Coming off a big win against SEC rival Tennessee, Alabama will try to become the first team to beat Coach Joe Paterno's team three years in a row.
The No. 6 Crimson Tide roll into Beaver Stadium at 2:30 tomorrow as one of the top teams in the nation. Even though it is ranked so high, Coach Bill Curry says his team is not going to let down after the win over Tennessee.
"Our only real asset is a lot of determination," Curry said. "We're sort of a blue-collar bunch that comes to work every day. We put in a tough week of practice. We really smashed hard this week and we hope all our hard work comes through.
"When we get an opportunity like this with Penn State, it should be one of those quantum leap things," he continued. "There's some parts of our games that need to improve a whole lot -- and can."
Penn State's secondary might be a little out of breath tomorrow as it tries to keep up with the Crimson Tide's receivers and their strong- armed quarterback, Gary Hollingsworth.
Hollingsworth, a senior who languished on the bench before starting this season, tore apart the Tennessee defense. He completed a school record 32 passes for 379 yards, which was second best in school history.
"It's funny the way things have happened, but you tend to take things in stride after sitting around for three years," Hollingsworth said.
The 6'4", 195-pound Hollingsworth has completed 88-of-152 passes for 1,139 yards, with nine touchdowns and six interceptions. But he isn't perfect.
"He sees so much, sometimes he forgets to drop back and give his line a chance to block," Alabama quarterback coach Homer Smith said. "He is so anxious to take advantage of what he sees."
The Lions can count on the 6'4" quarterback not running, though. He admits to his slow-footedness.
"I run the 40 in four days," Hollingsworth said.
Hollingsworth, however, is not alone in the backfield. While he was tearing apart the Volunteers' secondary, junior tailback Siran Stacy ran wild over it. His four touchdowns tied a school record and his 317 all-purpose yards was a school record. He accumulated 125 yards rushing, 158 receiving and 34 on kickoff returns.
On defense, 6'5", 256-pound linebacker Keith McCants leads the Crimson Tide in tackles with 57, and is by most accounts the second coming of last year's star Derrick Thomas.
Curry says McCants and the defensive line, which averages 6'4", 273 pounds per man, will have its hands full this weekend trying to stop Blair Thomas.
"I was looking at Blair Thomas' statistics and where he ranks (sixth) with the various runners that have played at Penn State," Curry said. "Blair Thomas is getting ready to move past those men, or some of them, and that gives you some indication of the quality of athletes and athletic ability they have in their backfield."
The Crimson Tide beat the Lions, 8-3, last season. In that game Curry said he was impressed with the Lion defense.
"We've been real impressed with Rich Schonewolf, Andre Collins and Brian Chizmar on the defensive side of the ball," Curry said. "We thought they did the best job defensively of anybody we played last year. They had some problems at other points in their season, but they didn't have much of a problem with us."
Since the Crimson Tide beat the Lions, 14-7, in the 1979 Sugar Bowl, the series has been a big game on each team's schedule.
"Certainly, the third week in October is a very big game with the Alabama- Tennessee rivalry," Curry said. "But this is another rivalry, and this is another very big game for our team.
"What we have to do is to learn how to come off a very euphoric win, get our feet back on the ground and play the kind of football that's going to be required to beat Penn State."
