Penn State hasn’t beaten Ohio State since 2016. For all the Nittany Lions have accomplished since then with the double-digit win totals and the New Year’s Six Bowl bids, there have been plenty of emotionally draining postgame moments for some of Penn State’s best players when it’s come to playing and losing to Ohio State.
Tight end Pat Freiermuth walked out of the Horseshoe dejected a few years ago. Fans in Columbus stormed the field in 2017 but congratulated Saquon Barkley for how well he played against them. Sean Clifford, like Trace McSorley and Drew Allar all have been outwardly emotional after losses to Ohio State.
There’s a sense that some on Penn State’s current roster are carrying some of those players and their losses with them on Saturday.
“One hundred percent,” defensive tackle Dvon J-Thomas said. “You think about the guys from years past. PJ (Mustipher), especially. Ji’Ayir Brown. Sean Clifford. Those guys poured so much into this program and did so much for everybody in it in one way or another. To come into this game with the opportunity again, of course, to play a great team and potentially win this game, it means the world. It’s also for them. Those wins, those losses they’ve had in the years past, they didn’t deserve it. They put too much into this game for them to fall short like that and leave here without a win. This is truly for them.”
J-Thomas, a sixth-year player who has never beaten Ohio State, said if Penn State does win on Saturday he hopes fans rush the field. Penn State hasn’t had a field storming in Beaver Stadium since 2016 against Ohio State.
“It’d just be a special feeling that I’ve never felt yet,” Thomas said.
