The shocking overtime comeback that created a star deserves a deep rewind
The Hoosiers have a dilemma. A standard PAT kick would force a second overtime and the game would continue for as long as needed. But Indiana is nothing if not self-aware. This moment is insane, it shouldn’t be happening. Penn State is a playoff contender, and while they’re stunned and confused and down a blue-chip defender, IU is fighting far above their weight class. The odds are against pulling off the upset if the Hoosiers hand the ball back to the favorite. The Hoosiers are on the cusp of a win the caliber of which their program hasn’t seen in any of these players’ lives.
That’s why Indiana’s lined up for two points and the win – or the loss. It’s gotta be now, and it’s gotta be the good player who came to a horrible program, and against all odds, became great. Tonight he could become a star.
Besides, it’s 2020. Nothing makes sense right now. Why couldn’t Indiana beat Penn State at football?
That’s why Indiana’s lined up for two points and the win – or the loss. It’s gotta be now, and it’s gotta be the good player who came to a horrible program, and against all odds, became great. Tonight he could become a star.
Besides, it’s 2020. Nothing makes sense right now. Why couldn’t Indiana beat Penn State at football?
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00:00It's October 24th, 2020.
00:03We're in Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.
00:06The number eight ranked Penn State Nittany Lions
00:10are trying to escape Indiana on their opening weekend.
00:14But the Hoosiers have battled back and forced overtime.
00:18Down one point, Indiana's Wunderkin quarterback,
00:21Michael Penix Jr., is lined up to go for two and the win.
00:26If he succeeds, Upstart IU will pull
00:29their biggest upset in over three decades.
00:32If Penn State can force a stop,
00:34they'll salvage this nightmare start to a nightmare year
00:38that started with national title dreams.
00:40To understand just how strange the path
00:43to this unexpected moment was, we need to rewind.
00:51You see that little number eight ranking next to Penn State?
00:55It means the top 10 Nittany Lions weren't expected
00:58to be in an overtime dogfight against one
01:01of the sport's historic doormats.
01:04After another successful season in 2019,
01:07James Franklin's rebuild of Penn State
01:09in the post-paterno era was clicking along.
01:12The Lions were 42-11 in their last four seasons
01:15and signed their fourth straight top 15 signing class
01:18in February of 20.
01:20Plus, returning linebacker Micah Parsons was on track
01:23to be one of, if not the, best defensive player
01:26in college football entering 2020.
01:30On offense, senior quarterback Sean Clifford returned
01:33with a very experienced offensive line
01:34and Franklin addressed the team's biggest on-field flaw,
01:38its passing game, by hiring a new play caller.
01:41After losing OC Ricky Ronnie to the head coaching job
01:44at Old Dominion, Franklin poached
01:46Minnesota offensive coordinator Kirk Siracca
01:49to overhaul the Lions' offense, specifically a passing game
01:53that struggled to stretch the field in 2019.
01:57Since Franklin turned the program around,
01:58they'd won the Big Ten, they'd beaten opponents
02:01like Ohio State and Michigan,
02:02but they'd yet to put everything together
02:05and break into the four-team college football playoff.
02:08But with this new offense and a blue-chip roster,
02:11in the weeks following the 19th season,
02:13Penn State was a popular, reliable pick
02:16to finally make the playoff in 2020.
02:19So how in the world are they on the brink
02:21of an upset to Indiana in football?
02:26Basically, it's this guy's fault.
02:29Let's be clear, Michael Penix Jr.
02:31should not be here right now.
02:34In high school, the Tampa native originally committed
02:36to the University of Tennessee and head coach Butch Jones
02:39over nearby Florida State,
02:41but when Tennessee fired Butch and cleaned house,
02:45the new and very stupid Tennessee staff
02:48elected not to recruit Penix.
02:51That opened the door for now former Tennessee assistant
02:54Nick Sheridan, who originally recruited Penix to Knoxville
02:57and who had just landed a job at Indiana.
03:01He stayed persistent on Penix.
03:03And Michael wasn't a day one starter for Tennessee
03:06or any other Power Five program,
03:08but he was a top 50 rated quarterback in his class.
03:11And as you can see here,
03:13he showed obvious raw talent and a high upside.
03:17Penix landing in Indiana is still insane
03:19even with that tangle of coaching moves to explain it
03:22because he held offers from programs
03:25like Hometown South Florida and Florida State.
03:28And honestly, Big Ten doormats
03:31don't tend to pull warm weather talents
03:33away from their home states.
03:35But most notably, it's insane because good God
03:39is Indiana University awful at tackle football.
03:45No head coach in the previous 60 years of IU
03:48has left the program with a winning record.
03:51Entering the 2020 season,
03:53the Hoosiers are college football's losingest program
03:56amongst schools with at least 1,000 games played.
03:59A loss here would be the program's 685th in school history.
