This isn’t Penn State’s first rodeo.
The whole “impossibly large underdogs in the final regular season game of the year” gig has been going on for a few years now.
In 2013 Penn State traveled to Wisconsin as a 24-point underdog and walked away with a fairly convincing victory. The year before Penn State played Wisconsin in Beaver Stadium and knocked off the Badgers in overtime. It was a Wisconsin team that would go on to win the Big Ten title game while dropping 70 points on Nebraska.
So while Wisconsin won’t be involved in this weekend’s regular season ending upset attempt, it might just be the hardest one yet. Facing a No.11 ranked Michigan State team that has scored 35 or more points in nine games this season.
For senior Mike Hull, there isn’t a better way to go out.
“The last two years we were big underdogs,” Hull said on Tuesday. “Came out on top both times. We’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing. Working hard every week, focusing on our fundamentals. Everything will take care of itself when we’re out there on Saturday.
“I think the season finale the last two years has been special just because we knew we didn’t have another game after that. So we wanted to go out on a high note. This year’s no different. We want to prove something every time we’re out there, and this is a really good Michigan State team. We want to leave it all out there on Saturday. I know I do and all the other seniors do. So it’s going to be a really fun time.”
Saturday’s game won’t just be a chance to pull off an upset, for Hull and his defensive teammates, it’s a chance to prove to the world that they’re one of the best defenses in the nation. Even though the stats and the figures back up their claim, Hull is still waiting for respect nationally.
Hull is particularly irked because the team’s double overtime effort against Ohio State went largely unnoticed.
“I really don’t feel like we have (gotten respect),” Hull said. “We’ve got to prove it again this Saturday. You hear people talking on ESPN, Kirk Herbstreit, and they’re saying how Ohio State hasn’t really faced a good defense or things like that, leading up to the Michigan State game when they played them. So that kind of stuff just eats at us a little bit, so we’ve got to go prove it again this Saturday.”
There’s no doubt that winning on Saturday will be a tall order — maybe the tallest the Nittany Lions have faced this year.
But for Hull and his class of seniors who stuck it out through the scandal and the sanctions, they’ve seen harder obstacles and bigger odds stacked against them. And more often than not they’ve come out on top.
So it’s safe to say that even if the Spartans win on Saturday, it won’t be a walk in the park.
And Mike Hull wouldn’t have it any other way.
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