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The roar of the Lions: Big Ten down? Who cares? It's a hell of a lot of fun, and Penn State—Penn State!—is one win from taking the wildest race in the land

Sporting News, The, Nov 18, 2005 by Michael Bradley

Don't be surprised if a thank you card already has arrived in Joe Paterno's mailbox from Bo Schembechler, the crusty old Big Ten troglodyte. The missive likely was appreciative that Paterno's Penn State team has kept at least some vestige of order in a Big Ten that has been--at least in the eyes of the older generation--spiraling out of control.

With points and yards accumulating at record rates, and the conference resembling the old WAC more than the grim outfit that turned the forward pass into a mortal sin, Penn State proved last Saturday that defense still has a place in Midwestern football.

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On a rare balmy November afternoon in State College, the mood of the second-largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history (109,865) matched the weather. The students hopped and sang. The Nittany Lions mascot did a dead-on Napoleon Dynamite dance routine. The alums even shimmied a bit. And for good reason. The Penn State offense frolicked for 520 total yards, and the Nittany Lions stifled Wisconsin's signature ground attack (minus-11 yards) in claiming a 35-14 win in a battle of once-beaten conference leaders.

The win made a bit of sense out of a Big Ten race that has been the most entertaining in college football and has established new levels of excitement in a conference heretofore known for bloody noses and broken facemasks. While the SEC has been mired in defensive tar pits, the Pac-10 is playing for second, the Big 12 is Texas and the 11 dwarfs, and ACC fans still can't figure out who's in which division, the Big Ten is like an extended Oktoberfest, with each week revving up the celebration a little more.

And it's not over yet. Though Penn State is on top of the conference standings at 6-1, the crazy season still could produce a four-way knot at the top if a few quite possible scenarios come to pass the next two weekends. Ohio State still is in the hunt, even though it lost in October to Penn State. Michigan has a shot, despite its early-season dive. Wisconsin, even with its trouble in State College, could claim part of the title, too. Even Northwestern has a chance.

"We all thought in August the league was extremely balanced and wide-open," says Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, whose Hawkeyes dropped out of the hunt last week with a loss to Northwestern.

Penn State now needs to win at Michigan State on November 19 and it will lock up its first conference title since 1994. Though Paterno is adamant that he doesn't pay attention to what the media writes or says about his team--"I don't have the time," he says--he has a great sense of satisfaction in this year's performance. It was obvious during his postgame news conference last week, when he critiqued one writer's sharp duds, cracked wise with questioners and seemed happier than he has been in three years.

Penn State is one play against Michigan from perfection and a whole lot better than it was the past two seasons, when it was a combined 7-16. Remember when many were calling for Paterno to retire to the Old Coaches Home?

"I probably had more confidence we were close (to winning) than any of you guys did," he said to the media after the win. "I had a good feeling about the team."

At a time when most Big Ten defensive coordinators are ready to flay Purdue coach Joe Tiller for introducing the spread attack to the conference, Paterno has assembled a team that combines the old and new into a winning formula. The Nixon-era rock-ribbed defense still is there, but it's paired with a glasnost offense. Paterno asserts that the spread concepts the Lions have embraced this year date to his days at Brooklyn Prep. "I was a tailback in the shotgun in 1944," he says. "All the stuff we do now, I did then."

Maybe, but it has taken 61 years for it to show up in Happy Valley. Just ask Michael Robinson, the fifth-year senior quarterback who has weathered so many position changes and wait-your-turn edicts from Paterno that he contemplated transferring. Robinson hung in, and against Wisconsin he ran for 125 yards and threw for 238 in pushing his total offense figure this season to a school-record 2,687 yards.

"We went from running the ball up the middle every play to spreading it out with four wideouts," Robinson says. "We went empty (in the backfield) once this year. We haven't done that. It helps that (tailback) Tony Hunt can run without a fullback and I can do some things running."

Some things? Robinson has been described by one enemy defensive coordinator as "Curtis Enis with the ability to throw," a reference to the former standout tailback who last played for the Nittany Lions in 1997. And this year, Paterno has let Robinson go, living with his imprecise passing (he was 13-of-28 with two ugly interceptions against the Badgers) and allowing coordinator Galen Hall the freedom that predecessor Fran Ganter never had.

It's all part of the new Big Ten. Multi-talented quarterbacks such as Robinson, Michigan State's Drew Stanton, Ohio State's Troy Smith and Northwestern's Brett Basanez are piling up stats as they run offenses that spread personnel from sideline to sideline. After last weekend, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota, Penn State and Northwestern ranked in the top 25 in scoring offense, and the Spartans, Gophers and Wildcats were in the top 10 in total offense.

The roar of the Lions: Big Ten down? Who cares? It's a hell of a lot of fun, and Penn State—Penn State!—is one win from taking the wildest race in the land

Sporting News, The, Nov 18, 2005 by Michael Bradley

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