With the first 25 seasons of college football in the books, Penn State has left an indelible mark on the sport.
Through it all, Penn State has created memories both good and bad for its fans.
In this five-part series, we’ll rank the 25 best Penn State games played of the first 25 seasons of the 21st century. Not all will be wins, there will be some heartbreak, but the overall greatness of the games are ones all Penn State fans have a story about.
You can read Part 1 that examines 25 to 21 HERE
You can read Part 2 that examines 20 to 16 HERE
Part 3 examines 15 to 11.
15. 2024 Fiesta Bowl vs. Boise State (College Football Playoff)
Penn State’s magical 2024 season had a few moments that showed the team’s resolve and resilience.
What the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Fiesta Bowl matchup against Boise State proved was that Penn State could win the whole thing.
No. 3 Boise State, was fueled by running back Ashton Jeanty, who had one of the most dominant rushing seasons ever. Jeanty would finish runner-up for the Heisman to Colorado’s Travis Hunter. It would take the entire game and into garbage time for Jeanty to get his 104 yards rushing.
With the game still in reach in the fourth quarter, it would be Nicholas Singleton’s 58-yard touchdown run that put it out of reach for Boise State.
2022 was another magical season for Penn State. The team returned to its New Year’s Six bowl form for the first time since 2019.
Singleton and Kaytron Allen fueled Penn State’s offense as freshman running backs.
Utah had played an instant classic the season before against Ohio State where wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba put up a record breaking performance with 15 receptions 347 yards and three touchdowns.
Utah had returning their star from that game Cameron Rising at quarterback. Rising had suffered a concussion that cut his day short.
Rising was looking for redemption against Penn State. Unfortunately, Rising suffered a knee injury that took him out for the entire 2023 season.
While the game was tight into the second half, Penn State broke it open with two explosive plays that were amongst the best in Rose Bowl history.
In the third quarter, Singleton had the third-longest touchdown run in Rose Bowl history with an 87-yard score. As Penn State led 21-14 in the fourth quarter, Sean Clifford connected with KeAndre Lambert-Smith for the longest scoring touchdown pass in Rose Bowl game history going 88 yards.
While Penn State was a great on the field football story in 2012, reality began to sit in 2013.
Penn State began the season defeating former rival Syracuse 23-17 in MetLife Stadium. But after that win, Penn State struggled.
Splitting its next four games left Penn State at 3-2, and the ramifications of the sanctions showed where Penn State was weak at.
While everyone rallied around five-star players in Christian Hackenberg and Adam Brennaman, there simply wasn’t support in the trenches to allow that talent to flourish.
For one magical evening against Michigan, the team wanted to show its heart and it was all there. The one play everyone will remember came with less than a minute to go in the fourth quarter with Penn State down seven. Hackenberg stepped up in the pocket and connected with wide receiver Allen Robinson on the sideline at the one yard line to set up the tying score.
The game went into overtime.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.And then another.
And another.
And another.
Finally, in OT No. 4, Bill Belton scored the game winning touchdown to end what was at the time the longest game in Big Ten history, since surpassed by the Illinois/Penn State 9 OT game in 2021.
12. 2024 College Football Playoff First Round vs. SMU
It was everything many imagined a late-December home game at Beaver Stadium would be.
It was cold, windy, snow that fell around Beaver Stadium and the fans were an additional element that SMU hadn’t seen all year.
A future trivia question answer will be linebacker Dom DeLuca.
He was the first Penn State player to score a point in the College Football Playoff off of his pick-six of Kevin Jennings.
In the second quarter, Penn State fans would be left in euphoria of wanting Jennings to throw more. Linebacker Tony Rojas got the highlight pick-six of the afternoon to put Penn State up 14-0.
Before the end of the first half running backs Allen and Singleton both scored putting State up 28-0, leaving no doubt the winner in Penn State’s ever first College Football Playoff game.
Penn State had not won in Ohio Stadium in 30 years leading up to their titanic clash against Ohio State.
What added fuel to the fire was the No. 1 overall recruit in the country in quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who was from Jeannette, Pennsylvania, choosing Ohio State over Penn State and starting at QB for the Buckeyes.
What kept this from being a top three clash was Ohio State had already lost 35-3 to No. 1 USC earlier that season, a team Penn State would eventually tango with in the Rose Bowl to not much better results.
In Columbus that night, with Joe Paterno coaching from the press box, Penn State willed itself to a win that was 30 years in the making. Every yard was fought for.
When starting quarterback Daryll Clark left the game with an injury, backup Pat Devlin scored the game’s lone touchdown on a quarterback sneak, but the play of the game came from safety Mark Rubin who forced a Pryor fumble that Bowman recovered.
