The (Big) Ten things you need to know about Penn State
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| BOWL PREVIEW: Scott Rabalais’ Capital One special
By SCOTT RABALAIS
Tiger Rag Featured Columnist
When it comes to postseason opponents this decade, the LSU Tigers have lined up against some of the all-time greats.
There was Texas in the 2003 Cotton Bowl, Oklahoma in the 2004 Sugar for the national title and Miami in the 2005 Chick-fil-A Bowl. The Tigers trounced Notre Dame in the 2007 Sugar Bowl and beat Ohio State in the 2008 BCS Championship Game.
In the 2010 Capital One Bowl, LSU will again face a traditional superpower in the Penn State Nittany Lions, just the second meeting ever between these two college football heavyweights. To get you ready for that New Year’s Day tilt, here’s a primer on Penn State football and its school:
1. JoePa
No school has ever been as identified with its football coach as Penn State has with Joe Paterno. The coke bottle glasses, the wavy, still black hair, the high-riding pants. And the wins. Always the wins. Paterno goes into the Capital One Bowl with a record of 393-129-3, the most victories in Football Bowl Subdivision history and third overall behind John Gagliardi of St. John’s, Minn. (471) and Grambling’s Eddie Robinson (408). The seemingly eternal Paterno - who turns 83 on Dec. 21 - has been as steady a presence in State College, Pa., as Mount Nittany. He started as an assistant coach there in 1950 and has been head coach since 1966. During that time there have been 851 coaching changes in college football, with every other school having multiple hirings and firings. Not Penn State. Paterno’s salary is “only” $1.03 million per year, but he has still managed to donate more than $5 million to Penn State. By the way, the school’s library … guess who’s name is on the door?
2. Something for Joey
In 1973, running back John Cappelletti became the only Penn State player to win the Heisman Trophy. After starting his college career on defense his sophomore year– Penn State’s backfield was loaded with players like future NFL stars Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell–Cappelletti moved to tailback as a junior. As a senior, his Heisman candidacy gained momentum late as he posted three straight 200-yard rushing games in November to finish with 1,522 yards and 17 touchdowns. On Dec. 13, 1973, less than a month before Penn State faced LSU in the 1974 Orange Bowl, Cappelletti gave what is arguably the most memorable Heisman acceptance speech ever, dedicating the trophy to his 11-year-old brother, Joey. “The youngest member of my family, Joseph, is very ill,” Cappelletti said, unable to hold back his emotions. “He has leukemia. If I can dedicate this trophy to him tonight and give him a couple days of happiness, this is worth everything. I think a lot of people think that I go through a lot on Saturdays and during the week as most athletes do, and you get your bumps and bruises and it’s a terrific battle out there on the field. Only for me it is only on Saturdays and it’s only in the fall. For Joseph, it is all year round and it is a battle that is unending with him and he puts up with much more than I’ll ever put up with and I think that this trophy is more his than mine because he has been a great inspiration to me.” Joey died in April 1976. In 1977, their story became a made-for-TV movie called “Something for Joey.
3. Linebacker U.
Penn State has gained a well-deserved reputation under Paterno for cranking out some of the best linebackers in the game. Since 1968, 13 Nittany Lions have earned a total of 18 first-team All-American honors, starting with Dennis Onkotz (1968-69). Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Famer Jack Ham was an All-American in 1970, and others included Shane Conlan (1985-86), LaVar Arrington (1998-99), Paul Posluszny (2005-06) and Dan Connor (2006-07). Arrington and Posluszny won the Butkus Award, given to the nation’s top linebacker, in 1999 and 2005, respectively. Arrington won the Chuck Bednarik Award in 1999, while Posluszny won in 2005 and ‘06 and Connor won it in 2007. This years starting linebacker corps - Josh Hull (110 tackles), Navarro Bowman (84) and Sean Lee (80) - all rank in the top seven in the Big Ten in tackles per game.
Above photo of Josh Hull (43) courtesy of Cyle Nunemaker/BWI.
4. The “Really” Big House
The largest college football stadium in the nation? No, it isn’t Michigan Stadium, a.k.a. The Big House (sorry Les Miles). It isn’t Neyland Stadium at Tennessee. It’s Penn State’s Beaver Stadium. While not exactly pleasing to the eye - Beaver Stadium’s sideline and end zone stands don’t match up because of the many expansions over the years - it does have many, many seats: 107,282 of them, in fact. A record crowd of 110,753 squeezed in back in 2002 to watch the Nittany Lions dismantle Nebraska 40-7. Speaking of dismantling, after the 1959 season they broke old 30,000-seat Beaver Field into 700 pieces and moved it one mile east to the site of the new stadium, which was crowned with another 16,000 seats. Penn State is 242-59 at Beaver Stadium since 1960.
