On a day that brought true football weather to the state of Pennsylvania, a stadium full of onlookers watched history be made as the SMU Mustangs and Penn State Nittany Lions competed in each their first-ever College Football Playoff game.
This history for both teams comes inside the overall historic moment for the College Football Playoff as this is the inaugural season of the 12-Team field, which brought about first-round games for the first time ever, giving the lower-numbered seed another home game, in this case, Penn State in front of 106,014 fans mostly donning white for the Nittany Lions.
The Mustangs would win the coin toss and chose to defer to the second half, kicking off to the Nittany Lions on this historic day.
After completing his first two passes to open the game, junior quarterback Drew Allar would force a pass under pressure that would hit the ground and the Nittany Lions would punt away their first possession.
A pass-interference penalty on Penn State would give SMU a new set of downs on their first drive of the day, moving them to the Penn State 28-yard line a few plays into the drive.
Just inside the Nittany Lions' redzone, the Mustangs would elect to go on it from the 19-yard line on 4th-&-1.
Redshirt-sophomore quarterback Kevin Jennings would fake the handoff, roll out, seemingly have the first down, but decided to pass the ball toward the end zone and graduate tight end Matthew Hibner did not hold onto the ball as it went off of his fingers and fell to the ground. As a result, SMU turned the ball over on downs on the Penn State 19.
Following achieving two first downs, the Nittany Lions would punt away their second drive of the game after a pass by Allar by the left sideline fell incomplete.
On the second play of their second drive, Jennings overthrew senior running back Brashard Smith over the middle and the ball was intercepted by redshirt-junior linebacker Dominic DeLuca, which he returned 23 yards to paydirt for the first score of the game, putting Penn State ahead 7-0 at the 6:08 mark of the first quarter.
The kickoff that followed by Penn State fell inside the SMU three-yard line, bounced, and luckily for SMU went out-of-bounds, giving SMU the ball on their own 35 to start their third drive.
Three consecutive runs would not gain a first down, with the Mustangs punting the ball right back to the Nittany Lions on a three-and-out.
SMU sophomore punter Isaac Pearson's punt only went 25 yards, giving Penn State the ball on their own 32.
Senior defensive end Elijah Roberts got to Allar on third down, sacking him for a six-yard loss to bring up 4th-&-13 for the Nittany Lions on the Mustangs' 29-yard line. Penn State Head Coach James Franklin elected to go for it.
Allar would elude defenders but his pass attempt would hit the ground, leading to a turnover on downs by Penn State, giving SMU the ball on their own 29 to start their fourth drive of the day.
On this drive, Jennings would find senior wide receiver Key'Shawn Smith on 3rd-&-5 for a completion that would give the Mustangs the five yards they needed for a first down, getting to their own 39 to end the first quarter.
This drive would end the same way their second drive ended, with Jennings throwing the ball right to the Nittany Lions, this time to sophomore linebacker Tony Rojas when the ball was intended for redshirt-junior running back LJ Johnson, Jr. Rojas would gain possession at his own 41 and the SMU offensive personnel would miss tackle attempt after tackle attempt, resulting in Rojas getting to "glory territory" on a 59-yard interception return for a touchdown, making it 14-0 Penn State at the 13:09 mark of the second quarter.
On the Mustangs' drive to follow, their fifth of the game, Jennings almost threw his third interception of the day on third down.
The pass would end up hitting the ground and SMU would punt the ball away to Penn State, who would start their fourth drive from their own 10.
Franklin would keep his offense on the field on 4th-&-1 from their own 19-yard line.
Allar would keep it and attempt to charge forward, but linebacker Alexander Kilgore and his fellow Mustangs would have other ideas, preventing a first down and taking the ball over on downs on the Nittany Lions' 19.
Starting their sixth drive of the game from inside the Penn State redzone, one would think that SMU could finally get themselves on the board.
Instead, Jennings would throw his third interception of the first half. The pass attempt was tipped by DeLuca and then caught by DeLuca at the Nittany Lions' 11-yard line, which DeLuca returned 14 yards to his own 25.
Just like the first two turnovers by SMU, Penn State would capitalize off of this one as well, with junior running back Kaytron Allen rushing for a 25-yard touchdown for the offense's first score of the day, rolling Penn State ahead 21-0 with exactly five minutes before halftime.
