The Nittany Lions, they of the unmovable-object defense (No. 2 in the Big Ten) but all-too-stoppable force on offense (No. 9 in the Big Ten), can look at Persa, the Liberty graduate and Northwestern’s starting quarterback, and turn blue-and-white with envy.
Put Persa, who was not recruited by Joe Paterno, on PSU and two words come to mind: Rose Bowl. Veteran Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker said last week Persa was the most difficult quarterback he’d had to prepare for in his 13-year career with the Hawkeyes, and that’s a Persa whose team doesn’t have a stud running back, lacks a true deep threat at wide receiver and plays behind an inconsistent offensive line.
Give Persa (72-for-97, 696 yards, 5 TDs in three games) Silas Redd and Derek Moye to work with behind a line led by Chima Okoli and the mind boggles at the potential results. Parker might have had to retire.
Combine that kind of offense with the Lions’ ferocious defense and you get a team that might challenge Wisconsin in the Whatever Division in the Big Ten, a team that could be among Joe Paterno’s all-time best.
Instead, JoePa will try and win a division title against the likes of Wisconsin with an offense that scored fewer points against Indiana than North Texas did, fewer points against Temple than Toledo did and fewer points against Purdue than Rice did. Good luck with that.
What-ifs go both ways here, and Lehigh Valley fans of Persa and Northwestern fans (full confession here: I am one) are on the verge of seeing one of college football’s most distinctive and remarkable talents finish his career without playing in a bowl game.
Persa missed last year’s Wildcat loss in the TicketCity Bowl due to the torn Achilles. And this year, there may very well be no Northwestern bowl at all — the ‘Cats stand at 2-4 now with games left against Nebraska and Michigan State.
The general consensus is that the Wildcats have to beat Penn State to have a chance to play in a bowl, and even PSU’s undercharged offense should be able to move the ball against a defense ranked dead last in the FBS against the pass and has given up an average of 47.8 points in its last five Big Ten games.
If Persa had even a barely-competent defense on his side, a Purdue or Iowa-type defense, Northwestern would be a Top-20 team and Persa a candidate for postseason honors galore. Had Persa not suffered the Achilles injury, Northwestern may very well have won a bowl game last year for the first time since 1949 and Persa would leave Evanston, Ill. a legend.
Now, though, Persa and the Wildcats have to scrap for their very lives against a Nittany Lions defense capable of declawing almost any offense it faces. If any Big Ten quarterback can win a game by himself, it’s Persa (along with Michigan’s Denard Robinson), but that is a very heavy load to impose on any young man, even one as skilled as Persa, especially one just 11 months off Achilles’ tendon surgery.
Penn State will likely have a successful (by most programs’ standards) season no matter what happens in Evanston Saturday night; the Persa what-if is just a teaser, if a wistful one, for the Nittany Lions. But for Persa and the Wildcats, the looming what-if with a loss would be tragically devastating.
Saturday night may be Dan Persa’s last stand for glory — but it would be so, so different only if he had a defense.
Brad Wilson – www.express-times.com
Photo: Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo