The smell emanating from State College..

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Navarro Bowman.

although, they also were not in hype mode for Texas v. TT either. Maybe they think these primetime games advertise themselves unless they see major ratings potential like USC/Ohio State.

I don’t care if the game gets a 1.0 nationally though. A win will do wonders for both of these teams. Starting conference with a loss is no fun.

I was listening to the satellite radio this morning and a guy went over how hard it is to win a road game in a BCS conference, in THE FIRST conference game of the year (regardless of conference). It happens about 20% of the time. So you can imagine how often it happens when the road team is a so-called decided underdog.

If we win this game tomorrow you could argue this would be one of Ferentz’s three best road wins in his career. He beat PSU in a home opener before…I think 2002. So I would consider that game one of the three — PSU was #10 in the country and we were unranked, as usual — and the Michigan game that same year I would also include.

Any others I am missing?

talked about it yesterday on College Football Daily or whatever that show’s called. It was Mark May and whomever called the game with Mike Patrick against Arizona last week.

They asked them if Penn St should be afraid of an upset this week.

Mark May responded: “Heck yes they should. Iowa is a very solid team and they should be favored in this game.”
Other guy: “I agree. I saw the Hawkeyes this week when I did the Arizona game there. They are very fast. Iowa has a very, very good defense. They are a great team. Penn State better bring their ‘A’ game”

Musburger: “Beware of another upset in this one on Saturday Night. The Hawkeyes are very sound fundamentally. Kirk Ferentz has a fabulous record against Joe Paterno. They don’t beat themselves. The’ve got an established kicking game. The best punter, Donahue, in the Big Ten. They’ve got Murray, who beat them with a 30 yard FG a year ago.” He went on to say the crowd, the revenge factor and the rain are the only things not in Iowa’s favor. Then he ended with “In no way, no way should the Hawkeyes be a 9 or 10 point underdog. This one will be a lot closer than that.”

Is it freaking Saturday yet? I can’t wait any longer. I am very jealous of the Iowa fans I saw walking behind Musburger by the Gameday set too. Gameday should be fun to watch in the morning since their side is planning to only hold up all white plain posterboard… so our fans’ signs should jump out. Hopefully our boys represent with a “Stanzi for Heismanzi” or a “Fear wond3RBoy” or a “Don’t Make Adrian Angry” or maybe “JoePa Loves High School Musical 3” or something way more clever hopefully…I just can’t wait.

and some religion.

Penn State ranked in the Top 15 nationally in net punting and punt return yardage defense in 2008. Jeremy Boone was All-Big Ten in 2007 and would have been up for awards last season but PSU didn’t punt enough to qualify for punting statistics. He’s got a booming leg and gets it in the coffin corner more often than not. No disrespect to Donahue, but there will be field position problems for both offensive squads tomorrow.