Penn State Football: Week 4 Notes From Nittanyville

And the streak continues. Even with all the adversity that Penn State has dealt with recently, the Temple Owls still couldn’t beat them. Now the Nittany Lions have fought back from two tough losses and have a 2-2 record heading into conference play. Let’s take a look at the Temple game and how it was from the Nittanyville side of things:

- Approximately 400 students camped out in Nittanyville this week. One reason for the large number of participants was pretty much because of who the opponent was. Obviously a lot of Penn State students are from the Philadelphia area and Temple is mildly considered to be one of Penn State’s rivals.

- Big Ten Network’s “Tailgate 48” show was in Happy Valley this weekend for the game. For anyone who doesn’t know, Tailgate 48 is a show that basically gives the viewer an all-access tour of the traditions and game day pageantry around Big Ten stadiums. And of course, since they came to Penn State, they had to come to Nittanyville and check out everything we do. They came the Friday night before the game and played some trashcan football, they participated in the drum line and they got a good taste of what a real student section is like.

- Considering the reputation that Temple fans have, those that I did see were cordial and non-confrontational. Granted I didn’t see that many, but it was nice to not have to deal with any stupid Temple fans who usually don’t act in the smartest of ways.

- Now in terms of game day inside the stadium, I was a big fan of the Back in Black-We Will Rock You remix that was played during pregame. If I recall correctly, this was the first time this song was played.

- With the injury bug hitting Penn State’s running back corps hard, watching Michael Zordich and Zach Zwinak run the ball was fantastic. They’re both tough, physical, down-hill runners who hold on to the ball extremely well. The one running play that seemed to be working the whole game was that stretch play where the running back would eventually cut back inside and hit the open hole hard. Give credit to the offensive line for opening up that lane all game long.

- One bad thing was that a lot of students showed up late and a lot of people left early. A 3:30 start usually means a fuller student section by kickoff but that wasn’t the case here. I understand that the game was basically over about halfway through the fourth quarter, but I wish people would just stay until the end. The team deserves that, at the very least.

- I don’t think I’ll ever get over how awesome the new alma mater at the end of the game tradition is, especially after a win. Seeing the players happy and smiling after a win is a great sight to see and them singing the alma mater with the student section just emphasizes that we are ONE student body.

Unfortunately I won’t be making the trip to Champaign for the Big Ten opener. Hopefully Penn State can keep this momentum going and come back with a win. Check back in two weeks after Penn State plays its first home conference game when Northwestern comes to Beaver Stadium for Homecoming.

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