This year’s Penn State football team plans to leave the program better than they found it

JULY 31, 2023 12:54 PM
INDIANAPOLIS
It’s become a common refrain in college athletics for players to talk about leaving a program better than they found it. Sometimes it can feel like lip service to culminate a career that didn’t live up to expectations but still saw growth .
This time it feels like a legitimate refrain from the group of Penn State football players that can depart after the 2023 season ends.
The Nittany Lions have seen turbulent times over the past three seasons.
But it’s hard to argue they’re on anything but the upswing entering the year — thanks in large part to a group of players who stayed the course during a difficult stretch and built a culture that can sustain even when they’re gone.
Penn State went 11-11 across 2020 and 2021, the two years when many of the team’s older contributors were waiting in the wings for their opportunity to shine. The program rebounded well with an 11-2 mark last year — matching the record from 2019 — and is now poised to make a run at its first College Football Playoff berth since it began in 2014.
Redshirt senior defensive end Adisa Isaac enrolled in 2019 and played in every 2020 game before missing 2021 due to a torn Achilles. He’s one of the team’s current leaders and said during last week’s Big Ten Media Day in Indianapolis that the little things are a big part of making sure the next group of leaders and starters are able to keep the momentum rolling after the current leadership departs.
“When situations happen, especially in practice and stuff, (I) just use those experiences to make a coaching point,” Isaac said. “If I see a guy slacking off, I’ll tie that back into something I saw him do the other day that can lead to bad habits. I try to nip all the bad habits in the bud early. Stop all that from the jump so that way they know the standard. I try to keep a high standard in the room, as far as the way we work, the way we carry ourselves, how we practice, how we run to the ball, all the little details.”
NITTANY LIONS STEPPING UP TO LEAD
Isaac is one of several players stepping into a void left behind by previous players who led vocally. The questions about who would fill those empty spaces were common after the 2022 season ended. Players like Ji’Ayir Brown, Sean Clifford and PJ Mustipher were a part of the group that helped oversee the turnaround following the tumultuous 2020-2021 stretch.
They established what needed to be done, leaving it to this collection of leaders to carry that on.
Those players were vocal in what they wanted and how a program should be maintained from a culture standpoint. That starts at the team level but carries down to each position group.
Junior Olumuyiwa Fashanu began his career with the 2020 season — the year that did not count toward eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic — and is now the best player on the team. He has young players learning from him like second year tackle Drew Shelton, who is fighting for a starting spot, and J’ven Williams, who enrolled this offseason as a highly-touted freshman.
Fashanu’s goal is to make sure the offensive line is in a better position than when he enrolled.
“When I got there my freshman year, the culture was a lot different than it is now,” he said. “I think that just is attributed to the guys in the room right now. ... All of us. Being mentors for the younger guys. Not only on the field, but off the field too. Just the way how we act. Our O-line room is extremely healthy right now. We’re all super tight with each other. We all hang out with each other all the time outside the facility.”
Penn State offensive lineman Olumuyiwa Fashanu and defensive end Smith Vilbert run a drill during practice on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022.
Penn State offensive lineman Olumuyiwa Fashanu and defensive end Smith Vilbert run a drill during practice on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022. Abby Drey adrey@centredaily.com
He made clear that it wasn’t that he wasn’t happy with the offensive line room when he arrived. Rather, it was about his personality and how he handled when he had an inquiry.
“When I was a freshman it was probably due to the person that I am,” Fashanu said. “I’m very introverted. If I had questions, more often than not I just wouldn’t ask them. This year and especially last year, (I’ve) tried to make the younger guys feel as comfortable as possible in that room and just to get them to open up when they needed to. At the end of the day, as a freshman, the biggest thing you need are older guys that can lead you on the right path and to answer any questions that you have.”
LOOKING TOWARD AN IMPORTANT SEASON
Sometimes the culture can take care of the leadership on its own. Cultures tend to be better when a team is winning more and have a proclivity to fracture with added frequency when teams are losing.
That should help keep things rolling in a positive direction as the Nittany Lions look to build off their 11-win 2022 season. And sometimes focusing on doing the right things on your own can help improve a culture. Leading by example can be just as important in creating good habits as being vociferous.
One of the Nittany Lion captains, Keaton Ellis, is focusing on all of those little things as he spends his first year as a captain alongside Fashanu and linebacker Dom DeLuca.
“That’s part of being a captain and being a leader on this team,” Ellis said. “... Just making sure that what I’m doing is putting the team in the best position to win. I’m just excited for the opportunity. I wanted to come back, not only for myself, but for the team. And I really think we have something special and I’m just really excited for the season.”
Those captains and older players like Isaac are heading toward an important season in modern Penn State history. This is the final year of the four-team playoff field before it expands to 12 in 2024. Yes, the Nittany Lions are primed to make it consistently once it does expand. But making it this year would establish a much higher standard for the next group of Penn State teams to follow.
And it’s on the veterans to make sure they leave the program better than they found it.