Former Penn State star Kerry Collins wants people to remember 1994 team as selfless [opinion]

Forgive Drew Allar, Nick Dawkins and everyone else on the current Penn State roster.

Of course, they don’t know much about the 1994 Nittany Lions team that won the school’s first Big Ten football championship and finished 12-0. They weren’t alive yet to see the greatest offense in the history of the school and perhaps college football.

Those Lions averaged 47.0 points, still the most in the Big Ten since 1916, and 520.2 total yards per game, which was a conference record then.

They put teams away early, rolling up massive halftime leads against Minnesota (35-3), Southern Cal (35-0), Iowa (45-7), Ohio State (35-0) and Northwestern (38-3).

They had five first-team All-Americans, all on offense: Kerry Collins, Ki-Jana Carter, Bobby Engram, Jeff Hartings and Kyle Brady.

Beyond the ridiculous numbers and the impressive talent, they had something else.

“To use a phrase by a wise, old coach (the late Joe Paterno), we had moxie,” Collins said Thursday from his home in Tennessee. “I tell people all the time, ‘Yeah, we were talented.’ But nobody cared who got the credit. Nobody cared how it got done. It was just getting it done.”

Collins, the former Wilson High star, and his ’94 teammates will celebrate their 30th anniversary this weekend at Penn State. They will be recognized during Saturday night’s game against Illinois.

The unity they had is hard to find in this day and age of the transfer portal and NIL money when players often put themselves ahead of their teammates for the sake of the almighty dollar.

They relied on that togetherness when they first faced adversity at Michigan.

The Wolverines rallied from a 16-3 halftime deficit and took the lead on two Tyrone Wheatley touchdown runs in the third quarter. The Lions quickly answered with an 86-yard drive and a two-point conversion to tie it.

Then in the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/former-penn-state-star-kerry-034600200.html

Author : Reading Eagle, Pa.

Publish date : 2024-09-27 03:46:00

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