Penn State vs. Wisconsin 2012
2012 “Mauti Bowl” at Beaver Stadium—
They’re a bunch of “fighters”!—Bill O’Brien
With Penn State on probation and barred from the post-season, this became the Nittany Lions pseudo-bowl game and would become one of the most “politically” important games in the post-Paterno era… Without question… It’s the difference between perceived success and a descent into mediocrity… The game makes statements on many levels in the midst of a crisis that could have permanently damaged the track of Penn State football moving forward… It sent a clear message that the Nittany Lions were down, but were going to survive… They were also going to honor the player that new head coach Bill O’Brien banked on to keep the whole program afloat…
Mike Mauti, the senior soon-to-be 1st Team All-America Linebacker, had longstanding ties to Penn State through his father, Rich Mauti FL/SE, who had played for the Lions in the mid-70’s… Mike immediately emerged as the team leader who held the team together after the Sandusky sanctions were leveled in July posing a serious threat to Bill O’Brien’s first season at the helm… Mauti helps keep the roster intact with surprisingly minimal personnel losses (the most notable losses: Silas Redd RB & Anthony Fera PK)… Mauti himself then followed up with a strong performance on the field (95 tackles, 4 sacks, 3 INTS) that turned an initially struggling 2-loss team into one with an unexpected winning record… But Mike is sidelined with a left knee injury suffered in the game vs. Indiana just one week prior to the Wisconsin finale…
Reportedly at the suggestion of Michael Zordich FB & Jordan Hill DT, the team honors Mauti on Senior Day by wearing stickers with his jersey #42 on left side of their helmets (PSU had not worn numbers on helmet sides since 1974 and players had never worn a helmet number that was not their own)… On top of that, fellow starting LB Gerald Hodges changed his number from 6 to 42 for the Wisconsin game (the story here goes that Hodges actually wore Mauti’s #42 jersey, and equipment manager Brad “Spider” Caldwell’s wife carefully removed the Mauti nameplate the night before the game and sewed the Hodges nameplate onto the 42 jersey)… Additionally, Acting Athletic Director Dave Joyner had the year “2012” added to the façade of the East Suites alongside the years of past championship teams… And, with that, the “Mauti Bowl” was born… Of course, there was still Wisconsin to deal with… The Badgers had hammered Penn State, 45-7, in 2011 at Camp Randall and they figured there’d be more of the same in 2012…
Penn State Fights for the Upset
With the action…
Zach Zwinak RB (who had successfully filled the shoes of the departed Silas Redd) has the biggest game of his career rushing 36 times for a career best 179 yards along with 1 TD and a 2-point conversion… The TD came on a 1st period 78-yard drive on which Zach carried the ball 9 times for 41 yards… Zwinak’s last 3 yards gave PSU the score and a 7-7 tie… The game was on…
What was probably the key moment comes in the 4th quarter… PSU is down 14-13 with 13:42 to go… The Lions looking at 4th and 6 from the Wiscy 41-yard line…. Matt McGloin QB is in the shotgun with Zwinak to his right… Two Wide receivers are out to the left along with Tight End Jesse James… At the snap, Zwinak moves out to the right as the safety valve for McGloin who begins dancing to his left looking for a receiver and the first down… The Badgers sold out on downfield coverage and did not pressure McGloin… James meantime moved from the middle of the field to the left, and was inexplicably allowed to slip away from the linebacker covering him with the deep help all eyeing the wide receivers…. Jesse was wide open at the Wisconsin 26 when McGloin hit him with the pass… James rumbled up the left sideline easily avoiding two Badgers near the pylon to score the TD that put PSU on top… Inexplicably the safety, albeit late, could not close the gap on James despite having a good angle… It’s 21-14 Penn State following the Zwinak 2-point conversion run….
Wisconsin and Curt Phillips QB would rally and forge a tie, but not immediately… An interception by Penn State safety Jacob Fagnano (the only 1 of his career) killed one attempt to tie it, but with 18 seconds left in regulation, Phillips delivered the short 4-yard TD pass to force overtime…
Sam Ficken was 3 for 3 on field goals for the day, and his 37-yarder put State up, 24-21 on the first possession of OT… On Wisconsin’s possession, Glenn Carson LB almost ended the game on 3rd down with an INT, but he dropped the pass…Wisconsin trots out kicker Kyle French to tie things again and send the game to a 2nd OT, but he misses a 45-yard field goal wide left… Penn State stuns the Badgers, 24-21 in OT… Leaving Wiscy winless in three overtime games that season which helped to send a 5-loss Badgers team to the Big Ten title game and eventually to the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten representative… Penn State closed year one of the post-Paterno era with an 8-4 record (6-2 in the Big Ten/2nd in the Leaders Division)… The Nittany Lions had come a long, long way from an 0-2 start that saw embarrassing losses to Ohio University (24-14, at home) and at Virginia (17-16)…
In the aftermath of the 2012 victory over Wisconsin, Bill O’Brien was memorably interviewed “live” on the field by ESPN… And he delivered his greatest post-game statement (and slip of the tongue)… “They’re a bunch of “fighters”! They fight hard!” (or… whatever you think he really said)… Bill was never more accurate in his life…
It was also the first of two big “bowl” wins over the Badgers…
Nittany Notes:
Beating Wisconsin in OT put a nice finishing touch on the 2012 season and it may well have set the table for Bill O’Brien’s first (and most critical) class of recruits who would sign with the Nittany Lions on February 6, 2013…
At that time, NCAA sanctions capped scholarships at 15 total with no bowls for the next four years (although all sanctions would actually be lifted in 2014)… O’Brien was able to snag two major recruits and a number of players who would become key pieces on the legendary 2016 Big Ten Championship team…
Topping O’Brien’s list were Christian Hackenberg QB and Adam Breneman TE who somehow never wavered from their commitments despite the sanctions… Hack’s decision alone would stabilize recruiting through the next few years and would play a role in other major signings well into the Franklin-era, most notably Saquon Barkley…
Even though Hackenberg and Breneman were both gone before 2016, seven of their recruiting classmates were key players in the most-unexpected Big Ten championship moment since Northwestern in 1995—DaeSean Hamilton WR, Brandon Bell LB, Garrett Sickels DE, Curtis Cothran DE, Parker Cothren DT, Brandon Smith LB, and Andrew Nelson OT…
