Penn State Nittany Lions Football - A Long Standing Tradition Of Excellence On And Off The Field

I'm sure you have at least heard of Penn State's Nittany Lions football team and their legendary coach, Joe Paterno, who has been coaching since 1950, even if you do not care about football. If you are a football fan, even if not a Penn State fan, I'm sure you know that the Nittany Lions field a successful football team most years, they either contend for the Rose Bowl or get there most years, finishing in the top three of the Big Ten conference, which they joined in 1993. Before that, Penn State was an Independent, leaving them free to schedule Miami, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Alabama, Boston College, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh, all historic rivals that were football powerhouses at the time. While Penn State did not always win, they were still respected for playing the best teams they could find and for playing traditional rivals that usually fielded strong football teams. Many notice that Penn State occasionally plays what seems to be an easy opponent, however, usually that arises due to scheduling conflicts. However, Paterno still treats these so-called "cupcakes" with a lot of respect, after all, Michigan lost to Appalachian State in 2007 by a score of 34-32, and Iowa nearly lost to Northern Iowa in 2009, escaping with a 17-16 victory. Both were good teams that simply overlooked an opportunistic opponent that came to play a football game.

Penn State has won four national championships, 1911, 1912, 1982, and 1986, and many teams that were not national champions either lost what was considered the national championship game or were disregarded by the polls for one reason or another, such as in 1994, when Penn State put in some players that had never played before to allow a 28-7 lead that became 35-14 with the second team defense and offense in against Indiana to dwindle to 35-21 with 1:48 left, and Indiana threw a touchdown pass with no time on the clock and went for two against the third team defense to give the appearance of a hard-fought game with a 35-29 score. That type of sportsmanwhip is generally rewarded, but at times, showing respect for your opponent can lead those who did not see the game to believe that your team is not as good as everyone says it is. Regardless, Joe Paterno has shown time and time again that he would rather feel good about himself than score style points against a team. Joe Paterno is known for his famous quote "Success without honor is like an unseasoned dish, it may satisfy your hunger but it does not taste very good". Joe Paterno still holds true to that, even in 2010. One could still see some of that last year when they led 31-0 at halftime over Akron and did not continue piling on points and when they led 32-10 against Michigan midway through the third quarter, only scored a field goal in the remainder of the game. However, his 1994 Lions were not completely unrewarded, as the New York Times does recognize them as the true 1994 national champions.

Penn State has rivalries with many teams on the football field, their currently most heated rivalries are with Ohio State and Michigan, although Minnesota, Michigan State, and Temple remain important rivalry games. Penn State also has rivalries with Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Miami, Maryland, and Alabama, which have only been played a few times since 1993. Penn State is also traditonally rivals with Bucknell, their original opponent, and long their most common opponent, although the two teams have not met on the field since 1948 and it is unlikely they will do so again unless Bucknell is scheduled as a week one game due to the Bison being an FCS team. However, the history those schools share paints them more as brothers that went their separate ways rather than heated rivals, and if they were to play again, the reunion would likely be a joyous event.

Beaver Stadium Makes State College The Third Biggest City In Pennsylvania

Beaver Stadium's full white out is known for intimidating opponents, even when Penn State loses, with the exception of one game in 2007, their only home loss that year amazingly enough. In 2004 and 2005 they couldn't decide on "Code Blue" (a full blue student section) or "White Out" (a full white student section), after trying both out in 2004, they finally settled on the white out in 2005 for the Ohio State game, which changed college football forever, a game that Penn State won 17-10. There are also full stadium color outs which is called the "white house". Beaver Stadium officially holds 107,282 people, but in 2002, during a game where Penn State routed #7 Nebraska 40-7, the stadium had 110,753 attending, and on many other occasions, the stadium was filled beyond official capacity.

Despite the old-fashioned nature of Joe Paterno with regards to sports, and despite his age, he remains very involved with the team, the playcalling, and the practices and his team runs a modern offense, the Spread-HD offense which is a hybrid of the spread, the wishbone, and the traditional smashmouth offense. He also instills a sense of pride in the football team, such as when Penn State was trailing against Southern California 31-7 at halftime in the Rose Bowl, they continued to fight back and made the score a more respectable 38-24 with four minutes left and were poised to make it a one posession game. Although it was not meant to be that day, Penn State has long had a reputation for being a second half team with miracle finishes, such as a 34-29 win over Northwestern in 2005 that helped spring them towards an Orange Bowl berth, an 11-1 season, and a #3 ranking after winning the Orange Bowl against ACC Champion Florida State and a 46-17 thumping of Michigan in 2008 where the game was fairly close for the first half. Since 1990, Penn State has had nine seasons with no more than two regular season losses and since joining the Big Ten in 1993, has finished in the top four of the conference twelve times, since 1990 they have gone undefeated at home in 1991, 1994, 1998, 2005, and 2008, while going undefeated on the road in 1994 and 2009.

In addition to their success on the field, it's also worth mentioning that Penn State football has one of the highest rates of graduation amongst major college football teams. Many of those undrafted football players or football players with short careers continue on to have success in another field of their choice or eventually serve as a coach or sports commentator and go on to have successful careers. Although college football is more of a minor league sport than a varsity sport, it is always good to know that there are some student-athletes in this day and age.

Here is a list of all of Penn State's undefeated seasons, national titles and national title game appearances, conference titles, and years of being conference runner-ups: 1881, 1887, 1894, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1920, 1921, 1947, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1994, 1997, 2005, 2008, 2009. Penn State has had only one winless season in its entire history: 1888. The 1887 season was the only season where the Nittany Lions were undefeated, untied, and unscored upon, the 1881 "season" consisted of only one game (a 9-0 win over Bucknell) and so is not often included in that statistic.