Your previously undefeated, third-ranked team has just received a cold slap of reality in blustery Iowa. The critics who assailed your conference are smugly saying, “I told you so,” and rejoicing that another pretender from the Big Ten won’t get a chance to be exposed in the BCS championship game.
Consider these words written by Pat Forde, a college football writer for ESPN.com, who all but threw confetti into the air after the Iowa Hawkeyes ended Penn State’s dream of an undefeated season and third national championship for coach Joe Paterno after the 24-23 victory in frigid Kinnick Stadium on Nov. 8.
Forde wrote that he “wishes to send a fruit basket and a set of steak knives to [coach] Kirk Ferentz and Iowa. Thank you, Hawkeyes, for saving college football from a third straight season of sending an overmatched, overrated and outdated Big Ten champion to the BCS National Championship Game. Now that Iowa has taken overly conservative Penn State out of the title mix and Ohio State has removed itself with two losses in a season of great expectation, hopes are high for a worthy title game. The Big Ten is free to send its champion to Pasadena, where it figures to be throttled by USC. But the parade will be fabulous.”
No question, the Penn State Nittany Lions, who dropped to eighth in the BCS and seventh in The Associated Press poll, have had to choke back a lot of disappointment these last few days. Even if they do advance to the Rose Bowl, their opponent might not be mighty Southern California, but Oregon State, a team the Lions crushed 45-14 on Sept. 6.
The Beavers are a half-game behind USC for the Pac-10 Conference lead, with one additional game to play, but hold the tiebreaker by virtue of their 27-21 shocker over the Trojans on Sept. 25. If Oregon State (6-3, 5-1) wins out in its remaining contests against California, Arizona and Oregon, the Beavers snag the Rose Bowl berth and a rematch with Penn State that members of Nittany Nation would find as palatable as a chugged bottle of cod-liver oil.
“If we play any team from the Pac-10, we’d be extremely excited,” center A.Q. Shipley, no doubt with his fingers crossed, said when asked about the less-than-enticing prospect of a do-over with Oregon State.
Fortunately for Penn State (9-1, 5-1 Big Ten), the schedule-makers appear to have provided them with at least a momentary cure for what ails them. Indiana (3-7, 1-5) appears to be just the sort of punching bag on which the Lions, playing in the friendlier confines of Beaver Stadium for the first time since a 46-17 victory over Michigan on Oct. 18, can take out their frustrations.
Just don’t expect Paterno to dismiss the Hoosiers as the soft touch the Lions need to beat up on to again feel good about themselves. In analyzing Indiana, Paterno took special care to say nice things about a team that will enter Saturday’s game as a whopping 34 1/2-point underdog.
“Indiana looks like a very good team at times,” Paterno said. “They hustle. They’re in the process of getting better, as a lot of good, young teams are. One week they play very, very well, and the next week they play very well in parts of the game.
“I think they’ll be very tough for us. I think every team will be very tough for us right now.”
Asked if Penn State needs to put up big numbers to wash out the bad taste of the Iowa debacle, Lions tailback Evan Royster said that is not necessarily the case.
“I don’t think we need to,” Royster offered. “I think we all want to. But I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary. The main object is to win the game.”
