Penn State Football facing a unique start to their season

This year, Penn State will begin their season in a manner that is relatively rare in college football — at least for Power Five teams.

The Nittany Lions face a tough and somewhat unique start to their schedule, as they will hit the road for two of their first three games of the 2022 season. The last time that happened for Penn State Football was back in 2014.

However, only one of those was (by definition) a true road game, meaning the game was played in the opposing team’s home stadium. In 2014, the Nittany Lions flew across the pond to kick off their season against UCF in Dublin, Ireland. They then traveled to Piscataway in week three to take on Rutgers.

When was the last time Penn State opened their season with two of their first three matchups being true road games? Well, you would have to go all the way back to 1978 to find the last time that happened, according to the College Football Almanac.

Penn State traveled to Temple in the first game of that season where they won 10-7, and in week three headed to Columbus where they would shutout the Buckeyes, 19-0. In fact, the Nittany Lions finished that 1978 regular season undefeated, so fingers crossed that history repeats itself.

No. 1 Penn State would unfortunately fall to No. 2 Alabama in that season’s Sugar Bowl, which would have been the programs first National Title.

Penn State is just one of two Big Ten programs who face road games in two of their first three matchups this season. Rutgers is the other, as the Scarlet Knights travel to Boston College in week one and Temple in week three.

Penn State and Rutgers are two of just eight Power Five teams to face true road games in two of their first three games in 2022. The others are Louisville, UNC, TCU, Kansas, Mississippi State, and Colorado.

Florida State and Georgia will also play two of their first three games away from their home stadium, but one of each is not a true road game, rather it will be a neutral site matchup.

Last year, just seven Power Five teams — Michigan State, Purdue, Boston College, Baylor, Utah, Stanford, and South Carolina — began their season with two true road games in their first three. In fact, Stanford had two true road games plus a neutral site game in their first three, so they did not play a home game until week four.

So, what Penn State Football has in front of them to begin the 2022 season is not something that happens often in college football. What makes it even more unique is that in both of those two road games, they will face Power Five opponents, whereas a few of the ones I listed from this year and last had one of those two road games coming against a Group of Five team.

Are the Nittany Lions up for the test?