If you are looking for exciting college football this weekend, say away form State College on Saturday. Kevin from Nittany White Out and Examiner checking in with your update on what is going on in local college football this weekend.
PENN STATE
This week has a bye week feeling for Penn State fans but there is still a game to be played. The Nittany Lions found their running game last week on the road. Penn State literally ran away with a 35-17 Big Ten victory against Illinois using the legs of Stephfon Green and Evan Royster. Both running backs rushed for over 100 yards on the ground and quarterback Daryll Clark joined the party with a pair of touchdown runs of his own.
This week Penn State returns home for their final non-conference game of the season. The unenviable opponent will be Eastern Illinois in the first meeting between the two schools. The Panthers are lead by head coach Bob Spoo who has been roaming the sidelines for over 20 years, which is still only about half of Joe Paterno’s tenure as head coach. The Panthers are a top 25 team from the FCS and are coming off the first loss of their season. They bring a pretty balanced offense and the defense has been solid so far but when they match-up with Penn State on Saturday there should be no comparison. Penn State should cruise to a victory, hand Eastern Illinois a nice paycheck and send them back home.
Eastern Illinois is most notable as the former school of one Tony Romo. No word on if he was fumbling and throwing interceptions in big games back then though…
Needless to say, we at NittanyWhiteOut are expecting a Penn State victory this weekend.
TEMPLE
The Owls have a chance to really set themselves up as the team to beat in the MAC this weekend. Temple welcomes last year’s Cinderella story, Ball State, to Lincoln Financial Field. Temple finds themselves sitting in first place in the MAC East and a win against last year’s MAC West champion could be a catapult to the MAC championship game for Temple.
After a rough start to the season with losses to in-state rivals Villanova and Penn State the Owls have responded well. They have already defeated last year’s conference champion (Buffalo) and picked up a road wi at Eastern Michigan. Maybe Al Golden does know what he is doing after all.
VILLANOVA, PENN
The Villanova Wildcats, ranked #2 in the country in the FCS ranks has a big task on hand this weekend. Villanova takes to the road for their first real road game (previous “road” games were at Temple and Penn) of the season to conference powerhouse New Hampshire. New Hampshire, like Villanova, is undefeated (4-0, ‘Nova is 5-0) and they are the only undefeated team in the CAA North division. A win for Villanova would be huge, but New Hampshire is a tough place to win.
Meanwhile Penn welcomes Bucknell to Franklin Field for a non-conference match-up. The Quakers are coming off their first win of the season, on the road at Dartmouth. Bucknell enters the game at 3-2 but have given up 20 more points on defense then they have scored on offense this season.
I am predicting a 3-1 record for the local teams this weekend (sorry Villanova fans). How do you see this weekend playing out?
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