04:05Indiana hasn't won nine games in a single season since 1967
04:10when they last appeared in the Rose Bowl,
04:12which they lost to OJ Simpson.
04:15And until 2019, Indiana finished 500 or higher
04:19in conference play only twice since 1991.
04:23One time, Wisconsin scored 83 points
04:27against the Hoosiers in one game.
04:29And this was in 2010.
04:30This wasn't in like the 1890s or something.
04:33One time in 2011, the worst statistical defense
04:37in all of college football that season, North Texas,
04:40led IU 24 to nothing before eventually winning the game.
04:45When Indiana head football coach Terry Hopner
04:47had brain surgery in 2006,
04:50the Hoosiers tried to rally to win one
04:53for their missing head coach.
04:55But instead, they blew a 21 to seven lead
04:57over FCS-level Southern Illinois and lost at home.
05:02Indiana football manages to just suck
05:05and break hearts historically so.
05:08And that suck continued to pace
05:09when Pennix arrived on campus.
05:12He tore his ACL his freshman year
05:14and saw action in only three games.
05:16IU went five and seven, which was pretty good for them.
05:19Yet all the while, head coach and Indiana native Tom Allen
05:23was building the most minor of miracles,
05:26a relatively competent football team in Bloomington.
05:30He recruited hard, both around Indiana and the Midwest,
05:33but also in Florida, where he'd previously coached.
05:36He also hired great assistants
05:38like Fresno State offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer
05:40in 2019.
05:42Under DeBoer, Pennix's potential began to shine
05:45when Indiana averaged 433 yards a game
05:48and ranked third in the Big Ten in total offense.
05:52Pennix was named the starter in 2019
05:54and the sophomore flourished at times,
05:56but struggled to stay healthy.
05:58He only started and played in six games,
06:00but that talent was obvious when he was on the field.
06:03With a combo of Pennix and backup Peyton Ramsey,
06:07Indiana pulled off another miracle,
06:09well, for Indiana, by winning eight games in one season.
06:14They even finished above 500 in Big Ten play,
06:17but one thing was missing in that eight-win season,
06:20and that was a signature win over a big opponent.
06:24Anytime Indiana played a marquee-ranked team
06:27like Penn State, they lost.
06:30So if there was a goal for 2020,
06:33beating a Blue Blood was the obvious next step
06:36for the program.
06:38DeBoer left to become Fresno State's head coach
06:40after the year,
06:42but he handed the play calling over to Sheridan.
06:45Indiana was confident that they'd unlocked
06:47Pennix's potential so long as they could
06:49just keep him healthy.
06:51So certainly a healthy, effective Michael Pennix
06:54can help explain part of how he arrived here,
06:56but where's Micah Parsons?
06:59Wouldn't Penn State want their best defender on the field
07:01against someone like Pennix on the game-deciding play?
07:04And hey, how is it week one of the college football season
07:09on October the 24th?
07:11Also, where are the fans?
07:12Indiana and Penn State were never meant to start
07:15the 2020 season against each other at all.
07:18Their normal 12-game regular season schedule
07:21was dashed, reorganized, and dashed,
07:25and reorganized several times over
07:27during this whole worldwide COVID-19 pandemic thing
07:31that the entire planet happened to be dealing with.
07:34Unlike other conferences,
07:36the Big Ten first moved to cancel its season entirely,
07:39but then elected to start two months late
07:42with a condensed, conference-only slate
07:44that put the Lions in Bloomington.
07:47Meanwhile, the NCAA changed
07:49many of its eligibility rules on the fly,
07:51allowing scholarship players a chance
07:53to opt out of the season if they felt unsafe.
07:57Parsons, a lock for the NFL, elected to do just this,
08:01foregoing the entire 2020 season to prepare for the draft.
08:05The impact of the pandemic on college football
08:08has been tremendous in every way.
08:10Players and coaches require daily testing,
08:12they can't gather in large spaces,
08:14and they're routinely required to quarantine and isolate.
08:18There's zero consistency and a perpetual wave
08:21of distractions from the outside world.
08:23You know, stuff coaches just love.
08:27In a normal world, college football schedule
08:30is very tight for players and coaches
08:32to actually meet and game plan and practice,
08:34but now it was even more compressed and uncertain
08:37without any kind of regular routine.
08:40So take that new Penn State offensive system, for instance.
08:43Something like installing a new offense
08:45would be pretty old hat
08:47under a successful veteran like Franklin,
08:49but now, who knows?
08:51How much time could the staff have
08:53to get everything repped and refined?
08:56And suddenly, minus Parsons
08:58and a normal installation schedule for their new scheme,
09:01it made a lot more sense.
09:03Penn State is in that one-point game
09:05against that supposed former doormat.
09:08This is becoming the new normal
09:11of COVID-era college football,
09:12where uncertainty creates weird football.
