Return To Glory
2006 Goal: Restore Legacy
By Tony DeFazio

It was pre-dawn in Miami on Wednesday, Jan. 4. A few hours earlier, Penn State had earned a dramatic, three-overtime victory over Florida State in the Orange Bowl. A small group of physically-drained but emotionally- energized coaches and players sat reflecting on a season so exciting and fulfilling that it could have been scripted in Hollywood.

If it wasn't quite a Phoenix-like rising, it was close. Just 14 months earlier, coming off a 14-7 loss at home to Northwestern, the Lions were staring at a dreadful two-year stretch where they were 1-13 in the Big Ten; 5-16 overall. Four losing seasons in five years. That 2004 team did win their final two games, but on that gloomy October evening, such a sudden and dramatic turnaround hardly seemed right around the corner.

Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, however, considered last season's sudden and dramatic improvement neither sudden nor dramatic.

"I don't know if it was quick and dramatic because we began the season with a defense where we knew what we had… We were the only team in the country never to give up 21 points in a game - college or pro," Bradley points out regarding that 4-7 team of two seasons ago.

Bradley knew he had something special with that defense after the Indiana game in November 2004, when the Lions' D stopped the Hoosiers on four consecutive goal line running plays in the waning minutes to preserve a 22-18 victory, Penn State's first conference win of the season. They went on to demolish Michigan State the next week and headed into the off-season with a modest-yet important-two-game winning streak. The entire attitude of the defense changed, and it carried through the spring and summer practices that preceded last year's remarkable run.

Bradley started to see the same thing with the offense late in the Northwestern game last season. Trailing 29-27 and facing a fourth-and-15 from their own 15 with 1:30 to play, Penn State quarterback Michael Robinson fired a 20-yard strike to tight end Isaac Smolko to keep the drive alive. Fifty seconds later Robinson found Derrick Williams for the game-winning touchdown and a dramatic 34-29 comeback victory.

"Once Michael threw the big ball to Smolko on the fourth down he started to believe," Bradley said.

And so did his teammates. Of all the issues credited with Penn State's revival last season, perhaps none was more important than the character of the players in the locker room. There was a perception-openly discussed at times-that the Lions sorely lacked such leadership during their recent down period. If that was the case during those dark times, it most certainly was NOT the case in 2005. A group of battle-hardened veterans, led by Michael Robinson, provided the team with genuine leadership.

Most of those players, with the notable exception of linebacker Paul Posluszny, have moved on. If the Lions are going to maintain their status as one of the top programs in the country, they must find new leaders.

TAKING CHARGE

"Leadership has to come from the players," said Bradley. "As a coach, you try to foster it and make it grow but it has to happen naturally. They've got to take that upon themselves… They pass it down to the younger guys and for awhile there was a lull where there was no passing down."

Former Lion defensive end Tamba Hali was one of those leaders last season.

"I don't know how well you can do when you have a bunch of guys who do their own thing," said Hali, now a rookie with the Kansas City Chiefs. "We just had the right guys in the right spots last year. We had a lot of guys who not only knew what they were doing, but made sure the guys under them knew too, in the way that we wanted to get it done…We started to take on the roles of leading through action and the way we played; doing it the right way."

Bradley has seen firsthand the difference between having good leadership and simply having kids who call themselves leaders, but fail to practice what they preach.

"When someone just promotes themselves as being a leader, the kids won't buy it," he said. "Having good chemistry in your locker room is half the battle. When some of your better players are your hardest workers, you seem to not have as many malcontents."

Hali, for one, thinks that last season's veterans taught the younger players enough about leadership, effort and hard work that those lessons will stick.

"The leadership is in place. We have a lot of guys coming back that played key roles last year," he said as he looked around the weight room at former teammates Posluszny, Jay Alford and Donnie Johnson. "I think it has gotten passed on just by us being here last year."

Posluszny was elected captain by his teammates as a junior, an unusual honor for an underclassman that says volumes about the respect the Aliquippa native has earned from his peers. He returns for his final season as a co-captain with offensive tackle Levi Brown.

Along with Posluszny and Brown, many of the younger players have pointed to new starting quarterback Anthony Morelli as someone who has started to step into a leadership role over the summer. Morelli has been vocal with his receivers, leading 7-on-7 workouts and spending time in the film room.

