Penn State Nittany Lions vs. Michigan Wolverines

Saturday is the easily the biggest home game of the season and I won’t be there. While it is disappointing, I have made my peace with it and will be watching from the confines of my apartment.

Penn State Gameday Central – Intercollegiate Athletics

LAST WEEK

Penn State barely beat Minnesota in overtime. They had an iffy pass interferance call go their way and benefited from a missed PAT in overtime. Still, a win is a win. Offensive player of the game — Tony Hunt. Defensive player of the game Paul Posluszny.

THIS WEEK’S OPPONENT: MICHIGAN WOLVERINES

Here comes the last monster game of the season for Penn State. Michigan comes to Happy Valley with a ten-year winning streak over the Nittany Lions. I was a sophomore the last time Penn State beat the Wolverines. The last time Michigan lost in Happy Valley, I was a freshmen, and there was over a foot of snow ice in the stadium.

The reason to hate Michigan are many. A lot of people are still upset about the Chad Henne fiasco — he had made a verbal committment to Penn State, and then signed with Michigan without telling Penn State; exhibit A about why I don’t get into recruiting, I don’t want to worry about where a 17-year old goes to college. To me, this whole thing is not a worthy enough reason to hate Michigan, there are plenty of others.

Obviously, the seven game losing streak is a source of frusturation, but there is so much more. Some examples:

1. Attitude — Michigan acts as though it invented college football. That of course is false, if you want to be very specific, it was Rutgers and Princeton with Yale and Walter Camp picking up the ball and running with it.
2. Not as good historically as they made themselves out to be: Michigan has exactly 1/2 a National Championship in the last 50 years.
3. Lloyd Carr: Michigan’s head coach is a whiner who has a decent season about every three years. He gets lots and lots of calls too. Not all of them, but most of them. By the way, Penn State beats Ohio State more often than Michigan
4. The 1993 game: The first Penn State vs. Michigan game was at Beaver Stadium. It was the home team’s 1000th game too. The crowd was so loud that Michigan could not hear their signals, so QB Todd Collins complained to the officials who warned the crowd to quiet down or Penn State would be enforced a 15-yard personal foul for unsportsmenlike conduct. That, above all else, is a great reason to hate the Wolverines. Shame on the Big11Ten for letting that happen.

In short, I’d really like to see Penn State win this one. Since Michigan ruined an undefeated season for us, I would like the “favor” returned.

With the hope of fixing Penn State’s luck against the Wolverines, I am ditching the favored #11 jersey I was given in 1999 for the #14 jersey (the Blackledge jersey) I bought in 1996. That last time we beat Michigan, I was wearing that one. A friend is also going to be sporting a vintage #39.

NO RANKING

Penn State is still unranked in the major college polls, but if they win this week, they hit the top 20, maybe the top 15. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though.

PRESS CONFERENCE