09:17And weird football is great for Indiana,
09:20who's riding a streak of 41 consecutive losses
09:24to AP Top 10 ranked opponents going into this game.
09:27Because weird means potentially something different.
09:31And weird football is exactly what we got in the first half.
09:34The Hoosiers scored 17 straight points
09:36in the second quarter,
09:38thanks to two Sean Clifford interceptions.
09:41Hey, there's that uncertainty about a new offensive scheme
09:44showing up right on time for Indiana.
09:46The Hoosiers carried a 17-7 lead into halftime,
09:49and Pennix has been far from perfect,
09:51but he's carried IU this far.
09:54Except after a third-quarter interception
09:56that set up a Penn State score,
09:58another IU collapse seemed inevitable.
10:02Hoosier football fans, those damned souls,
10:05could just feel it happening.
10:08IU's offense stalled out on a series of three and outs,
10:10and the Lions took the lead 21-20
10:12after the Hoosiers only scored three points total
10:15in the second half.
10:17Whatever first game or pandemic-level weirdness
10:20that worked in the underdogs' favor had all melted away.
10:24After all, Penn State is a Top 10 team,
10:26and Top 10 teams find ways to win ugly games.
10:30Until that Top 10 team finds a way
10:32to brain fart their way out of certain victory.
10:37Down 21-20, Pennix and the IU offense
10:40failed on a fourth-down attempt
10:42with one minute and 47 seconds
10:44remaining on their own 14-yard line.
10:46And that's it.
10:48That's your game.
10:50Or it should be, at least.
10:51Penn State took over on downs with under two minutes.
10:55On the Hoosiers' sideline,
10:56Allen told his defense to let Penn State,
10:59who were so close to the end zone,
11:01score a touchdown as soon as possible
11:03to hopefully get Indiana the ball back.
11:06But look, that shouldn't happen.
11:07This is Football Strategy 101.
11:10Indiana only had one timeout left,
11:12so the Lions could run the game clock to under 30 seconds,
11:15even without a first down, all inside the red zone.
11:19The only thing Penn State couldn't or shouldn't do
11:22is score a touchdown quickly
11:24and give the ball back to Pennix and the Hoosiers.
11:28So, of course, on the next play,
11:30Penn State scored a touchdown.
11:31Seriously.
11:33You can watch here as running back Devin Ford
11:35hesitates at the goal line,
11:36but, like, eventually crosses to score the touchdown.
11:40And you can see the confusion and disconnect
11:43between the Penn State sideline and their player.
11:46Welcome to the pandemic era.
11:48Down eight and having scored only three points
11:50in the second half,
11:51Michael Pennix Jr.'s upside and potential
11:54needed to become reality.
11:56And it did.
11:58Indiana scored a touchdown on a seven-play,
11:5975-yard drive that's all Pennix and Penn State,
12:04meaning that the only yards on the entire drive
12:06came from a Pennix pass
12:07or two very stupid Penn State penalties
12:10that set up a one-yard Pennix scramble for a touchdown.
12:14Then another Pennix rush
12:16for an improbable game-tying two-point conversion.
12:19Ugh, how sad is it that Memorial Stadium
12:22is left stunned for a good reason,
12:25and it's nearly empty?
12:27How fitting is it that Indiana is on the cusp
12:29of doing something unseen for decades
12:31amidst a global event unlike anything in a century?
12:36Penn State opened overtime
12:37with a quick, efficient touchdown in four plays
12:40to take a seven-point lead.
12:42Then, just like his game-tying drive,
12:44Pennix led the way and Indiana scored a touchdown
12:47in five plays that ended with a Pennix pass to Wapfeiler.
12:51Now the Hoosiers have a dilemma.
12:54A standard PAT kick would force a second overtime
12:57and the game would continue on for as long as needed.
13:01But hey, they're not lined up to kick, are they?
13:04Indiana has nothing if not self-aware.
13:07This is insane, and it should not be happening.
13:10But Penn State is a playoff contender,
13:12and while they're stunned and confused
13:14and they're down a blue-chip leader,
13:15IU knows they're fighting far above their weight class.
13:20The odds are against pulling off the upset
13:21if the Hoosiers hand the ball back to the favorite.
13:24Indiana's on the cusp of a win the caliber
13:27of which their program hasn't seen
13:29in any of these players' lives.
13:32And that's why they're lined up
13:34for two points in the win, or the loss.
13:37It's gotta be now, and it's gotta be the good player
13:41who came to a horrible program
13:42and against all odds became great.
13:45Because tonight, he could become a star.
13:48And besides, it's 2020.
13:50Nothing makes sense right now.
13:52Why couldn't Indiana beat Penn State, even at football?
13:56Welcome to a moment in history.
14:00Pinnocks, steps up, plus Pinnocks,
14:03to the par.
14:04Here they are.
14:10And there's Zan, he is in.
14:15And Indiana pulls this off in overtime.