Escaping The State Penn
A B1G title game preview and an ode to your favorite '95 Rose Bowl sweatshirt.
I’ve been living a lie for my entire life and on Saturday night it will come to an end.
Like many of you, I grew up in green and yellow.
I snuggled a plush Duck that played the fight song, and then I learned that song and sang it for anyone who would listen.
And most importantly, I was raised wearing dozens of different pieces of merchandise that honored Rich Brooks’ 1994-95 Rose Bowl against Penn State.
Not much has changed since then, either. I’m wearing a ‘95 Rose Bowl sweatshirt right now—heck, you might be, too.
Nowadays it’s easy to find Instagram re-sellers, Etsy re-prints, and the coolest Duck fans you know in a well-maintained Gang Green shirt or a well-loved crewneck adorned with bright red Roses.
Hell, I’m convinced that the Eugene vintage store, The N.E.S.T., is a business that is singularly devoted to slinging this kind of stuff:
The ‘95 Rose Bowl Merchandise Industrial Complex is something that will surely be studied by economists for years to come. No other fan base in all of sports would spend 30 years obsessing over the aesthetic of a single game—let alone one that their team lost.
And still, there’s something about January 2, 1995 (and its gear), that has kept us coming back for more.
But here’s the lie: I wasn’t even alive for the ‘95 Rose Bowl.
I never saw Danny O’Neil go toe-to-toe with Kerry Collins and set a Rose Bowl record with 465 passing yards.
I didn’t feel the pain of PSU’s Ki-Jana Carter running all over Oregon (including an 83-yard touchdown on their first offensive play).
And I certainly never saw the sunset over the San Gabriel Mountains reflected off our plastic, mustard-yellow helmets.
Granted, I’ve been fortunate to witness a lot of great—arguably better—moments in my time, but nobody my age would be caught dead paying $100 for a sweater with a 2011 Tostitos National Championship logo on it.
Tomorrow, the top-ranked Ducks and the third-ranked Nittany Lions will face off for the Big Ten Title in Indianapolis with a first round playoff bye and conference supremacy on the line.
What will it feel like for all of us younger folks to finally get to see the Oregon & Penn State logos next to each other in real-time? What will change about our collective memory and myth of the most important loss in program history?
Well, for starters, this one’s not the last big game of the season. It’s the first of many big ones.
Dan Lanning has his second chance to win his first conference championship, and he can’t let his team come out flat like they did against Washington in Vegas a year ago.
Any amount of points we can get on the first possession would be crucial for our offense (which is thankfully very good at starting fast), but defenses can have fast starts, too.
Even if our offense stalls at first against their elite front seven and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Abdul Carter (#11), our defense has proven that it can keep us afloat by shutting down our opponent until Dillon figures things out.
And while their quarterback, Drew Allar (#15), has certainly turned somewhat of a positive corner over the course of the season, he still hasn’t risen to the upper echelon of college QBs that a natty-contending team would hope to have.
He’s efficient and he protects the ball (18/5 TD/INT), but he’s not uniquely electric and their offense doesn’t live and die with him—which tells you everything you need to know.
Their offense does, however, live and die with a gentleman named Tyler Warren (#44).
Warren is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
He’s a tight end that leads his team in receptions by a mile—he has 81 catches and the next closest receiver has 35.
He also has 21 carries for 189 yards, a touchdown pass, and a 16-yard punt this year.
Maybe it’s gotten a little gimmicky at times for Penn State’s offense, but I kid you not, he’s part-tight end, part-fullback, part-quarterback, part-center, and pretty much an all-time, all-dude kind of guy.
Behind Ashton Jeanty, he’s probably the second best football player we’ll play all year. But unfortunately for us, we can’t just admire Warren’s throwback style of football, we have to hope Oregon finds ways to stop him.
There’s also the added complication that our defense has struggled with great tight ends this year. Michigan’s Loveland was similarly the Wolverines’ only option on offense and he gashed us for a good chunk of time in the middle of that game.
I think tomorrow will be a huge test for our linebackers like the speedy Devon Jackson (who was noticeably quiet versus UDub) and/or a red-hot Bryce Boettcher to cover Warren in the receiving game.
In the trenches, PSU will be without their star right tackle, Anthony Donkoh (#68), and that means redshirt junior Nolan Rucci (#72) will step into that spot.
Rucci has been a perennial back-up in his career, and he’ll now have the great misfortune of having to block Matayo Uiagalelei and Jordan Burch for four quarters.
I expect this mismatch to be one of the key games-within-the-game, and if our edge rushers are able to sweep Penn State under the rug—beating them at their own game—then we’ll be in good shape to win handily.
The Duck offense finally got rolling again last week with Tez Johnson back in the lineup, and I hope that continues.
I have been a long-time defender of our dink-and-dunk game—particularly because Dillon and Tez are so otherworldly good at it—but I truly love it when it’s in service of opening up the deep shots.
Can we get back to finding Evan Stewart and Traeshon Holden for multiple 20+ yard explosive throws? Because we’ll likely need to.
Penn State’s pass defense is pretty identical to ours. Their secondary is talented, but they’ve also benefitted from having such a strong pass rush in front of them.
They’ve been without their NFL-caliber safety, Kevin Winston Jr. (#21), since September, and if he still isn’t ready to go, the back side of that defense seems like a new frontier for Will Stein to explore—just like he did against Ohio.
Our veteran tackles and o-line will likely be able to protect the QB for longer than other PSU opponents have been able to this year, and Oregon has the right combination of receiving threats and arm talent to test their shorthanded secondary in ways they haven’t been tested yet.
So, to sum it up for you as if I were the CBS television crew previewing the “Keys To The Game”:
🔑 Limit Tyler Warren.
🔑 Abuse the mismatch at right tackle and sack/hurry the QB.
🔑 Use your WR speed to stretch the field and take deep shots.
Penn State is certainly the second-most talented team we’ll have faced all year, and their defense is going to be particularly stout, but I think our dynamic style of football (paired with our proven physicality) is just going to be too much for them.
This isn’t ‘95 and Joe-Pa isn’t walking out of that tunnel—and thankfully neither is Ki-Jana Carter.
But 30 years later, it’s still pretty wild that this pivotal season has come full circle to the beginning of the modern era of Oregon football, and fittingly aligns with our most popular genre of fan merch.
And, in the great tradition of this newsletter, it was only right that all roads have led us back to Rich Brooks.
31-20, Big Ten Champs.
I’ll be wearing my dad’s lucky Gang Green hat.
Go Ducks.
New to your newsletter and I'm liking your style and sense of humor. Keep it coming and thanks.
Was at that game with Luke’s mom. Nice to have those 30-year old demons gone.