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The Penn State Nittany Lions began the post-James Franklin Era on Saturday night when they took on the Iowa Hawkeyes in Kinnick Stadium.
At the helm of the Nittany Lions is interim head coach Terry Smith. Smith, previously the team’s cornerbacks coach, is a Penn State alum who played wide receiver under Joe Paterno and was a First-team All-East in 1991.
For his first-ever game in charge of the Nittany Lions, Smith and his players drew inspiration from the all-time winningest coach in FBS history.
Penn State Players Wear ‘IF’ Shirts Inspired By Joe Paterno
Prior to the game, Penn State coaches and players showed up to Kinnick Stadium wearing gray t-shirts with the Nittany Lion logo and the word “IF” written above it.
Penn State fans quickly tried to decipher the meaning of the shirts, and it didn’t take long to find an answer.
The “IF” was in reference to a poem by the same name by famed author Rudyard Kipling. The poem was a favorite of Paterno’s, and he routinely referenced it to players and coaches.
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If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken, twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, and stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings, and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings, and never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew, to serve your turn long after they are gone, and so hold on when there is nothing in you, Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch. If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! – If, by Rudyard Kipling
Paterno is, of course, a highly controversial figure in the world of college football and within Penn State. But there’s no denying how well the poem fits the Nittany Lions’ situation. And it’s not surprising to see Smith leaning on coaching lessons gleaned from his former head coach.