Submitted by admin on Thu, 2005-10-06 22:00. ::
There aren’t many kids wearing blue and white who don’t look back and smile when they think about that night, more than three years and countless hours of frustration ago. Hold his feet to the fire and Joe Paterno admits he would prefer not to play Derrick Williams, or Justin King, or any one of the dynamic true freshmen who have helped catapult Penn State into national prominence.
There aren’t many kids wearing blue and white who don’t look back and smile when they think about that night, more than three years and countless hours of frustration ago.
"Probably the biggest thing I remember is that on one of my first carries, I kind of broke it for a long run and I fell," current quarterback and then-tailback Michael Robinson said while laughing. "I fell, and there was nobody around me."
That night, it was mighty Nebraska across the field from struggling Penn State. Saturday, it will be mighty Ohio State, the sixth-ranked team in the nation and maybe the front-runner to win the Big Ten.
Nobody remembers Robinson falling except, of course, Robinson. Because it didn’t matter. Robinson dominated the game with his versatility; Penn State dominated the scoreboard, 40-7; the atmosphere in Beaver Stadium dominated the players’ memories.
It was the absolute definition of a big-time college football game, complete with the national attention, the pregame story line and the raucous crowd that of more than 110,000 fans.
As it stands, there is debate to exactly where Saturday’s confrontation with the Buckeyes ranks with Nebraska and other big games played at Beaver Stadium.
Nebraska had a nice story behind it. It was the Nittany Lions, eight years after the Huskers won the national championship in a season in which Penn State went unbeaten, untied and largely unchallenged, going for revenge.
"Looking at our schedule, we knew we could get to this point, and we knew this could be a big game," linebacker Paul Posluszny said. "It’s Ohio State, it’s here, it’s at night, it’s in front of a prime time audience. It hasn’t been like this at Penn State in a long time."
How huge is Saturday? Not that it’s the measuring stick, but ESPN will broadcast its wildly popular College GameDay pregame program live from outside Beaver Stadium on Saturday morning.
So when Paterno calls it one of six games Penn State has left to play, when he says he’ll be just as excited for the road trip to lowly Illinois later this month, go ahead and roll your eyes.
Less than a year after a 6-4 loss to Iowa and the fiascos against Ohio State and Northwestern that followed, Penn State isn’t just playing a meaningful football game, it’s playing the biggest football game in the country.
A bowl bid, Big Ten supremacy and, most importantly, a comeback fully completed are on the line. Maybe, the favorite for the conference championship gets determined here, too.
"Last year, we were 4-7, and we could have been 7-4 with two or three field goals or a decision here or there, and we had a really tough schedule," Paterno said. "I’m not surprised we’re a little bit better. We’ve never been really far away."
Contact the writer: dcollins@timesshamrock.com Hold his feet to the fire and Joe Paterno admits he would prefer not to play Derrick Williams, or Justin King, or any one of the dynamic true freshmen who have helped catapult Penn State into national prominence.
"If you could have your cake and eat it too, you would like to redshirt all of them," Michigan State coach John L. Smith said, "We’re happy we can play a handful of freshmen players, but it’s not by want or by what’s best for the kids, it’s what’s best for our football team and our depth."
Scholarship limits, players leaving early for the NFL, coaches’ guarantees made to prep stars in hotly contested recruiting battles have forced more and more college rookies into lineups.
Some, as Williams and King did at Penn State, graduate high school early, forsaking their last four months of childhood for some extra time in the college film and weight rooms.
"You only go through high school once, so I think these kids ought to play the whole role out and have a little fun," Paterno said. "King, as did Williams, stepped right in and didn’t miss a beat. Now, if they have regrets in 15 years at a reunion because they didn’t go to the prom or something like that, I really do worry about it."
Purdue running back Kory Sheets already has six touchdowns. Michigan State’s Javon Ringer’s 80.8-yard per game rushing average is seventh in the conference. Indiana receiver James Hardy ranks 15th in the nation and first in the Big Ten with almost 106 yards per game. Northwestern’s Tyrell Sutton is in the top five in the nation in rushing yards.
"These kids have grown up with so much more experience in terms of watching great players play," said Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, who won the conference title with quarterback Chad Henne and tailback Mike Hart starting as true freshmen last season.
"Across the country, there are playoffs in almost every state. A lot of states have spring football. Kids are playing more games, and they’re having a remarkable impact on their teams."
All Minnesota coach Glen Mason really knows about the Little Brown Jug is what he’s been told. That it’s little. It’s brown. And it’s a jug.
The prize in the annual battle between Michigan and Minnesota dates back 102 years, and it seems like just as long since the Gophers have taken the trophy home with them.
When Minnesota travels to the Big House on Saturday, it hopes to win the jug and what is a crucial game for both 1-1 teams in the Big Ten standings.
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