Indiana is not a revenge game for Penn State Football … Why loss was launching pad

Penn State Football will meet the Indiana Hoosiers this Saturday in prime time yet again looking to advance to 5-0 in front of what should be another sell out crowd at Beaver Stadium 

Every Penn State Football fan remembers what happened in Bloomington last season.

Everyone has a take on whether or not Michael Pennix was in or not on the two point try. But that was the past, it was 2020, and around the Lasch building, 2020 might as well not even happened.

Indiana is not a revenge game, it is the next game on the schedule for the Nittany Lions, because the reality is, last seasons result was the best thing that ever happened to James Franklin’s program, and off to a 4-0 start and ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll through September is the child of that nightmarish 2020.

It would be foolish of Penn State Football to be focused on any type of revenge factor come 7:30 Saturday night, Indiana is the next game on the schedule, a formidable opponent, on the road to winning a championship.

This season has gotten off to a perfect start, Franklin’s Nittany Lions should turn the page and focus on 2021, not what happened almost a year ago.

From the sounds of it, it seems players and coaches alike have done just that.

"“We don’t believe in revenge games,” defensive tackle PJ Mustipher said this week on a zoom call. “We’re focused on this week. We can’t focus on last year. It already happened. We can’t do nothing about that, we can’t go back and change time.”"

In his weekly press conference with the media on Tuesday, Franklin had similar thoughts about whether or not he considers this a revenge game with Indiana.

"“All that really matters is that you have to find a way that you play this Saturday” Franklin said."

Last year’s loss to Indiana falls on nobody but themselves, a failure in attention to details, a failure in preparation for a moment, and then lastly a failure in red zone defense cost them that game. In large part, it had nothing to do with Indiana or the refs.

It is understandable that creative a revenge narrative amongst fans on social media is fun, however it is not practical.

If Devyn Ford takes a knee short of the end zone last year, we’re not having this conversation 11 months later …

Here’s a look at how Penn State Football’s loss to Indiana in 2020 shaped 2021’s perfect start:

The fallout of that Week 1 loss undoubtedly was felt all season for the Nittany Lions in 2020, it derailed a very promising campaign, one that started with Penn State Football ranked inside the top 10 to begin the year.

The following week, they lost to just a better team in Ohio State in a mostly empty Beaver Stadium, and sat at 0-2, with all of their college football playoff hopes all but shattered.

They let that loss linger into an abysmal effort against Maryland that resulted in a blowout loss, a slow start at Nebraska and just a manhandling by Iowa to start 0-5. Of course, we know they righted the ship a bit and won the final four games of the season, but still, it was an awful season for a team with their preseason expectations.

James Franklin called this offseason a “critical” one for his program when he met the media after the final game, and now with hindsight as our friend, it may have been one that changed the trajectory of this program for the next few years.