A challenging season for Penn State and Dominic DeLuca still delivered a memorable finale to his career in Beaver Stadium with a senior night rout of Nebraska.
Barry Reeger | AP file photo
For most of his five years at Penn State, Dominic DeLuca has been focused on the next game, the next goal.
Even after last year’s two-interception performance vs. SMU in a College Football Playoff win, DeLuca preferred to talk about the team rather than dwell on his own accomplishments during his unique career.
But Saturday night was a little different for the Wyoming Area grad.
The 37-10 win over Nebraska was DeLuca’s final game in Beaver Stadium. He made the walk out of the tunnel for senior night ceremonies and had what looked to be the largest group of people waiting for him out of the 34 players being honored.
“A lot of family members, a lot of friends coming up, especially since this is my senior year, my last home game,” DeLuca said. “Only two hours down the road, everyone made the trip, and I’m glad they did. I love the support from my community.
“It’s awesome. They’ve always had my back — even when I was here as a walk-on and took this choice to do this, take the hard route. Just being able to make a name for my area and myself, that’s really all it came down to.”
And then, in front of all of those supporters, he went out and recorded a career-high 10 tackles to commemorate the occasion.
”It was awesome. It was unbelievable,” DeLuca said of the entire experience, his eyes turning red and watering slightly. “I tried to take it all in before I left. It’s really starting to hit me now. Just getting a little emotional just talking about it.
“Love Penn State. Love everyone. Love my teammates. Just happy to get a win.”
If there ever was a moment for DeLuca to stop and reflect on the journey from torn ACL to walk-on to three-time captain, this was it.
Asked for his favorite game or moment in Beaver Stadium — a question he might have deflected on a different night — he went with his playoff pick-six before adding a new contender to the mix.
“Gotta go with SMU,” DeLuca said. “I mean, scoring the first touchdown in the College Football Playoff for Penn State, it’s awesome. And even (this senior night win), I’d definitely put this up there. Being able to get that win after everything we went through is awesome.”
To be sure, this final season didn’t go the way DeLuca and the Nittany Lions expected. He couldn’t have predicted that the team would plunge from a No. 2 preseason ranking to a six-game losing skid that cost his coach, James Franklin, his job.
DeLuca, like every other Lions player who spoke after the game, gave full credit to interim coach Terry Smith. Penn State lost on the road at Iowa and Ohio State in Smith’s first two games at the helm before narrowly missing an upset of No. 2 Indiana and then beating Michigan State and Nebraska.
“He’s brought us back together,” DeLuca said. “He put all the broken pieces back. He did everything he could for us to fight and change our whole culture. Because when you lose a head coach in season, that hurts. He’s a true Penn State guy, through and through. Everyone’s behind him. Everyone wants to play for him. He gets us fired up and we love everything about coach Terry.”
DeLuca said the recent turnaround was fueled by “a lot of hard conversations” that were initiated by Smith, who has begun to publicly make his case for the full-time job since Saturday night.
“We knew it was a matter of time,” DeLuca said of pulling out of the midseason tailspin. “We just needed to play our game. Those hard conversations helped us. You really saw the true colors of everyone when you’re down like that, back against the wall. You’ve just gotta trust in everyone, trust the process, trust the culture.”
With that said, the season isn’t over just yet.
Penn State heads to Rutgers on Saturday with a chance to lift the Lions all the way from the Big Ten basement at 0-6 in league play to bowl eligibility.
A major question has been whether Penn State would accept a potential bowl bid because of how tumultuous the season has been. Some players will be eyeing the NFL draft while others will consider the transfer portal. And preparing for either scenario may sound more appealing than spending Christmas in New York or Detroit preparing for another game.
Count DeLuca among the players who want to play anywhere, anytime.
“I bleed blue and white. … I don’t want to leave,” DeLuca said with a laugh. “I want to stay here the rest of my life.
“ … I want to play the most games that I can with this team. I love all the guys. Everyone’s ready to play and everyone’s ready to keep on doing their thing.”