The Mustangs' seventh drive of the game would follow and on 4th-&-3, Jennings was sacked for a loss of eight yards by junior defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton for a turnover on downs, giving the Nittany Lions the ball on the Mustangs' 38-yard line.
In seven drives, Jennings had thrown three interceptions that all led to Penn State touchdowns along with SMU turning the ball over on downs twice, leaving them with zero points in seven opportunities.
As SMU's offense was struggling, Penn State's was waking up, with junior running back Nicholas Singleton running the ball over the goal-line from a yard out to extend the Nittany Lions' out to a 28-0 advantage with 1:03 remaining in the first half.
The eighth drive by the Mustangs would concluded in a punt back to the Nittany Lions who would run a couple plays and let time expire on their four-score first-half outing.
Penn State's two interceptions returned for touchdowns in this game marked the first time they have achieved this feat since Friday, November 28, 1998, when a pair of Nittany Lions' defensive backs, David Macklin and Anthony King, returned interceptions for touchdowns against the Michigan State Spartans inside Big Ten Conference play.
SMU would return from the locker room to receive the ball as the second half opened with them down by four scores.
Junior kicker Collin Rogers gave the Mustangs their first points of the game on this first drive of the second half, with a 28-yard field goal to bring the score to 28-3 Nittany Lions at the 10:59 mark of the third quarter.
SMU would follow with an onside-kick attempt, but Penn State would recover the ball at the SMU 48-yard line.
Roberts and senior defensive lineman Jared Harrison-Hunte would combine to sack Allar for a nine-yard loss that would send Penn State to the SMU 39 a play after Singleton gained 18 yards on his rushing attempt.
The Mustangs got to Allar for a second-consecutive sack on the next play, but Harrison-Hunte was flagged for unnecessary roughness. So, what should have been Nittany Lions' ball on the Mustangs' 44 ended up being Nittany Lions at the 29-yard line of their adversary.
Three plays later, Allar would get the ball out to senior tight end Tyler Warren for a six-yard gain, setting up redshirt-freshman kicker Ryan Barker's 40-yard attempt that he would send through the uprights to elevate Penn State to a 31-3 lead at the 8:13 mark of the third quarter.
On SMU's second drive of the second half, they would go for it on 4th-&-2 on their own 38-yard line and Brashard Smith would carry the ball for the two yards needed to gain a new set of downs.
They would get inside the Nittany Lions' redzone once again, and once again, they would come away with no points in the redzone after Jennings was sacked for an 18-yard loss that rolled the Mustangs back from the Nittany Lions' seven-yard line to the 25 and the following 42-yard field-goal attempt by Rogers would fall outside of the goalposts.
This gave Penn State the ball on their own 25-yard line.
The Nittany Lions would run five plays before the end of the third quarter.
Allen would score his second touchdown of the day four plays later on this drive, this from four yards out to give Penn State a 38-3 lead with 12:56 to play.
SMU responded with their fourth punt of the game from deep in their own territory, with sophomore cornerback Zion Tracy fair-catching the ball at his own 43.
True freshman quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer would come in to start this drive for the Nittany Lions with 10:42 to go in the game, making his collegiate debut here in the College Football Playoff.
Grunkemeyer would attempt a pass to redshirt-junior wide receiver Harrison Wallace, III, who would not hold on and graduate cornerback Brandon Crossley would grab the ball in the air for an interception, giving the Mustangs the ball on the Nittany Lions' 42.
On 3rd-&-21, Jennings almost threw his fourth interception of the game, but the ball would be bobbled and hit the ground along with a roughing-the-passer penalty that would give SMU a new set of downs and move them from their own 47 to the Penn State 38-yard line.
The offense would capitalize on this penalty by the Nittany Lions, getting their first touchdown of the game on a 28-yard pass over the middle from Jennings to senior wide receiver Roderick Daniels, Jr., in the end zone, bringing the score to 38-10 Nittany Lions with 7:31 left on the clock.
That would remain the score as Penn State moved to 12-2 on the season, winning this their first-ever College Football Playoff game.
On the other side, this loss ended the season for SMU at 11-3, with a stellar 8-0 regular-season performance in conference play and advancing to play in the conference championship in their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
The setting for the sixth-seeded Nittany Lions versus the third-seeded Broncos will be the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl in the College Football Playoff Quarterfinal Round on Tuesday, December 31st, at 7:30pm eastern time at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
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