Hey, its Homecoming already. That came fast, I’m in favor of a mid- or late-October Homecoming, but that isn’t the way the schedule worked out.

For seemingly the 4th time since I started at Penn State, the homecoming opponent is the University of Illinois (Eel-lee-nois) Fighting Illini. Penn State has an 11-2 advantage in the series. The Nittany Lions are undefeated at Beaver Stadium against the Illini. The two times Penn State lost to Illinois was in 2001 when a bad Penn State team was barely beaten by the best Illinois team in a generation. If I recall Zack Mills got hurt on the bad, spongy Illini artificial turf in that one. The only other time Illinois beat Penn State was in 2006 when Anthony Morelli threw the game away.

Perhaps I gave away too many sentences to Illinois, but this has been a boring series for the most part. Penn State has been quite dominant in it. I barely even think about the Illini when I’m thinking about the Big Ten, probably because we didn’t play them until my junior year. I do remember what happened in my (first) senior year though:

Was the Lavar Leap the only memorable thing to happen in the series? Well, there was that 1994 game, but I wasn’t a Nittany Lion yet.

Illinois has a young inexperienced quarterback that isn’t exactly Rob Bolden. They played Ohio State tough last week, but ultimately that is probably due to Tressel Ball more than anything else. Penn State’s defense is hurt and having trouble, but I think the team pulls it togethe overall and bounces back. I expect it to be fairly close though because after a night game last Saturday and with a noon kickoff, I think the Nittany Lions will sleepwalk through first quarter again. That will make it move of a game than it should be.

Illinois 16
PENN STATE 23