Who needs offense?

Certainly not Penn State – not when SMU’s Kevin Jennings was roaming around Beaver Stadium, seemingly becoming Vinny Testaverde-level color blind at the most inopportune moments.

The SMU quarterback, lauded throughout 2024 for his dual-threat skills, almost singlehandedly dealt Penn State a College Football Playoff victory Saturday by uncorking 3 interceptions – 2 of which were returned for touchdowns – in the Nittany Lions’ 38-10 victory.

Jennings’ struggles came at the worst possible time for SMU, the No. 11 seed in the expanded Playoff. The Mustangs received an at-large spot despite losing in the ACC Championship Game, which meant they drew 7th-seeded Penn State in Happy Valley.

That meant dealing with 100,000-plus in a sea of white rocking Beaver Stadium in the frosty noontime conditions – not to mention having to contend with a salty Penn State defense eager to prove their bona fides in a win-or-stay-home atmosphere.

The result? Penn State held SMU to a season-low in points, rushing yards and total yards.

The result looked eerily similar to the 1987 Fiesta Bowl. That night in Tempe, Miami’s Testaverde unleashed 5 interceptions to Penn State defenders to lock up the national title for Nittany Lions and coach Joe Paterno.

While Jennings wasn’t in the Heisman Trophy conversation (Testaverde’s arm was probably tired from carrying Mr. Stiff Arm around before the Fiesta Bowl), he wasn’t exactly a middling quarterback entering Saturday. The sophomore took over the starting job in late September and recorded 27 total touchdowns to help helm an SMU offense that entered the Playoff 4th in the country scoring 39.9 points per game. It’s fair to wonder how much the schedule inflated those numbers.

Saturday it felt like Jennings was perpetually fighting off an angry swarm of blue-and-white bees. His first interception was snared by Dominic DeLuca and returned 23 yards for a touchdown midway through the first quarter. Two possessions later, Tony Rojas stepped in front of another Jennings pass and weaved his way for a 59-yard score and a 14-0 Penn State lead.

Armed with the 2-score advantage, Penn State’s defense continued to swarm all over the Mustangs – with DeLuca again nicking a Jennings pass attempt later in the second quarter. That turnover (Jennings’ 10th pick in the past 8 games) led to a 25-yard Kaytron Allen touchdown run and a 21-0 cushion – all 21 points coming off turnovers.

It wasn’t just the Penn State secondary that was harassing Jennings, either. The Nittany Lions sacked the SMU quarterback twice in the first 30 minutes, hurried him 4 more times and forced the Mustangs into converting just 1-of-9 attempts on 3rd and 4th down (a 4th-down stop ultimately led to a short drive and Penn State’s 4th touchdown of the first half) before intermission finally put a pause to the misery.

Jennings’ first-half line? Just 9-for-20 for 77 yards and 3 interceptions. Any way you slice it, that ain’t the recipe for championship football. And even when SMU felt like it cracked the Penn State code to start the second half, returning a kickoff to almost midfield and moving all the way to the 4-yard line, a pair of false start penalties stalled the progress and resulted in just a field goal.

Much like Friday night’s nationwide second-guessing of Indiana earning a spot in the 12-team Playoff, you gotta wonder what the committee was seeing with SMU when choosing the Mustangs over teams like fellow ACC contender Miami, along with SEC candidates Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina. The Mustangs (11-3) played a slightly meatier schedule than the Hoosiers, though a home loss to BYU in Week 3 retrospectively should have weighed a lot more than it did come decision time. Inside the ACC, SMU avoided Miami, Clemson, Syracuse and Georgia Tech in the regular season before losing to Clemson in the conference title game.

Penn State, on the other hand, displayed exactly the kind of B1G mettle that was expected. The Nittany Lions were built to wreak havoc on defense, and to mitigate huge risk on offense. Both units comported themselves capably all afternoon, and the result is a New Year’s Eve quarterfinal date with No. 3 seed Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Ah, symmetry.

All was not completely rosy for Penn State, of course, as that risk-mitigating offense didn’t exactly shine – finishing with 325 total yards (just 72 more than SMU). But the Nittany Lions haven’t much been accused of being particularly sexy in 2024, and it is games like Saturday against SMU in which they were constructed to excel.

Defense wins championships, the old adage proclaims. And it was defense that not only ended SMU’s rise from mid-1980s death penalty to the College Football Playoff but has Penn State headed back to the desert and another step toward immortality.