Good morning from Beaver Stadium where the Penn State Nittany Lions (1-0) are set to face the Eastern Michigan Eagles (1-0) in the home opener. Penn State won its first game of the season last week against Syracuse while the Eagles topped Howard. Eastern Michigan is led by head coach Ron English, the former defensive coordinator of Michigan and Louisville. Coach English will be looking to bounce back from a tough loss in against the Nittany Lions in 2011. Bill O'Brien will face the Eagles for the first time in his career and will try to add on to his team's two dominant performances against Eastern Michigan during the Paterno era.
We're just one day away from the home opener at Beaver Stadium. The Penn State football team won its first game against Syracuse last weekend and is looking to stay undefeated tomorrow against the Eastern Michigan Eagles. Kickoff is at 12:00 p.m. Let's take a look at what our writers think about the home opener.
Penn State has played Eastern Michigan twice, and those two meetings paint a pretty clear picture of what to expect on Saturday in the home opener at Beaver Stadium. At their last meeting in 2011, Penn State had one of its biggest win of the season, defeating Eastern Michigan 34-6 behind a strong three touchdown performance from Matt McGloin.
DaQuan Jones was a standout football and basketball player at Johnson City High School in 2009 when he was recruited by Joe Paterno. Jones was ranked the No. 2 offensive lineman in the state by Rivals back then, but he now looks to be one of the best defensive linemen in the country.
Bill O'Brien announced at his Tuesday press conference that tight end Matt Lehman is out for the season. Lehman suffered a knee injury on Saturday against Syracuse before being carted off the field. He did not elaborate on the specifics of the injury.
The Penn State women's volleyball opened the season with a perfect weekend, sweeping the competition in the Penn State Invitational on Saturday and earning the No. 1 spot in the first AVCA Coaches' Poll.