B1G 101: Get to know Penn State

There is a timely element to our next B1G 101 installment, as Penn
State announced Monday that its Nov. 9 date against Washington will be
the school’s annual “White Out” game.

So the Huskies’ first trip to one of college football’s iconic venues should be a memorable one.

Penn
State is the last of six current Big Ten members included on
Washington’s inaugural Big Ten schedule, with the Huskies also facing
each of their fellow Pac-12 defectors in USC, UCLA and Oregon. No doubt,
it’s the road game most fans circled first when the league released the
Huskies’ 2024 schedule. 

If you follow the sport, you know something about Penn State. But let’s get to know the Nittany Lions a little better.

Penn State fast facts

Location:
The school’s address is in University Park, Penn., although the actual
town — err, “home rule municipality” — is State College, pop. 40,501,
though you can just call it Happy Valley. Considering it’s at least a
2.5-hour drive from the Pittsburgh airport and more than three hours
from either Baltimore or Philadelphia, this is the most logistically
difficult trip the Huskies will take (there is a regional airport in
State College and an international airport in nearby Harrisburg, but no
direct flights from Seattle).

Founded: 1855, as Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania

Undergraduate enrollment: 41,745 (fall 2022)

Acceptance rate: 55%

U.S. News & World Report ranking (national universities): No. 60 (tied)

Alumni of note: Actor
Ty Burrell (for his master’s); actor/comedian Keegan Michael-Key (also
for his master’s); ESPN reporter Lisa Salters; actor Patrick Fabian, who
portrays Howard Hamlin on Better Call Saul. Check out a bunch of others here.

Athletics budget: For the first time ever, Penn State reported more than $200 million in operating revenue for the 2022-23 fiscal year, at $202.2 million; as of 2022, only five
schools had reported revenue beyond that threshold (Penn State reported
$181 million in revenue for FY22). Its FY23 expenses nearly equaled its
revenue, at just shy of $202.1 million.

Football national championships:
Two, under Joe Paterno in 1982 and 1986, both of which ended with Penn
State ranked No. 1 in both major polls. The Nittany Lions went 12-0 in
1986 and defeated previous No. 1 Miami in the Fiesta Bowl; they beat No.
1 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to cap the 1982 season. The Nittany Lions
also were selected as national champions by some major selectors in five
other seasons — including an unbeaten year in 1994, when they finished
No. 2 in the polls behind unbeaten Nebraska — but the school claims only
the aforementioned two.

Conference championships:
Five, and four in the Big Ten, in 1994, 2005, 2008 and 2016. In each of
the latter three seasons, Penn State finished with the same conference
record as Ohio State and won the tiebreaker. Remember, Penn State didn’t
join the Big Ten until 1993.

Rivals:
As an independent for most of its existence, Penn State doesn’t have a
natural Big Ten rival; the Nittany Lions actually don’t have any
protected rivalry games in the current scheduling structure. Still,
games against Ohio State and Michigan are always hugely anticipated, and
in-state Pittsburgh has been a fun series, with Penn State owning a
53-43-4 advantage, though the schools haven’t met since 2019. Penn
Staters submit a few other rivalry candidates, too.

Stadium

With
an official capacity just shy of 107,000 — though it averaged 108,917
per game in 2023 — Beaver Stadium is among college football’s true
bucket-list venues. Its “White Out” game has become a famous tradition.
From the “We are…Penn State” chant to the ringing of the victory bell,
it’s a stadium steeped in tradition and built to intimidate. And yes, it
has a natural grass surface. Also, they started selling beer there in
2022.

Head coach

James
Franklin is entering his 11th season at Penn State, where he has
compiled an 88-39 record with one conference title and five appearances
in New Year’s Six bowl games. In 2021, the school gave Franklin a
10-year contract worth $7.5 million per year (plus an annual loan of $1
million for a life insurance policy). Under Franklin, the Nittany Lions
have typically recruited at a national top-15 level or better, including
a couple of top-six classes. They’ve won 10 or more games in five of
the last nine seasons. The general vibe seems to be that Penn State is
just outside of the sport’s Cool Kids’ Club, and Franklin himself has
spoken about the program needing to make the jump from “great to elite,”
with the Nittany Lions failing to make the CFP in the four-team era.

Franklin
came to Penn State from Vanderbilt, where he led the Commodores to
unprecedented success, winning nine games in both 2012 and 2013. He
played quarterback at Division-II East Stroudsburg (Pennsylvania) in the
early 1990s, and had assistant jobs at James Madison, Washington State,
Idaho State, Maryland, the Green Bay Packers, Kansas State and Maryland
again before getting the Vanderbilt job.

