The 2012 Penn State Nittany Lions certainly appear to enjoy road games. Despite losing a one point affair, they thoroughly outplayed the Virginia Cavaliers, winning the turnover battle 4-0. Their dominance was reflected on the scoreboard in conference contests against Illinois and Iowa. Those games were blowouts from the start, and the Nittany Lions will try to repeat those efforts this Saturday on the road at Purdue.
Bill O'Brien made it mightily clear from the onset of his weekly press conference that he was in no mood to talk about last Saturday's disappointing result at Beaver Stadium, but one component of the game that he might not want to be so quick to forget about is the improved play of the secondary.
This Saturday night, Relay for Life of Penn State will be selling hot dogs and meatball subs at a few locations in downtown State College including the Student Bookstore, the CVS on Beaver Avenue, and Rapid Transit. The hotdogs will cost two dollars while meatballs subs will be a slightly more expensive three dollars with all of the money going towards fundraising for the American Cancer Society.
A disappointing football weekend for Penn State concluded with a bit of good news Sunday night as Richie Anderson, a running back from Frederick Maryland, committed to the Nittany Lions program. If the name sounds familiar, it is because Anderson's father, also named Richie, played fullback for the Blue and White in the early 1990s before enjoying a long career in the NFL. The younger Anderson was originally committed to the Maryland Terrapins as part of the Class of 2013 before switching to the Nittany Lions last night. The 5-11 180 lb. senior is rated as a 3 star prospect by most major recruiting services and also had offers from Illinois, Boston College, Wake Forest, East Carolina, Rutgers, and Temple in addition to Penn State and Maryland. He was at Beaver Stadium Saturday night, and true freshman running back Akeel Lynch hosted him for a weekend visit.
Treated to perfect football weather and a sea of white in front of 107, 818 fans, tonight could have been extra special for Penn State. Several missed opportunities later, the end result looks similar to big games of the past three years where there would be a ton of hype only to see the Nittany Lions (5-3, 3-1) play flat as they fell to the Buckeyes (9-0, 5-0) 35-23.
Happy Saturday! Hopefully everyone is enjoying the early portion of the day leading up to tonight's highly anticipated showdown at Beaver Stadium where the Penn State Nittany Lions (5-2, 3-0) will host the ninth ranked Ohio State Buckeyes (8-0, 4-0) in a battle of the two Leaders Division teams with unblemished Big Ten records to this point. Both teams are led by coaches in their first year with the respective programs. Urban Meyer will be attempting to remain undefeated in his initial campaign with the Buckeyes while Bill O'Brien seeks his sixth consecutive victory in his opening season with the Nittany Lions. Below is all of the information and media coverage for tonight's contest.