Penn State Football: Ranking the top 20 wins in program history
By Brad Weiss
4. 2016 Penn State football 24, (2) Ohio State 21
We start to enter rare air here, as we look at the fourth-best win in the history of the Penn State football program.
Not all big wins have to be in national title games, or even conference title games, some just come in the middle of what looks to be a tough regular season.
Penn State went into their October showdown with the Ohio State Buckeyes unranked in 2016, welcoming their hated rivals to Beaver Stadium in White Out Conditions. The Buckeyes were the No. 2 team in the country heading into this matchup and had already beaten ranked teams in Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
The Nittany Lions, on the other hand, had been blown out by No. 4 Michigan on the road a few weeks back, falling to the Wolverines by the score of 49-10. Nobody expected Penn State to win this one, but once again, Beaver Stadium roared, and a Grant Haley blocked punt return for a touchdown proved to be the difference.
For the program, it was their first win against a team ranked 1 or 2 since 1990, when they took down No. 1 Notre Dame. Penn State had not been ranked since the 2011 season, but they would crack the rankings at No. 24 the following week, and ended the season as the No. 7 team in the land.