5. Mike and Joe
Former LSU coach Mike Archer (1987-90) grew up in State College, Pa., and played quarterback at State College High before moving on to attend Miami (Fla.) where he played defensive back. Archer also spent part of his youth as a ball boy for the Nittany Lions. Archer, now 56, just completed his third season as defensive coordinator at North Carolina State.
6. What’s a Nittany Lion?
After seeing Princeton’s tiger on a baseball road trip to the New Jersey school, a member of Penn State’s Class of 1907, H.D. “Joe” Mason, decided his school should have a suitably fierce mascot, too. Spurred on by Mason, a student publication sponsored a campaign to pick a mascot, with Lions being the winner. According to the university, Penn State is believed to be the first school to call its team Lions. Of course, the Penn Staters went one better. Since the school sits at the foot of Mount Nittany in the Nittany Valley, it was decided that Penn State’s teams be Nittany Lions. No such animal exists in nature, but one does exist at Penn State. Carved out of a 13-ton block of Indiana limestone, the crouching statue of a lion called the Nittany Lion Shrine was gifted to the university in 1942. The statue is said to be the most photographed site on the Penn State campus.
7. Blue and White
Penn State’s dark blue and white uniforms and stark white helmets with the blue stripe down the middle may be plain but are instantly recognizable to college football fans everywhere. It hasn’t always been that way, though. In 1887, the Penn State student body chose dark pink and black as the school’s colors. The pink in the baseball team’s uniforms would frequently fade to white in the sun, so the change was made to blue and white in 1890. Penn State’s “white-outs” at home games are famous, with almost all of the 100,000-plus fans wearing white shirts. An exception is the “S Zone” in the Penn State student section, where 700 underclassmen coordinated in blue and white t-shirts form a giant block “S” amid a sea of white. Volunteers mark the location of the “S” in the bleachers on Fridays before home games.
8. Famous alumni
ESPN/ABC college football analyst and former Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge (who will call the Capital One Bowl with Brad Nessler and Erin Andrews) … Dale Brown (the novelist, not the coach) … Greg Forbes (The Weather Channel) … Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation) … NFL Hall of Famer/actor Rosey Grier (Los Angeles Rams) … Richard James (inventor of the Slinky) … Actor/dancer Gene Kelly (Singin’ in the Rain) … NBC announcer and ex-NFL star and G.M. Matt Millen … NFL Hall of Famer Lenny Moore (Baltimore Colts) … Mark Parker (President and CEO of Nike) … Outed CIA spy Valerie Plame Wilson … Former Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge … ESPN’s Lisa Salters … USA Today sports columnist Jon Saraceno … Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci.
9. Bayou state ties
Brothers Patrick and Michael Mauti from Mandeville play for Penn State. High school teammates at Mandeville of LSU linebacker Ace Foyil, Patrick is a fifth-year wide receiver who plays mostly on special teams while Michael is a sophomore linebacker. Michael Mauti tore an ACL in August and is redshirting this year. Their father, Rich Mauti, played for the New Orleans Saints from 1977-83 after lettering two years as a Penn State wide receiver in 1975 and ‘76. The Mautis are one of 25 father-son combinations Paterno has coached over the years. No current LSU players hail from Pennsylvania, although LSU all-time great G.E. “Doc” Fenton, an All-American on LSU’s legendary unbeaten 1908 team, was born in Scranton in 1887. Fenton, who was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1971, died in Baton Rouge in 1968.
10. Crystal clear
When Penn State beat Miami 14-10 in the Fiesta Bowl in January 1987 to win the national championship, one of the trophies presented to the Nittany Lions was from the American Football Coaches Association. That year for the first time, the trophy presented by the AFCA was the one topped by the now familiar crystal football designed by Waterford. The President of the AFCA at the time was former LSU coach Charles McClendon, who gave approval to the trophy that has become symbolic of winning the national championship. Before he died in 2001, McClendon told his wife Dorothy Faye, “One of these days, I hope it (the trophy) goes back to LSU.” The Tigers now have two of the crystal balls in their trophy case, same as Penn State, which was retroactively awarded a trophy for winning its first national title under Paterno in 1982.
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That was a nice column,really good…I see that Georgia is after john Chauvis,to come over to the bull dogs side?
Chauvis coaching LSU Defense, is one of the few good things,LSU has going for us…Crowton And Miles not so much…If Chauvis leaves, that will say,that LSU is falling behind the SEC top teams, and LSU recruiting, with soon fade into last years mist…Where ever that goes