Jaylen Reed had plans to go to New York City Sunday, but he was glad to scrap them.
Instead, Reed and his Penn State football teammates practiced in preparation for the Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon.
The thank you notes are on their way from Lasch Building to Schembechler Hall in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Coupled with Michigan’s 13-10 upset win over Ohio State, the Nittany Lions sealed their first berth in the title game since 2016 with a 44-7 blowout of Maryland Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
“I’m pretty sure everyone’s banged up like me,” Reed said. “We don’t get the break like we thought we were about to have. But that’s all part of the process and it’s part of the game.”
No one inside the Penn State locker room expected the Wolverines to knock off the heavily favored Buckeyes. Only in the Lions’ wildest dreams did playing for the conference championship cross their minds after losing to Ohio State 20-13 on Nov. 2.
“We didn’t find out until after the game,” defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas said. “It was a mix of shock and excitement, you know what I mean? We are in the Big Ten championship game, so it’s a huge feeling of excitement that’s just overwhelming.
“I don’t even know how to put it into words.”
Those Penn State fans who haven’t wanted to see their team play Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis have been short-sighted.
The Lions (11-1) get to play the No. 1 team in the country with a chance at their fifth Big Ten title and the top seed in the College Football Playoff.
That’s a golden opportunity, one that could be seen on the faces of Penn State players and coaches in the moments after the victory over Maryland.
“It means a lot,” said running back Nick Singleton, who accounted for 170 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns. “We always talk about competing for championships. Coach (James) Franklin and all of them (assistant coaches) preach that.
“This is a championship team. I believe that. The whole team believes it. We have to go out and prove it.”
The Lions have often been criticized in recent weeks for having only one win over a ranked opponent, Illinois, which finished the regular season 9-3. And Franklin has been fairly criticized for Penn State’s eight straight losses to Ohio State and its lack of success against top-five teams.
Beating Oregon (12-0), one of four new conference teams from the West Coast, would go a long way toward quieting a lot of the noise.
“This is the most competitive Big Ten there’s ever been,” Franklin said. “To have your team ready to play week in and week out is very, very difficult. It doesn’t happen very often.
“This team is finding a ton of different ways to win: blowouts, comebacks, overcoming adversity, winning because of defense, winning because of offense, winning because of special teams.”
Penn State has 32 wins since the start of the 2022 season, which is only the fourth time that’s happened over a three-year stretch in school history. Georgia, Michigan, Oregon, Alabama and Tulane are the only other schools with 32 wins or more in that span.
The Lions have five 11-win seasons under Franklin since 2016. Now they’re looking for their first 12-win season since 1994. They’ll have two chances to do it, against Oregon and then in the CFP.
“I literally came back for my sixth year for situations like this,” J-Thomas said. “I believe that Penn State has the talent, the people and the personnel to be the best team in the country and win a national championship.
“But it has to happen game-by-game. This is just the first step.”
