Who, Where, When: IU welcomes Penn State into Bloomington this Saturday for a noon kickoff. BTN has the coverage, with what feels like (but may not actually be) the usual team of Eric Collins and Chuck Long in the booth, aided by Lisa Byington on the sidelines. Last year's game, also in Bloomington, produced the first win for IU in 17 games against the Nittany Lions, a 44-24 affair that this year's team would love to duplicate.
Tevin Watch: Though not much went well against the Wolverines last week, Tevin Coleman continued his streak of 100 yard rushing performances, now up to 10 and counting. Tevin is just 505 yards off the IU single season rushing record of 1,805, set back in 1991 by Vaughn Dunbar. As for career rushing yards, Tevin is alone in 8th place on the IU leaderboard, trailing 7th place Courtney Snyder by 303 yards.
Random Nittany Lion Miscellany: The Nittany Lion shrine on campus was made from Indiana limestone. As has been brought up somewhere on OTE before (but is worth restating), Penn State's original color scheme was pink and black, rather than the blue and white they use today. Penn State also has a 3D printing club, which I didn't know could be a thing until just now.
Notable Penn State Alumni: Donald P. Bellisario (TV producer); Ty Burrell (actor, Modern Family); Jonathan Frakes (actor/director, Star Trek: The Next Generation); Lisa Salters (ESPN reporter); Kerry Collins (retired NFL quarterback and former Indianapolis Colt); Mike Scioscia (former MLB player and current manager); Bruce Banner (The Incredible Hulk)
Penn State info plus a prediction from OTE's own Aaron Yorke: Recent history suggests that Penn State will find a way to lose another showdown in B-Town, but the team has at least been competitive against decent opponents the last two weeks, so... I'm going to pick the Lions to win. With Zander Diamont having just 35 passing yards in two games and the Penn State run defense capable of slowing down Tevin Coleman, it sure looks like this is the week for James Franklin to turn things around. Christian Hackenberg hits DaeSean Hamilton for a big passing touchdown, and the Lions win 17-6.
My prediction: I have basically lost all faith in this team, and until Zander Diamont can convince me otherwise, I'm not expecting anything resembling a decent passing performance the rest of this season. All that matters at this point is keeping Tevin's streak going. Since I should make a score prediction, let's say Penn State wins 35-10.
Next Week: Indiana travels to Rutgers, which is also probably going to suck.