History against Washington

Washington is 0-3 against Penn State:

1921: Penn State 21, Washington 7 (Seattle)

1983: Penn State 13, Washington 10 (Aloha Bowl)

2017: Penn State 35, Washington 28 (Fiesta Bowl)

• The
  Huski — err, the Sun Dodgers — simply weren’t very good in 1921, and
  finished with a 3-4-1 record under first-year coach Enoch Bagshaw. Their
  three victories came against the Ninth Army Corps, Whitman and Montana.
  They scored a grand total of three points in their four conference
  games, and those points came during a 72-3 defeat to California. The
  game against Penn State actually was UW’s season finale, played Dec. 3.
  The Nittany Lions finished that season with an unbeaten record (8-0-2).
• A
  27-24 loss at UCLA in late October cost the Huskies a trip to the Rose
  Bowl in 1983, and their season ended with a slugfest defeat to the
  Nittany Lions in Honolulu. UW led that game, 10-3, entering the third
  quarter, but a Penn State touchdown with three minutes remaining
  provided the final margin. The disappointment of an 8-4 finish helped
  lay the foundation for UW’s Orange Bowl season in 1984.
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The pinnacle

Though
only one produced a national championship, Paterno led Penn State to
five unbeaten seasons — in 1968, 1969, 1973, 1986 and 1994 — and the
Nittany Lions won at least 10 games in 21 of his 46 seasons at the
school. They had zero such seasons prior to his arrival in 1968 (though
they didn’t always play double-digit games back then, either). 

Paterno’s
tenure also included 22 top-10 finishes in the AP top-25 poll,
including in eight of his first 10 seasons and 13 of his first 17. Penn
State also won at least nine games in its first seven years of Big Ten
membership, and won at least nine in six of Paterno’s final seven
seasons. His 409 career victories are the most of any FBS coach.

Rock bottom

The
Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, which rocked the sport during
the 2011 season, represents an obvious low point for the football
program, the athletic department and the university. It led to Paterno’s
ouster, criminal charges against the school president, vice president
and athletic director, and severe sanctions from the NCAA (though it
later repealed them, which restored Paterno’s status as the winningest
coach in FBS history). Scholarship reductions hurt Penn State’s depth in
the short term, though the Nittany Lions still won at least seven games
in each of the next four seasons. 

Strictly in terms of on-field
performance, Penn State’s 2003-04 seasons — in which the Nittany Lions
finished 3-9 and then 4-7 — are still its worst of the modern era, and
Penn State finished with a losing record in four of five seasons from
2000-04. 

Big football names

The
school claims six Pro Football Hall of Famers, including Steelers
linebacker Jack Ham and Steelers (and Seahawks!) running back Franco
Harris. LaVar Arrington was one of the greatest college linebackers
ever, and is one of Penn State’s 27 College Football Hall of Famers
(Paterno included). John Cappelletti, a star running back in the 1970s,
is still the school’s only Heisman Trophy winner, though four others
have been finalists, including both tailback Ki-Jana Carter and
quarterback Kerry Collins in 1994. Micah Parsons is a modern-day star.
Michael Robinson, the beloved former Seahawks fullback and current TV
analyst, was Big Ten MVP in 2005.

NFL rosters are littered with other Penn State alums, as the Nittany Lions supply more current pro players than all but six other schools — interestingly enough, Washington is right behind Penn State on that
list — and had eight players drafted in 2024, including two
first-rounders.

Penn State’s best sports

Penn
State has overtaken Iowa as the preeminent college wrestling
powerhouse, winning a staggering 11 national championships since 2011,
including each of the past three. The women’s volleyball team won the
national title in six of eight years from 2007-14, though it hasn’t won
the Big Ten since 2017. The men’s volleyball team is a force in its
conference (the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association). Women’s
soccer regularly wins the Big Ten. Fencing is good, too.

Penn State finished 23rd in the 2023-24 Directors’ Cup standings.

2023 football season in review

Record: 10-3 (7-2)

Bowl game: Lost, 38-25, to Mississippi in the Peach Bowl

On
the surface, that’s a nice little season. But Penn State fans have
grown weary of going 10-2 and missing the Playoff, and the Nittany Lions
offense was bad enough that Franklin fired OC Mike Yurcich after their
10th game, a 24-15 loss to Michigan. The passing game was particularly
frustrating, with former five-star prospect Drew Allar completing 59.9
percent of his passes for a so-so 6.8 yards per attempt (though his
25-to-2 TD-to-INT ratio was outstanding). The conversation around Penn
State’s lack of downfield passing became sort of weird.

Penn
State’s defense, however, ranked second nationally in yards per play
allowed, and hadn’t given up more than 24 points to any opponent before
the bowl game. Each of the Nittany Lions’ 10 victories came by at least
two scores.