You don’t need me to tell you how big the Nittany Lions’ game against Michigan is on Saturday.
I’ll let Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien do it for me:
“I mean, Penn State‑Michigan, ESPN, 5 o’clock, 108,000. We have Nittanyville going crazy over here. I think it would be crazy to think this is just another game. I think this is a great opportunity for our team. Our kids are really excited. I love this time of year, personally, because the weather changes, it gets a little colder. It just reminds you of football, Big Ten football. This is a Big Ten game.
“It’s a big game,” O’Brien added, “and our kids are very excited about it. So, we know it’s a big rivalry and a big game.
So, I’m wondering, how big is a win over undefeated Michigan for the 3-2 Nittany Lions?
It’s bigger than a rare Homecoming victory at Brown (sorry, Bill).
As a linebacker and defensive end at Brown, O’Brien never won a Homecoming game. In fact, in consecutive Homecoming contests from 1990-92 O’Brien’s Bruins lost to Holy Cross, Cornell and Penn by a combined margin of 113-17. Homecoming didn’t get much better the next two seasons, either, even with O’Brien out of uniform but still on the sidelines as an assistant: Brown lost 34-16 to Princeton in 1993 and 34-9 to Penn in 1994.
“But,” as one of the three men and one woman at Brown who helped me track down the stats said, “we sure had a lot of fun in the stands.”
It’s bigger, at least for the day, than the friendship of high school teammates.
Penn State junior wide receiver Allen Robinson played his high school football at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep, not far from Ann Arbor, Mich. So did Michigan sophomore linebacker James Ross III. Robinson, with 124.7 yards per game, is the top receiver in the Big Ten and seventh in the country. Ross, with 32 tackles, is the Wolverines’ No. 2 defender.
According to mlive.com, the two connected two weeks ago at a St. Mary’s football game, when A-Rob was home during a PSU off-week. Michigan didn’t have a game that weekend, either.
The two are good friends. Just not this Saturday.
It’s bigger than most of Penn State’s four wins after Penn State losses under O’Brien. Most.
In the contests immediately following the Nittany Lions’ losses in 2012-13, they have bounced back to win four out of five times. In 2012: After falling to Ohio in the emotional season opener, they lost to Virginia. After losing to Virginia, they beat Navy. After losing to Ohio State, they beat Purdue. After losing to Nebraska, they beat (gulp) The Team No One Is Allowed To Mention. In 2013: After losing to Central Florida, they beat Kent State.
Of course, the win among that group that is bigger than a victory over Michigan is Navy. It was Penn State’s first victory of its first full season in 62 years without Joe Paterno on the sidelines, it was Bill O’Brien’s first victory as a head coach and it started to turn the focus on Penn State football back onto the field.
A big win over Michigan might be almost as big.
It might be as big as Penn State’s Homecoming victory over Northwestern on Oct. 6, 2012. Might.
Penn State staged a 22-point fourth-quarter in its Homecoming game last year in Beaver Stadium, coming from 11 points back to beat No. 24 Northwestern, 39-28. It was the Nittany Lions’ fourth-straight win, and first against a ranked opponent, as they ran off 99 plays – tying a 47-year-old school record — to win behind the 35 (a PSU record) of 51, 282-yard efforts of quarterback Matt McGloin, who accounted for two passing TDs and one on the ground.
For shear theatrics, that big win will be hard to match. Even with a big win over Michigan.
It will be a lot bigger for at least half of the 14 guys who played the last time Penn State faced Michigan.
Seven current Nittany Lions played against Michigan on Oct. 30, 2010, before 108,539 fans in Beaver Stadium — the last time the two teams faced off – in a game Penn State won 41-31. McGloin, who completed 17 of 28 passes for 250 yards, with a TD pass and a TD run, was also the catalyst in that contest. Evan Royster ran for 150 yards and two scores and became Penn State’s all-time leading rusher that night.
Those seven players, who are all expected to play on Saturday, are: Malcolm Willis (who started the game, his first of six that season), Glenn Carson, Adam Gress, Ty Howle, DaQuan Jones, Brandon Felder and Stephen Obeng-Agyapong.
Seven former Penn State players who appeared in that 2010 game but then disappeared from the roster and still would be eligible (theoretically) to play on Saturday are: Silas Redd, Anthony Fera, Khairi Fortt, Nate Cadogan, Kevin Haplea, Shawney Kersey and Devon Smith. In the 2010 Michigan contest, Redd ran six times for 214 yards, while Fera had punts of 48 and 50 yards, with eight kickoffs and two touchbacks.
It may not be big enough to get rid of that bad Tom Brady Michigan taste that’s been lingering inside Penn State fans’ mouths since Nov. 13, 1999.
That’s when Brady, as a Michigan senior quarterback, came from behind to beat Penn State with two TDs in the final 3 minutes and 26 seconds in Beaver Stadium. Brady may have thrown three interceptions that day – including a pick six by Bhawoh Jue – but his fourth-quarter performance overshadowed those mistakes. (Click here, if you have the stomach for it.)
Brady engineered a pair of scoring drives late in the final quarter to overcome a 27-17 deficit and beat Penn State 31-27. Against a Penn State defense that included first-round NFL picks Courtney Brown (No. 1 overall) and LaVar Arrington, as well as All-American linebacker Brandon Short, Brady ran for a five-yard touchdown and then threw an 11-yard TD pass Marcus King at the end of the game to defeat the Nittany Lions.
Overall, Brady was 17 of 36 for 259 yards, with two TD passes and those three picks. Career-wise against PSU, Brady was 34 of 66 for 483 yards, with four touchdown passes, four interceptions and two victories – the 1999 big win and a 27-0 BIG whitewashing of Penn State in Ann Arbor in 1998 – Penn State’s first shutout, at the time, in 130 games.
And I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but: Yes, we’re talking about the same Tom Brady as the Michigan Man that O’Brien used to coach in New England.
It’s definitely bigger than any early birthday present you could get O’Brien.
The coach, will turn 44 on the 23rd, hates gifts anyway. As the coach reminded us last year at around this time: “I’m not a big birthday guy. I’m not. My wife will list all the things I really don’t enjoy: Birthdays, weddings, theme parks, the beach.”
It’s not bigger than the Super Bowl…which isn’t even that big, anyway.
As former Dallas Cowboys running back Duane Thomas reminded us about the Super Bowl over XXXX decades ago, “If it’s the ultimate game, how come they’re playing it again next year?”
It’s bigger than the I—–a game.
Yes, but we’re not going to talk about that any more.
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