Everyone loves a nice Beaver: (PSU vs. Minnesota Recap)

I took advantage of the UGA offweek and took a roadtrip to State College, PA. While in Happy Valley, I saw Penn State beat the ever living dog piss out of Glen Mason's Minnesota Golden Gophers.

[Photo: It was a day game, but we left the camera in the car. So I went with this pic instead]

My hosts provided the massive ticket hookup...45 Yardline..49 Rows up. Thoughts on the game, the stadium and the environment are below.

The Game:
Normally, when I attend a game not involving Georgia, I'm hoping for a close battle. However, given Georgia's past history with Glen "Flip Flop" Mason; this was a particularly enjoyable beat down. As most Dawg fans remember, Mason was Georgia's coach for less than a week in December 1995 before returning to Kansas and making us look ridiculous. Seeing him eat a Nittany Lion Turd Burger was a blast.

This isn't your typical PSU team. There are freshmen playing everywhere. Freshmen playing multiple positions. Freshmen playing both ways. Freshmen scoring touchdowns on reverses in the redzone. Freshmen jerseys for sale in the bookstore. Basically, Joe Pa is partying like it's 1976! Penn State mixed a hard hitting defense, a solid running game from the gun and I formation and a nice short range passing game to humble the Gophers. It seemed like each of the PSU touchdown drives was 9 to 13 plays. Defensively, the Gophers vaunted running game was put on blocks as Mulroney was held to under 50 yards rushing.

[Photo: Mason thanks Joe for not running it up in the 4th quarter]

Penn State has an excellent team, and it is very much a legit Top 15 team. Unfortunately, their schedule is the anti-Purdue schedule. This year Purdue avoids the Big 10's heavy hitters. PSU gets them all.

The Stadium:
It is HUGE. I've been to 11 SEC venues, 3 ACC venues and 6 neutral/bowl site stadiums, and I know a big stadium when I see it. This place is massive. It seats around 106,000. If the seats were as narrow as Neyland Stadium, you could put 130,000 in it with no problem.

Outside it looks like Neyland Stadium with erector set style exposed steel beams. Do you remember those mobile trailer class rooms that elementary schools use to handle overcrowding? From outside the stadium, their sky boxes look like someone bolted a few dozen of those trailers to the top of the stadium. Underneath the bleachers, it looks like Legion Field or the old Gator Bowl. But, inside it's very sharp with amazing scenic views of the Pennsylvania mountains. I actually liked the stadium a lot.

The Fans:
I was warned by several PSU fans that the gameday vibe would be different, but the complete lack of standing in my section threw me for a loop. Granted, I was in the big contributor section on the shaded size of the field so there's going to be some old fuddy duddy "Down in Front!" types. But, there weren't 20 people that stood to cheer on 3rd downs within 2 sections of me on 90% of 3rd Downs. They would stand after a great play, but otherwise it was like they were GLUED to their seats. What flipped me out...they sit the entire game, but STAND the ENTIRE halftime.

[Photo: Gotta love the 3 foot tall Joe Paterno bobble head]

Outside of my section, I was expecting more noise. It never got that loud; although you could argue that Minnesota's lack of a game plan or effort had something to do with the noise. The crowd got loud for a few Minnesota 4th Downs. But the non-student volume was limited.

The PSU student section on the other hand is as good as almost anyone's other than LSU. Loud and vocal. Cool thing: PSU students start the "WE ARE" cheer, and the rest of the crowd answers "Penn State". This goes on for 5 to 10 times and then the students cheer "THANK YOU!" the crowd answers back "You're Welcome." This cracked me up. I also liked the one of the seating areas for students was all dressed in white except for the students wearing blue in to form a large S in the crowd.

The ladies:
We have it very, very good in the SEC. Mississippi State is sort of the low end of the totem pole in he SEC when it comes to ladies. MSU has PSU two to one on eye candy.

Overall:
With its combination of speed and power, PSU is a 9-2 or better team if it protects the football. That would put them in the Citrus or Outback vs. an SEC team like UGA, UF, UT or Bama.

I had a blast, and I would definitely go back.

PWD

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