SMU seeks validation, Penn State eyes breakthrough
By Will Graves
AP Sports Writer
This is not about validation exactly. Still, it kind of is. For SMU and Penn State both.
And each side knows it.
When the 11th-seeded Mustangs (11-2) walk into wintry Beaver Stadium on Saturday to meet the sixth-seeded Nittany Lions (11-2) in the first round of the expanded College Football Playoff, they know there’s more than a few people — particularly those that live in Alabama — who think they have no right to be there in the first place.
“I think we feel like not necessarily want to prove doubters wrong,” said SMU safety Jonathan McGill. “But I feel like we want to prove ourselves right more than anything. … We deserve to be at this stage and on this platform.”
A platform Penn State has finally reached after spending the last decade on the fringe of the playoff conversation but unable — thanks largely to nearly annual pratfalls against Ohio State — to actually butt in.
If the 12-team field had existed from the CFP’s inception, the Nittany Lions might have been a fixture. Only, the field was limited to four teams during its first 10 iterations. And despite finishing in the top 12 in the final CFP ranking a half-dozen times before 2024, they never saw “Penn State” pop up on the bracket until the selection committee gave them a home game against a program that’s gotten comfortable quickly at upending the status quo.
The Nittany Lions are wary to be sure. They also believe they are primed for a breakthrough that feels long overdue during coach James Franklin’s solid if not wildly successful — by Penn State’s exacting standards anyway — 11-year tenure.
“Something we always talk about is ‘Win the national championship, get in the playoffs’ and now we’re here,” said defensive end Abdul Carter, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. “We have this opportunity. We got to do everything in our power to make sure we take advantage.”
The winner earns a trip to Arizona on New Year’s Eve to face Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl, this year a CFP quarterfinal. To get there, the Mustangs will have to survive the elements — temperatures are expected to hover in the mid-20s with the wind chill dipping lower than that — and a massive white-clad crowd eager for catharsis.
“Everybody’s against us,” Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings said. “It’s supposed be like 100,000 people there and everybody just booing you. So probably one of the best feelings in the world, just going in and being able to upset a talented team.”
If Jennings and the rest of SMU’s up-tempo offense wants to pull off a stunner, they will have to do what few have done this fall: stop Carter.
The junior defensive end ranked third in the FBS with 19 1/2 tackles for loss and his 10 sacks tied for the Big Ten lead. While he’s not keeping particularly close tabs on what honors come his way, he admitted getting “snubbed” for the Nagurski Award — given annually to the best defensive player in the country — adding more fuel to a fire that’s ever-present.
“Did some pushups that night,” Carter said. “Maxed out. I just use as motivation, I try not to get discouraged. I still feel like I’m the best defensive player, but not just defensive player. I feel like I’m the best player in general.”
Lost in the glare Jennings provides is the play of an SMU defense that allows just 20.8 points per game and has racked up 40 sacks. t helps that the Mustangs are willing to play with physicality, something SMU will need to rely on against the bigger, deeper Nittany Lions and an offense featuring do-everything tight end Tyler Warren.