JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
THE GAME: Purdue (3-2 Big Ten, 7-2 overall) @ Penn State (3-3 Big Ten, 6-3 overall), Saturday, Noon, Beaver Stadium, University Park.
ON THE TUBE: ESPN will do the honors, with Dave Pasch and Andre Ware in the booth and Erin Andrews on the sideline. I swear she does every game on ESPN. She’ll do the Thursday night game, then a Saturday game. She’s everywhere. If you want a good laugh, Google “Erin Andrews” if you have 10 minutes. … Ta-da: This is the 161st time in their last 163 games that the Nittany Lions will be on TV. You know the drill. Anyone?
ON THE RADIO: Penn State Sports Network with Steve Jones and Jack Ham.
THE COACHES: Penn State’s Joe Paterno is in his 42nd year and he’s 369-124-3 overall; Purdue’s Joe Tiller is in his 11th year and he’s 82-51 overall. … Paterno is 8-2 against Purdue; Tiller is 2-6 against Penn State.
THE SERIES: This is the unlucky 13th meeting between Penn State and Purdue, and the Nittany Lions lead the series 8-3-1, including an 8-2 lead in Big Ten Conference games. … Last year, Penn State won 12-0 at Purdue. It was the Nittany Lions’ first shutout in 49 games, since a 49-0 rout over Northwestern back in 2002. And it was Penn State’s first road shutout since a 31-0 win over Iowa in 1993. It was also the first time Purdue was shutout under Tiller, who hadn’t been shutout as a head coach in 119 games. The Boilermakers’ previous shutout was a 35-0 loss to Notre Dame back in 1996, and it was the first time Purdue was shutout at home since a 17-0 loss to Notre Dame in 1993. Man, who keeps these records? … Next meeting: Oct. 4, 2008 in West Lafayette.
LAST WEEK: Penn State got whacked by No. 1 Ohio State 37-17 before a nationally televised audience, and in front of a whiteout-crazed fan section; Purdue won its second game in a row, a 35-17 triumph over Northwestern.
PENN STATE SCHEDULE/RESULTS: 9-1 Florida International (W 59-0), 9-8 Notre Dame (W 31-10), 9-15 Buffalo (W 45-24), 9-22 @ Michigan (L 14-9), 9-29 @ Illinois (L 27-20), 10-6 Iowa (W 27-7), 10-13 Wisconsin (W 38-7), 10-20 @ Indiana (W 36-31), 10-27 Ohio State (L 37-17), 11-3 Purdue (Noon, ESPN), 11-10 @ Temple, 11-17 @ Michigan State.
PURDUE SCHEDULE/RESULTS: 9-1 @ Toledo (W 52-24), 9-8 Eastern Illinois (W 52-6), 9-15 Central Michigan (W 45-22; ugh; you call that a non-con schedule?), 9-22 @ Minnesota (W 45-31), 9-29 Notre Dame (W 33-19), 10-6 Ohio State (L 23-7), 10-13 @ Michigan (L 48-21; Ohio State and Michigan back-to-back? I’m sure they’re thanking the schedule-maker for that), 10-20 Iowa (W 31-6), 10-27 Northwestern (W 35-17), 11-3 @ Penn State (Noon, ESPN), 11-10 Michigan State, 11-17 @ Indiana.
PENN STATE STAT PACK: Rushing – Rodney Kinlaw 155-809, 5.2 avg, 7 TD; Passing – Anthony Morelli (wow, that second-half pick against Ohio State was not pretty) 159-of-268 for 1,850 yards, 13 TD, 8 picks); Receiving – Jordan Norwood 36-424, 11.8 avg, 4 TD; Scoring – Kevin Kelly 15-of-20 field goals, 31-of-32 PAT, 76 points; Tackles – Dan Connor 48 solos, 46 assists, 94 total, 11 for loss.
PATERNO, WHEN ASKED IF RESERVE QB DARRYL CLARK WOULD GET SOME MORE TIME OVER MUCH-MALIGNED STARTER ANTHONY MORELLI: “No, I don’t think that would be fair to Anthony Morelli. Morelli’s played hard, stayed with the team; the team is behind him. I think Morelli has done a good job. Morelli is certainly not the reason we haven’t won a couple of ball games, so I think you’ve got to be careful what you do there.”
PURDUE STAT PACK: Rushing – Kory Sheets 130-663, 6 TD; Passing – Curtis Painter 237-of-377 for 2,420 yards, 24 TD, 6 picks; Receiving – Dorien Bryant 64-735, 8 TD; Scoring – Chris Summers 9-of-12 field goals, 42-of-42 PAT, 69 points; Tackles – Terrell Vinson 44 solos, 9 assists, 54 totals, 5 picks.
