plays to move the ball 25 yards for the game-winning touchdown, a 2-yard run by Bill Belton.
Game over. Cue the eruption of 107,884 Penn State fans all participating in one of Happy Valley's famed white-outs. The entire Nittany Lion football team sprints towards Belton in the end zone, and Penn State moves to 4-2 on the year and garners it first victory against a ranked opponent in the O'Brien era.
But Saturday's victory was much more than that for O'Brien, the Penn State football program and the university as a whole.
One of the most historic football programs in the nation, the Nittany Lions also fell harder than any other program in football history in 2011. The Jerry Sandusky scandal shocked the nation, tarnished the program and forced the winningest coach in college football history out of his job.
That's Joe Paterno. Before the NCAA forced him to vacate 111 of his career wins as head coach, Paterno had racked up 409 victories, all at the helm of the Nittany Lions. JoePa died just months after his dismissal, after 62 years on the Penn State coaching staff.
Sandusky's arrest and Paterno's death left the program in turmoil. Thanks to the NCAA's decree that Penn State transfers would not have to sit out a year if they left Happy Valley, which as you can imagine, wasn't so happy anymore. Fifteen players bolted from the crumbling program. A slew of recruits also decommited. After all, no one wants to spend four years playing for a team banned from postseason play. If not for O'Brien and the strong internal leadership of the coaching staff, the exodus of talent away from Penn State could have been even worse.
Despite the program's epic fall from the legendary Paterno era to the shameful Sandusky scandal and the brutal NCAA sanctions, O'Brien managed to lead his team to an 8-4 campaign in 2012. Capping the season with a 24-21 overtime victory at home against Wisconsin, the Nittany Lions finished the year on a high note, despite the postseason ban.
This season brings renewed hope to Penn State, and the NCAA has even reduced its scholarship sanctions. The Nittany Lions will be allowed five additional scholarship players each year, until they reach the normal allotment of 85 by the 2016 season.
Despite this small concession, the program still remains in the shadow of perhaps the NCAA's most infamous scandal. But O'Brien's team is slowly making its way back into a positive light, and Saturday's victory was one of their biggest steps thus far.
I am not really a Penn State fan. Nor do I dislike Michigan. But I was rooting for the Nittany Lions on Saturday. And who wouldn't be?
Yes, what Sandusky did at Penn State was atrocious—unforgivable even. That Paterno probably knew something was wrong and did nothing to stop it is also terrible. And yes, the Nittany Lions probably did deserve sanctions from the NCAA, although no punishment could truly compensate for what Sandusky did to his victims over the years.
O'Brien, who also served as Duke's offensive coordinator in 2005 and 2006, left the New England Patriots to resurrect a program that had sunk as far as a college football program can go. I am a Bill O'Brien fan. And the man was voted ESPN Coach of the Year in 2012, so apparently I am not alone.
Hackenberg, the true freshman who led the Nittany Lions on their improbable fourth quarter comeback drive, signed knowing that he would not have the chance to play in the postseason until his senior year. One of the top quarterback prospects in the nation, he could have accepted scholarship offers from Alabama, Florida or Miami, to name a few. But instead, Hackenberg chose O'Brien and the project that is Penn State football. I am a Christian Hackenberg fan.
The Nittany Lions' victory against No. 18 Michigan means more to the program than just another tally in the win column. It shows signs of overcoming the worst of circumstances. It is another step in the rebuilding process that will take years. But Bill O'Brien and Christian Hackenberg certainly have Penn State on the right track.
Moving forward, the Nittany Lions still have a long way to go to overcome the atrocities of Sandusky's deplorable transgressions and Paterno's fall from grace. But they are headed in the right direction, and beating Michigan was a sign of promise for a program trying to find its way back into the light.
Long after the game's end, Happy Valley rang out with Penn State's trademark cheer. Some people, like me, might have even joined in from home.
We are, Penn State.
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