What if?
What if something else had happened?
2002 Penn State vs. Nebraska—What if Rich Gardner’s electrifying Pick 6 never happened? Had it not been for an error in officiating, one of Beaver Stadium’s most iconic memories would have never existed… If the original call had been made correctly, we’d be talking about a different player and a completely different play…
Saturday, September 14, 2002… Unranked Penn State and the #8 Nebraska Cornhuskers in their first meeting since the disputed 1994 national title… The Citizens Bank button game slogan was “Settlin’ the Score For ‘94”… On paper, it looked like a mismatch, and it would be… Just not the one everyone expected… 110,753 fans packed Beaver Stadium under the lights… Members of the 1982 National Champs were on hand for their 20th reunion… It was the largest crowd ever to see a Joe Paterno-coached game in State College (it would remain the stadium record for 15 years)… It was also the largest crowd ever to see Nebraska play at the time… It feels commonplace now, but this was the first time attendance passed 110K; easily breaking the record of 109,313 set just over a year earlier in the 2001 opener with Miami (the unforgettable Adam Taliaferro walk-out game)… This is THE game that put the concept of what would become the “Beaver Stadium White House” in motion…
On top of a disastrous finish in 1999, Penn State was coming off two dismal seasons in 2000 & 2001, and had just delivered a below average season opening 3-point win over Central Florida that shoved the Lions out the back of the AP Poll… Penn State athletic folks actually feared a so-called “sea of red” in the stands at this game and considered encouraging fans to wear blue to counter it… Frankly, nobody expected or could even have predicted the outcome—a 40-7 blowout of unbeaten and 8th ranked Nebraska by the Lions live on ABC in primetime… The game was highlighted by one of the most memorable plays of the first decade of the 21st century…
In the third quarter, Penn State was about to blow things open as cornerback Rich Gardner stepped in front of an overthrown Jammal Lord pass along the right sidelines and he raced 43 yards to the north endzone with the pick 6… The crowd went wild (it was Gardner’s first career INT & 1 of 3 PSU picks of Lord that night)… Noise meters were broken… Folks who were there will tell you the stadium was never louder than in that exact moment… It was the release of two-plus years of failed football frustration all at once…
But it almost never happened and technically shouldn’t have… If a play, just two snaps earlier, had been ruled correctly by officials, it would have erased one of the most iconic memories in PSU football history and replaced it with another memorable moment starring defensive end Michael Haynes who would go on to become the 2002 Big Ten co-Defensive Player of the Year…
Third period, Penn State up 19-7… The Nittany Lions had eaten half of the third quarter with an 80-yard scoring drive… Then, on the ensuing Husker possession, Nebraska is 1st and 10 from its 34-yard line with 6:53 left in the quarter…. Off the play action fake, Lord dropped to pass… Haynes pressured him into rolling to his right… And Haynes is in hot pursuit… Lord attempts to pass as he approaches the near sideline and the ball falls from his hand before he can bring it forward… It’s a clear empty hand as Haynes drags Lord to the ground…. Clear to everyone but the ref… Haynes gets to his feet instantly and collects the ball at the Nebraska 26-yard line… He begins to rumble to the endzone…. But a ref’s whistle kills the play almost immediately… The ruling is an incomplete forward pass… Replays clearly show otherwise… It’s a fumble recovered by Penn state… Boos ring out across the stadium… Paterno can’t believe it… But replay review does not exist yet, so it stands as called…
If there was no whistle, would Haynes have scored and become the guy that sent the crowd into a deafening frenzy? There was still some traffic to get through to reach the endzone, and maybe the one Nebraska lineman nearest Haynes could get him from behind… Can Haynes drag a defender, or three, to the endzone… We’ll never know…
Ironically, the pent-up crowd anger at this ruling (and about 28 games worth of frustration) would be released two plays later when Rich Gardner etched his name into Penn State lore and gave birth to the “wall of sound” that would morph into the first Beaver Stadium “Whiteout” 5 years later…
