When Penn State faces hated rival Pitt at Heinz Field on Sept. 10, it will have already played 200 games since the year 2000.
Will No. 201 be the most-hyped, most-anticipated game of the 21st century?
Possibly. It’s been a long time coming.
The last time Penn State and Pitt met in football was 195 games ago for the Nittany Lions. And it was 197 games ago for the Panthers. Since then, Penn State has won 121 games and lost 74 (.602 winning percentage). And Pitt has been 112-85 (.569).
The date of their last meeting was Sept. 16, 2000, as Pitt won 12-0 in Three Rivers Stadium before a crowd of 61,221.
By the time the two teams meet again, 5,833 days will have gone by. (Contrast that with 1900-1931 and 1935-1992, when the two teams played every single year.)
Joe Paterno and Walt Harris were opposing coaches back on 9/16/00. Beginning then, Penn State has had five head coaches (Paterno, interim Tom Bradley, interim Larry Johnson Sr., Bill O’Brien and James Franklin). Beginning then, Pitt has had nine head coaches (Harris, Dave Wannstedt, briefly-employed off-season hire Mike Haywood, interim Phil Bennett, Todd Graham, interim Keith Patterson, Paul Chryst, interim Joe Rudolph and Pat Narduzzi).
Yes, there’s the matter of Kent State in Beaver Stadium on Sept. 3. But the one game everyone in Happy Valley and the Steel City have been talking about all summer is the one that kicks off at noon a week later.
It is, put simply, one of the most anticipated Penn State football games in a long time.
(Heinz and an-ti-ci-pa-tion? A good combo. Ketchup on this classic commercial by clicking here.)
THE TOP 18 SINCE 2000
Where does Penn State-Pitt 2016 rank among the pantheon of much-anticipated regular-season games over the current millennium? Certainly in the Top 10. While we can’t definitely pick it No. 1 (at least not yet), we can offer a dozen-and-a-half others that also bear consideration, listed chronologically. These rankings are based on the hype surrounding Penn State’s games before they were actually played:
Aug. 27, 2000 – Penn State, which lost three of its last four games in 1999, was playing with a reconfigured staff that was minus newly-retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. It opened a new era against Southern California at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford by losing 29-5.
Sept. 1, 2001 – A renovated and expanded Beaver Stadium, No. 2 visiting Miami (Fla.) and the potential return of Adam Taliaferro (in pre-game introductions) made this a night of great anticipation. Alas, the game was a flop, as the Hurricanes won 33-7 before 109,313.
Oct. 27, 2001 – After an 0-4 start and the 9/11 crisis prolonged Joe Paterno’s march to a record 324 victories, the Nittany Lions beat Ohio State 29-27 in Beaver Stadium to enable Paterno to pass Bear Bryant on the all-time career victory list.
Sept. 14, 2002 – No. 8 Nebraska was back in Beaver Stadium for the first time since 1982 (see: McCloskey, Mike) and the Husker hype was real. No. 25 Penn State came through, winning 40-7 before 110,753 – the biggest crowd in Beaver Stadium history.
Oct. 8, 2005 – A resurgent 5-0 Penn State, ranked No. 16, hosted No. 6 Ohio State in an evening classic in Beaver Stadium that was hyped as the potential return of Nittany Lion football. It lived up its billing, as PSU was indeed back, winning 17-10.
Sept. 9, 2006 – No. 19 Penn State ventured to South Bend to play the Irish (No. 4) for the first time since 1992. Little Lion luck, though, as they fell 41-17.
Sept. 8, 2007 – ND was back in PA for the first time since 1991 and the faithful from both sides couldn’t wait. No. 14 Penn State beat the unranked Fighting Irish, 31-10, before 110,078, the third-largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history.
Oct. 27, 2007 – The Buckeyes were back in The Beav for the first time since the 2005 classic – and they were No. 1 as well. The No. 2 crowd in stadium history (110,134) saw Penn State fall 37-17.
Nov. 8, 2008 and Sept. 26, 2009 – Both seasons, Penn State entered its game against Iowa (2008 on the road, ranked No. 3) and 2009 at home (No. 5) undefeated and eyeing another national title. Both seasons, the Lions lost – 24-23 in 2008 and 24-7 in 2009. The No. 5 ranking in ’09 was the last time a Paterno-coached team was ranked in the Top 10.
Sept. 11, 2010 – Penn State was playing Alabama for the first time in two decades. The Tide was No. 1, Penn State was No. 18. The 24-3 final score showed the gap between the two programs was even bigger.
Nov. 6, 2010 – Paterno entered the game against Northwestern in Beaver Stadium with 399 career wins. Down 21-0, Matt McGloin rallied Penn State with four TD passes to give JoePa No. 400 with a 35-21 victory.
Sept. 10, 2011 – No. 2 Alabama came to Beaver Stadium for the back end of a brief home-and-home series that revisited the halcyon days of the 1980s, if in name only. The Tide won, 27-11, beating No. 20 PSU before 107,846 in Beaver Stadium.
Nov. 12, 2011 – This was anticipation of another color, as the undefeated No. 12 Nittany Lions were hosting Nebraska in Beaver Stadium in their first game after Paterno was fired. The scene was somber and surreal, as a large pre-game, on-the-field combined-team prayer set the tone. The Huskers won, 17-14, before 107,903 – Penn State’s biggest home crowd over the past five seasons.
Sept. 1, 2012 – This was the first game of Penn State’s sanction era, as well as its first season-opener since 1949 where Paterno was not on the sidelines. PSU ran out of gas in Bill O’Brien’s head coaching debut, as Ohio University won 24-14.
Aug. 31, 2013 – Was this Christian Hackenberg kid as good as his hype? Would he start? And was he Penn State’s sanction savior? The answers: Yes, yes and yes. The freshman QB led Penn State to a 23-17 win over Syracuse at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, his first of 38 consecutive starts at quarterback.
Aug. 30, 2014 – The James Franklin Era kicked off in Penn State’s first-ever game overseas, as it traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to face Central Florida. PSU won, beating UCF 26-24.
Oct. 25, 2014 – Ohio State came to town for a WhiteOut game exactly one day shy of a year since the Nittany Lions (under O’Brien) were shellacked 63-14 at The Horseshoe. The game lived up to the hype, as Penn State came back from a 17-0 halftime deficit to send it into overtime before falling 31-24.
