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Sunday, September 23, 2001

University Park, Pa -- OK, you bleeders of Blue and White, let's hear it. Let's hear you yell loud and clear what has become the chant of your favorite team:

"We are ... NOT Penn State.

"We are ... NOT Penn State."

There's no denying it. Any resemblance between the Penn State team that has opened this season with two defeats to those excellent squads Joe Paterno used to produce annually are purely the figment of some cockeyed optimist's imagination.

The astonishing demise of what had been one of the elite programs in the nation is complete. This is not a minor slump. This is not a bad season. This is where Penn State's program stands after an 18-6 loss yesterday to Wisconsin at Beaver Stadium.

The Nittany Lions have lost more games in their most recent 18 than they did in the 75 before that. Since opening the 1999 season with a 9-0 record, they are 6-12. Prior to that, dating to the final five games of the 1993 season, they were 64-11.

This 6-12 record is not an aberration. It is what Penn State football is all about. The surprise losses against Toledo and Pitt last season were not mistakes. Nor was the humiliation it suffered against Miami in this season's opener. Those games were accurate reflections of the talent on Penn State's team.

This is not about an offense that's out of date. It's the same offense that was 64-11. This is not about a coach who's too old, although Joe Paterno surely shares in the blame for this demise. This is the same coach who was 9-0 less than two seasons ago. This is about not having enough good players.

Where once great players sat on the bench, walk-ons now earn starting roles. Where once this was a program awash in game-breaking talent, there now are no such players on the team.

The Lions were manhandled all afternoon. The offensive line, long one of the enduring strengths of the programs, continues to present little resistance to opposing defenses.

Wisconsin defensive tackle Wendell Bryant had four sacks and five tackles for losses in the first half. Penn State quarterbacks were sacked eight times. Except for a late first-half run that netted 28 yards while Wisconsin was expecting a pass, Penn State's running backs ran 11 times for 31 yards.

The defense was no better.

Anthony Davis, who averaged 138 rushing yards in the first three games, pounded the Lions for 200. Quarterback Brooks Bollinger, who missed most of the Badgers' first three games because of a bruised liver, ran for 112.

Penn State couldn't block and couldn't tackle. And it sure couldn't pass. Quarterbacks Matt Senneca and Zack Mills threw 19 times and completed only 6 -- an abysmal showing.

No one should be confused by the relative closeness of the final score. This could have been the most lopsided 12-point victory in NCAA history.

Consider:

Penn State had 131 yards of offense; Wisconsin had 434.

Penn State punted six times; Wisconsin never punted.

Penn State possessed the ball for 18 minutes, 7 seconds; Wisconsin for 41:53.

Of Penn State's 11 drives, only one was longer than 20 yards and only one penetrated deeper than Wisconsin's 45. Of Wisconsin's 11 drives, seven were longer than 35 yards and all but two reached at least the Penn State 35.

When Penn State scored early in the second half to move within six points of the lead, it might have provided some motivation. But Wisconsin came right back and scored on its next possession.

When Wisconsin Coach Barry Alvarez thumbed his nose at the Lions and went for it on fourth-and-1 from his 46, the subsequent failure also might have inspired the Lions. Instead, they lost 9 yards on three plays and punted.

The decline of Penn State's program is as unfathomable as it is real. It would seem to be impossible to decline so rapidly. The elite program that Johnny Majors and Jackie Sherrill built at Pitt in the 1970s took nearly a decade to decline. Penn State has done it in little more than a season.

Wisconsin (2-2) is a good football team. But Penn State teams of the past usually beat good football teams and never were outplayed thoroughly by them.

Wisconsin was a team that allowed 63 points in losses to Oregon and Fresno State. It gave up 17 in a win against Virginia. Against this defense, Penn State could score only six points.

Paterno was furious.

"I've seen him that mad at a practice but never after a game" said defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy.

"Right now, the only thing I feel like doing is punching a wall," Paterno said at a postgame news conference.

"We can play better. We've got to play better. It's my job to make them play better. But I have to have guys who want to play better."

Whether Paterno has such players is suspect. Certainly, the team's performance in the past 18 games indicates otherwise.

Paterno's quest to break Bear Bryant's record for most wins by a Division I coach remains a secondary story to the sorry decline of the program. He needs two wins to pass Bryant, and they don't figure to come soon. After playing at Iowa next week, the Lions play Michigan, Northwestern and Ohio State -- the three highest-ranked team in the Big Ten.

As impossible as it once seemed, the Lions could be 0-6.

If that comes to pass, this much is certain: They'll have achieved that record on merit.

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.