If you’re a Penn State football fan, you probably loved it when several PSU players took part in trying to plant a “We Are” flag on USC’s logo after Saturday’s 33-30 overtime win at the Coliseum.
Penn State players just planted a flag at midfield. James Franklin told them absolutely not. Too late. pic.twitter.com/gFi8ccKOI2
— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) October 12, 2024
If you’re a USC fan, you probably hated it.
If you’re neutral fan, opinions vary.
But a former Heisman Trophy winner made it clear what his thoughts were on a recent podcast. Mark Ingram, who won the first Alabama player to win the Heisman, doing so in 2009, was not happy with Penn State’s celebration. He let that be known on the Triple Option Podcast with Urban Meyer and Rob Stone.
‘YOU JUST GOT LET OFF THE HOOK’
For Ingram, Penn State football— which was down by two touchdowns before coming back— wasn’t emphatic enough in its win to warrant such a celebration.
“At the end of the day, you just got off the hook because they missed the field goal,” he said. “So you could have easily lost this game man. You’ve got bigger problems on your plate than planting a flag.”
Top-ranked Texas planted a flag after beating Oklahoma 34-3 Saturday.
Texas plants Longhorns flag through an Oklahoma Baker Mayfield jersey 😳
No love lost in the Red River rivalry 😅
(via @CJVogel_OTF)
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 13, 2024
What made this gesture even more interesting is that the planted the flag on Baker Mayfield’s jersey. Why is Mayfield relevant to this? Well, a certain former Big Ten head coach should know.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.MEYER COMMENDS FRANKLIN
The most famous example of a player messing with another team’s logo— outside of Terrell Owens, of course— might just be Mayfield at Ohio State in 2017.
6 years ago today: Baker Mayfield planted the flag.
It was the ultimate exclamation mark after Mayfield led an epic upset win over No. 2 Ohio State in The Horseshoe.
It stands today as an iconic moment in program history. @BetUS_Official pic.twitter.com/cNLuTvzgmt
— The REF (@KREFsports) September 9, 2023
Although the head coach of that Ohio State team has called Mayfield “one of my favorite players of all time,” he wouldn’t recommend one of his players doing the same thing and was happy Franklin intervened when Penn State did it.
He also recalled a situation where he took the flag away, like Franklin did.
“I can’t remember the exact game, and our players knew, we would always talk about that,” Meyer said. “Act like you’ve been there and those players, and there’s alumni, that pick fights. And I love players having fun, but have fun at your own expense. Don’t have fun at someone else’s expense. When I saw that (from Penn State), once again Mark, I believe in players having fun, but have fun at your own expense. I’m such a college football fan, you don’t do that, and I’m glad they didn’t do that.”
WOULD PENN STATE FOOTBALL DO IT AGAIN?
After this week’s bye, Penn State takes on Wisconsin.
Like USC, it will be a contest against a prominent program in a hostile environment.
So if Penn State wins again, would it try to plant the flag?
Eh, probably not. Franklin is onto them.