ABOUT PENN STATE: Senior LB Dan Connor (I remember when he was just a young pup at Strath Haven, running over unsuspecting linebackers from his fullback spot) had 18 tackles against Ohio State, as well as his first pick this season. He’s sitting on 368 career tackles, five short of breaking Paul Posluszny’s school record of 372 tackles. Wow, that’s the first time I’ve had to type ‘Posluszny’ in a while. Still tricky. … Junior LB Sean Lee had 13 tackles against Ohio State, and CB Lydell Sargeant made a career-best 10 tackles. … Admit it: When Kinlaw slammed in on Penn State’s first drive, you thought the Nittany Lions were going to roll Ohio State. … Saturday is Senior Day at the Beav. This group of seniors has done quite a bit, actually. They were a part of the 2005 Big Ten championship team, they won the 2006 Orange Bowl (when Austin Scott played the game of his life and Poz hurt his knee), and they won the 2007 Outback Bowl over Tennessee. … Here’s your meaningless stat of the week: Penn State will be playing its earliest home finale in 50 years. The last time the Nittany Lions played their final home game this early was Nov. 2, 1957, when Penn State knocked off West Virginia 27-6. That was Paterno’s eighth season on the staff. My goodness, he really has been there forever. … S Tony Davis (appendicitis) will be out another 2-to-4 weeks. FB Matt Hahn (knee) and DT Jared Odrick (ankle), the former Lebanon High stud, are both out for the season. … Penn State has been flagged just 35 times – least in the Big Ten.
ABOUT PURDUE: First, the dull and boring stuff – the Boilermakers returned 53 lettermen and 20 starters from last year, when Purdue went 8-6 and played in the ever-popular Champs Sports Bowl. The Boilermakers returned 24 letterwinners on offense, 26 on defense and three specialists, including nine returning starters on O, nine on D and two specialists. Now you know. … WR Dorien Bryant (man, he’s been there forever) leads the Big Ten with 64 catches. He also averages 29 yards on kick returns. … Purdue averages 431.2 yards a game – 146 on the ground and 285 through the air. The Boilermakers are second in the conference in passing and third in total O. And for you stat geeks, Purdue has outscored its opponents 110-47 in the first quarter, and 108-62 in the fourth quarter. You can rest easy now. … Purdue has forced 24 turnovers and is a +7 – second in the Big Ten.
PATERNO ON PURDUE QB CURTIS PAINTER AND THE BOILERMAKERS’ ATTACK: “He’s impressive. He’s a good football player, and they have some good receivers, particularly the kid from south Jersey (Dorien Bryant) who can run like the wind. We will have our hands full. This will be a difficult game for us, because this is as good of a Purdue team – sometimes your memory plays tricks on you — but I think it’s as good of a Purdue team as I’ve seen. … It’s an important game for us, and I think it’s going to be a tough game for us. Obviously whether we can handle the quarterback will be important, but you can’t overplay them, because they’ve had one or two backs hurt who are back now, who are quick and a different type of running back than Ohio State. The Ohio State running backs were strong and tough. They’re (Purdue backs) quick and tough. Ohio State knocked us back – we were in good position, but when we went in for the tackle, we weren’t strong enough to take them back, so they ended up second and 6, second and 5, and we ended up always with that behind us. This is a good football team, believe me.”
THE PICK: I guaranteed a win over Ohio State last week. Man, I’m glad I didn’t have anything riding on that pick, because the Buckeyes flat-out whacked the Nittany Lions (insert photo of Brutus the Buckeye here). I didn’t see that one coming. Just a hunch (I’ve had a bunch of those this football season), but I have a feeling that Penn State is about done. The Ohio State loss was a serious punch in the gut, and I didn’t like the vibes around the place after Paterno yanked Morelli and put in Darryl Clark early in the fourth quarter. That rubbed me the wrong way. And I continue to be baffled by how little Penn State uses Derrick Williams. This guy should be catching 50 to 75 balls a year. This year? He’s got like 30 catches, and averages a paltry 9 yards a catch. That’s brutal. The guy is a home-run threat, but they continue to use him in the slot, where he catches like three passes a game. What a waste. Now watch him leave early for the NFL, even though he’s nowhere near ready for that animal. Said to a colleague this week that Penn State just frustrates the heck out of me. They should be much, much better – even with the injuries and the off-the-field garbage and some youth issues. Kinlaw, Evan Royster, Williams, Deon Butler, Jordan Norwood, Andrew Quarless. On paper, those guys are studs. On the field, they are underutilized and often held back by strange play-calling. Anyway, Purdue invades the Beav and leaves town with a win. Boilermakers 27, Nittany Lions 17. Sorry gang. I’m just not feeling the love at the moment. But hey, Temple next week.
