Illinois-Penn State 7pm CT ABC
September 27, 2008 11:45 AM
Beaver Stadium - the largest football stadium in America
- Michigan Stadium had to reduce seating this season due to ADA issues, thus bumping Penn State's home field to #1.
- 4 times in Beaver Stadium history - and twice in 2007 - has attendance topped 110,000.
- The Illini are 0-5 at Beaver Stadium.
A brief history of the Penn State "White Out" from the Black Shoe Diaries:
Purists will claim that the White Out started in 2004 during the Purdue game. I was at school then and don't remember anything about it except that we lost. The game that put Penn State on the map was the 2005 Ohio State game. It was by far the most intense atmosphere I've ever seen and most of the "experts" seemed to share that opinion. That was the game in which Kirk declared the student section the best in the nation (for whatever that's worth).
The White Out was repeated again in 2006 but with little success. The atmosphere was much more lame and the game lacked excitement. Michigan knocked out two different QBs and won on their way to being blown out by tOSU and then USC in the bowl game.
The first time it seemed to catch on stadium-wide was during last year's Notre Dame game.
It's really become a staple at this point but they don't encourage it every week...it seems to be "declared" for night games or national matchups.
Interesting legal ramification: it was actually TM'd by the Phoenix Coyotes before the 2005 game. PSU wanted to print the term on the tickets and was apparently given a onetime exception to use the term. When the school continued the NHL got upset. The school tried to counter by TMing the term "Penn State White Out", trying to note the difference. I'm no lawyer but the whole thing is a little bit foolish...bottom line is that it will continue to be associated with the event even if the school is forced to use another name ("White House" has been printed on tickets since, although I don't know if that was permanent).
The Illini's last visit
Illinois lost at Penn State 26-12 in 2006. Rashard Mendenhall had a monster game, 161 yards on the ground. The Illini dominated the first half and led 9-3 at halftime, PSU clawed back to take the lead in the 2nd half. After Juice was sacked for a safety to make the score 19-12, the Illini's onside kick with one minute left was returned for a TD making the final margin a bit deceptive as to the competitiveness of the game.
Prediction
This is new territory for the Illini, going into a big prime time matchup on the road against a very good opponent charged up to take them down. If Illinois pulls out the win I would consider it a bigger victory than last year's triumph at #1 Ohio St.
Facing the Buckeyes, the Illini were playing their best ball of the season. And it didn't hurt that Ohio St had just faced Penn St, Wisconsin, and had Michigan to look forward to the following week.
As of now, Illinois has a lot of work to do defensively, and the offense has slipped since a huge output against Missouri in Week 1. Meanwhile, Penn State is playing great on both sides of the ball, and is very well rested.
Zook is very good at getting his team ready in conference play when no one is giving them a chance. See LSU's only loss of 2003, the Florida-FSU game of 2004, and PSU, Wisconsin, and Ohio St games of 2006.
The Illini will come out and compete, but Saturday all signs point toward Penn State.
Penn St 38 Illinois 31
Illinois-Penn State Thread Filed under: Illini Football, Penn State Nittany Lions
