Saturday NCAA: Ohio State Buckeyes at Penn State Nittany Lions
The loser of Saturday’s Ohio State-Penn State game can kiss a Big Ten title and BCS bowl goodbye, with the Buckeyes still controlling their own destiny in the conference (i.e. still to play Iowa, which beat PSU and thus owns the tiebreaker over the Nittany Lions).
Penn State is a 5-point favorite on WagerWeb.com.
History says the home team will win here, because that has happened in 12 of the 16 meetings since Penn State joined the Big Ten. However, the visitor has won the past two seasons, and OSU coach Jim Tressel is 5-3 against Penn State.
Whichever QB plays better between OSU’s Terrelle Pryor of Penn State’s Daryll Clark probably will end up on the winning side. Pryor, a Pennsylvania high school legend who chose Ohio State over Penn State, is expecting a hard welcome from the fans in Happy Valley:
“The crowd is going to be against us, especially against me,” Pryor said.
Pryor has been very inconsistent all season and has 13 TD passes and nine interceptions. On the other side, Clark has been magnificent of late with 14 total touchdowns (9 passing) and just one pick in the Nittany Lions’ five-game winning streak. Since losing at home to Iowa, Penn State really hasn’t been challenged, winning every game by at least 18 points.
The two defenses are about even, so the wild card could be PSU running back Evan Royster. After struggling to start the year, Royster has rushed for 100 or more yards in five games, including the past three. The Nittany Lions are 11-0 all-time when Royster rushes for 100 yards.
Ohio State had a costly injury last week when senior placekicker Aaron Pettrey was injured in last week’s rout of New Mexico State. He was arguably the top kicker in the country and had converted 13 of 17 field-goal attempts and 28 of 29 extra-point attempts.
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