#10 Penn State (7-2) vs Indiana (5-4) (12PM, ABC/ESPN2)

[TrueOrange]

One of the Big Ten's recently hotter teams takes on one of the conference's better / emerging offenses in Bloomington.

The Nittany Lions are looking to continue on its way towards a potential Orange or even possibly Rose Bowl berth, while the Hoosiers are looking to make their first back-to-back bowl games since 1990/1991 (when they went to the Peach and Copper - now Cactus - Bowls).


A 40 yard TD pass has made it 31-28 Hoosiers, which is the current score with 8 minutes left in the game.

 

[TrueOrange]

A win today would be Indiana's first victory against a team ranked inside the top 10 since October 10, 1987 (6 days before I was born ) against then #9 Ohio State.

However, they might have to wait a little longer: the IU defense just gave up a TD to make it 35-31 Penn State with 3:58 left in the game.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

Typical Indiana. Close but no cigar.

 

[TrueOrange]

Hoosiers turn over the ball at the IU 22, but are able to stop the Lions and hold them to a FG attempt upcoming.

Indiana will have a chance to score a TD with about a minute or so left, but PSU looks to be about to walk out of here with a win.

 

[TrueOrange]

Typical Indiana. Close but no cigar.

They're at least making 5-wins or getting to bowl games now, though.

Typical Indiana was pretty much 2-3 win seasons with massive blowouts against any ranked or middle-level teams.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

They're at least making 5-wins or getting to bowl games now, though.

Typical Indiana was pretty much 2-3 win seasons with massive blowouts against any ranked or middle-level teams.

Yeah but the "We almost beat good teams" and then lose to teams we should beat gets old.

And now they had 2 offensive possessions to try and take the lead and then tie, and it ends on a PSU fumble return for a TD. Lol. So typical.

 

[TrueOrange]

Yeah but the "We almost beat good teams" and then lose to teams we should beat gets old.

And now they had 2 offensive possessions to try and take the lead and then tie, and it ends on a PSU fumble return for a TD. Lol. So typical.

I get that if you're a bigger program, but with how they did from 1997-2012, actually being in bowls, actually being competitive in all or almost all of their games, and even keeping the ranked games close, that all's still a huge step up from where they were prior to that (which was pretty much worse than the usual Vanderbilt).

That said, there's clearly a pretty thick ceiling over that program - they're in the OSU+UM+Michigan St+Penn St division with a no-FCS-game 9-conference game schedule (so winning a division is far from realistic) and recruiting is always going to be difficult there (it being a basketball school, it having such a poor history/tradition re: football, less interest from major prospects). Getting that program to the level of just "making bowl games somewhat regular" plus maybe an upset each year's about likely as far up as that program can get.