Morelli will be one of the most watched players in the nation this year, as most prognosticators tie Penn State's potential for success directly to Morelli's performance. The former Penn Hills star was one of the most-hyped players in the nation as a high school senior, and made even more headlines when he reneged on a commitment to play for Pitt and chose instead to attend Penn State. He's paid his dues as a back-up for two seasons and is chomping at the bit for the chance to show his wares, which he will finally do this fall.

Early reviews are stellar.

"Morelli is probably going to end up developing into one of the great quarterbacks in Penn State history," said wide receiver Derrick Williams. "He has an arm that you wouldn't believe. He's a guy that can put it anywhere on the field with some zip or put just the right amount of touch on it. He can do it all. He's coming along to being one of the best leaders on the team."

Williams, not one to lack confidence, says that the Penn State offense "looks better than ever" and predicts his untested quarterback will have success right off the bat.

The coaches are in much less of a rush.

"Anthony has got to get a little success," Joe Paterno said before the Blue-White Game, where Morelli put on quite a show, completing 13 of 16 passes for 161 yards.

But spring football games are nothing more than intra-squad scrimmages, and much of Morelli's playing time was geared toward providing him with a dose of confidence. As all quarterbacks are in such scrimmages, Morelli was off-limits to defenders and faced strictly man-to-man coverage. Even Paterno admitted before the game, "This is show time, it ain't football time."

It will be football time, however, on Sept. 2, when Akron comes to town to open the season, and especially on Sept. 9, when the young Nittany Lions visit South Bend and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. It's a safe bet that Irish head coach Charlie Weis and defensive coordinator Rick Minter have a wrinkle or two designed to confuse the young quarterback.

"You just have to do some things to take advantage of your strengths early on. If we can start off against Akron and have them make some plays, then I think it will start to come," said Penn State quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno. "I just think you have to be careful about how much you ask them to do early on."

LEAVING A LEGACY

"We don't want to be a one-hit wonder. With the talent that we have, we're here now and we're not going back," said sophomore receiver Deon Butler.

Butler speaks for the entire team. Many of last year's seniors had seen the down times and were intent on putting an end to the losing. They did-in a big way-and now it is up to the players left behind to continue what that group started.

"Being a fourth year guy and finally being a senior, I've gone through different things - like the worst year in Penn State history and then one of the best," explains Posluszny. "That experience and just learning so much from guys like Michael Robinson has really put this senior class in a great position to take on a leadership role and pick up where last year's team left off."

Part of the challenge, of course, will be replacing so many talented players. The Lions graduated their entire secondary and all but one player on the offensive and defensive lines. While all college teams face losses due to graduation, the amount of players graduating at one time is something that concerns Bradley.

"It's a continual process, but our recruiting is still slightly not where we want it to be," Bradley said, referring not to the talent-level of the recruits but rather to the balance. "Every year you try to get into a mode where you're taking two at certain positions, one quarterback, one running back, and make that a continual process. When you fall behind in an area, you're always playing catch up: now we need more linemen…OK, but uh-oh, now we need more skill guys. Then what happens is they all graduate at one time and you don't have any experience to replace them…We have to get back to having more of a balance. We have four new starters in the secondary - you don't want that."

Early-season learning curves and the growing pains that accompany them are to be expected, and won't do anything to detract from what was accomplished in 2005. There are bumps in every road; getting past them and moving on is the challenge. It's a challenge the Penn State program feels it is up to.

"I think that's probably the legacy this group will leave for this program. At the end of the bowl game, we were sitting around the hotel with some of the seniors and I said, 'We're going to try and keep this thing going, so as long as they play football at Penn State, they'll talk about this season,'" said Jay Paterno.

"To say it like that, it's like a Hollywood story, but you want to think it's going to be like that," acknowledged Hali. "But you have to know in your mind that there will be tough times and guys will have to step up to the plate; that's when your true colors are going to show. There are going to come times when some people will fold and some people will step up to the occasion. We all say we're leaders, but talk is usually cheap."

Tony DeFazio is the editor of the Pittsburgh Sports Report. Give him your feedback at tdefazio(at)psrpt.com.