It’s summer in Happy Valley.
That means fewer students on campus and less news coming out of the Lasch Building. Yes, it’s a slow time of the year in State College. In today’s edition of Morelli OnLion, we’ll take a look back at the sports year’s most memorable moment.
We’ll also feature another question with Penn State athletic director Tim Curley.
Let’s start with the most memorable moment of the sports year.
Most Memorable
Despite an 11-2 record, the great moments for the Penn State football team were few and far between in 2009. There were really no signature wins during the regular season.
That changed on New Year’s Day.
In some of the worst conditions ever witnessed at a New Year’s Day bowl game, the Nittany Lions did indeed save the best for last, a come-from-behind 19-17 victory over LSU in the Capital One Bowl. As we crawled through traffic on our way to the stadium that day, the water-logged streets of downtown Orlando were teeming with blue and white, purple and gold. Cars splashed through large puddles of water as the rain came down in sheets. Fans heading into the stadium wiped their faces and shook the cool rain off their flimsy, but colorful ponchos.
In the media elevator, ESPN’s Erin Andrews — her wet hair pulled back into a ponytail — didn’t look nearly as happy as she did this season on “Dancing with the Stars.” Once we got to our seats in the press box, we realized this wasn’t just another rainy day in central Florida. The Citrus Bowl surface — which had hosted the Champs Sports Bowl just a few days before the Capital One Bowl — was an absolute mess. As players warmed up, the field started to come up in pieces. Several players were caked in mud before the coin toss.
While the field was bad during warmups, it got even worse once the teams kicked off. As chunks of sod began to come up all over the field, players struggled to keep their footing. Passing was tough. Running was even tougher.
On a day when you wouldn’t want to be a field goal kicker, Penn State kicker Collin Wagner found himself lining up four times. Four times, he scored. But his biggest kick would come with under a minute to play.
With the Nittany Lions trailing, 17-16, Wagner trotted out for his final kick of the afternoon, a 21-yard field goal. On the pristine surface at Beaver Stadium, it’s a chip shot. On the cow pasture that was the Florida Citrus Bowl, it was an adventure.
Wagner had watched as the surface went from good to bad to ugly. He knew it wouldn’t be easy.
“It wasn’t awful when I went out for warmups,” Wagner said. “When I ran out for the game, I didn’t know what to think. This was the worst field I’ve ever played on.”
So Wagner lined up. The snap was good, the hold even better and while the kick wasn’t a thing of beauty, it snuck inside the uprights.
“I just went out and tried to relax. I told myself, ‘I’ve done this a thousand times. I just went out and tried to do the same thing,” Wagner said. “It’s almost hard to describe how good it is. I really don’t know what to say.” So with under a minute to play, the Lions had the lead back, 19-17.
But it wasn’t over just yet.
LSU got the ball back and tried to get into field position to win the game, but poor play calling in the final drive doomed Les Miles’ bunch.
And gave Penn State the signature moment it had waited for all season.
Questions with Curley: Part II
In today’s question for the Penn State athletic director, we ask about the shifting of the student section under the STEP program.
GD: The student section shifts under the STEP plan. There have been stories about acoustics improving. How much of that was taken into consideration?
TC: I think all of it was taken into consideration. I wouldn’t say one was more important than the other but certainly, we have the greatest student section in the country. They’ve provided great support. We think they make a big impact on the environment and the atmosphere at the stadium. So, the fact that we can get students closer down to the field we think is going to be a real benefit just overall. We think that’s going to be real positive. There was a study done that supported that fact that certainly we could probably make it a little bit more interesting atmosphere-wise, that way, it will help certainly some of the seating. We’ve had some situations where the students would be standing and the people beside them that are season ticket holders couldn’t see parts of the field and so we had some of that activity going on. But overall, we really think that this is going to be a real step forward for our student body and just continuing to make this the greatest show in college football.
Chris Morelli is an award-winning writer/editor who lives in Centre County and covers Penn State athletics. He is also a regular on “Sports Central,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com.
