Penn State more than a two TD favorite over OSU

By Cliff Kirkpatrick
Gazette-Times Reporter

The Oregon State football team is a 15½-point underdog heading into Week 2 of the season.

It comes from an inconsistent showing in the first game at Stanford. The Beavers couldn’t run the ball well, didn’t stop the run and piled up 100 penalty yards.

All those areas are repairable in time, but it may not come easily against this week’s opponent - an established Penn State program with 37 returning lettermen and 18 starters back.

The Nittany Lions were on top of their game in the season opener against a lesser Coastal Carolina team. That allowed them to build confidence, give all their starters a warm-up and then rest when the reserves took over.

Add in the fact that OSU struggles playing in the Eastern Time zone - just look at the loss at Louisiana State in 2004 and blowouts at Louisville in 2005 and Cincinnati last season.

“Every week is a tough challenge; it’s a dog fight,” offensive guard Adam Speer said. “We have to keep getting better and execute. The team that executes the best is going to win.”

Issue No. 1 will be handling Penn State’s powerful running game, which gained 594 yards and scored seven touchdowns on Saturday. OSU’s rush defense allowed 210 yards to Stanford - a lower-tiered Pacific-10 Conference team.

The Beavers had seven new starters in the front seven, so the Stanford experience aided in their growth. The return of safety Al Afalava from a one-game team suspension should help.

Afalava is a big hitter in run support. The fourth-year starter knows how to stop the run and keep long gains from happening.

“They are a great team, a great running team with the ground and pound,” linebacker Bryant Cornell said of Penn State. “We are going to have to solidify our interior game. We found some flaws we need to work on. We’ll look at the tape and find things we have to work on.”

This is the first meeting between the two programs, so there’s no history to study in how to prepare. Coach Mike Riley will review last year’s video on Penn State and see how the team has changed after watching the Coastal Carolina game.

It won’t be a true picture of the Nittany Lions since they didn’t need to use anything but their base schemes in the opener.

One of the most important aspects of the game to prepare for is the atmosphere. Beaver Stadium is the largest venue in the nation in terms of seats, and they are usually full in this legendary structure.

Addressing the butterflies and wide eyes will be important. The Beavers are a young team, with not many left from the LSU experience.

“You have to get to that, but first you have to take care of yourself,” Riley said. “It’s just important to prepare well with enthusiasm and eagerness. We’ll prepare like we do and play better than we did last week, which we’ll need to do. There are going to be a lot of things that are tough.”

There’s a significant impact to this game for the Beavers. With a loss more than likely, if they perform well it could lead to better performances in the future the way it did against LSU.

An upset, and the Stanford loss is evened out, the players get back on track and it makes the nation take notice of them again.

Then there’s the financial ramification. The Nittany Lions will pay the Beavers $800,000 to come to State College, Pa. Television revenue for the ABC broadcast increases the payday to $1.1 million, making this the most lucrative game in OSU history.

Games like this for OSU in the past used to be considered body bag games. That’s when a big-name team pays a cupcake to go to their place to be devoured, the way Penn State used Coastal Carolina.

The Beavers, however, don’t look at the game that way. Their recent success in the Pac-10 makes them believe that this underdog can bite back in this situation.

“We appreciate the school, and the program we are playing,” Riley said. “It’s important to understand that. Especially in playing in a stadium and competing in an out-of-(conference) game worth noting. At the same time you have to look at it as a great opportunity for the team and program to play this. You turn challenge into opportunity.”