Sure it's not the marquee matchup it was originally set up to be. But with the rekindling of this old rivalry, there's no question that Happy Valley will be alive with the classic pageantry of college football.
Tomorrow at noon, the Penn State football team will take on Boston College in a revisited East Coast rivalry battle in front of a sold out Beaver Stadium, in addition to a national audience on ABC. Both teams come off sub-par performances a week ago, when the Nittany Lions earned a sloppy win over Temple and the Eagles handed a 32-28 victory to Wake Forest late in the game.
Penn State leads the all-time series 19-2, but Boston College upset the Lions at home in the teams' last meeting. Needless to say, both squads feel they have something to prove on the field.
"Boston College gave the game to Wake Forest last week," Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said. "They had the game won and then did a couple of foolish things that turned into easy touchdowns to Wake Forest and gave Wake Forest a chance to beat them late in the game. Obviously, there are a lot of things that they want to prove."
After a dismal offensive outing against Temple, the Lions look to rebound with a strong showing against the Eagles.
The biggest question at this point is not so much who will start at tailback for Penn State, but who will see the most playing time. If last week was a barometer, fans should expect to see true freshman Austin Scott taking the majority of the carries. A start for the high school standout may still be a few games away.
Paterno remains steadfast on establishing a passing game.
"This week, I would think we will have to throw the ball because Boston College does a lot of things that are very similar to what Temple does in that they have a lot of people around the football," Paterno said. "I think they just have a little bit more talent than Temple."
Both the passing and running games look to improve for Penn State, but the focus still remains on the tailback spot. However, it seemed that despite the fanfare by the thousands in attendance against the Owls, Paterno maintained this week that Scott has not proven anything yet.
"I thought [Scott] did a good job," he said. "All we asked him to do is carry the football. We have to get him to do something else. He is going to be a pretty good player."
The "something else" is pass blocking, and Scott will have the chance to showcase not only his running abilities, but also his backfield-block reading abilities against a more experienced Boston College defensive corps.
The Lions will also have to deal with a strong running attack from the Eagles' backfield, as Derrick Knight, the Big East's returning leading rusher from 2002, will challenge an unproven Penn State run defense.
"I think we definitely need to concentrate more on the run," Penn State linebacker Derek Wake said. "There were times when we let the ball right through the defense against Temple. Boston College is definitely going to try to do the same things. They're going to watch tapes and they're going to see where we need to get better."
In their home opener last week, the Eagles outplayed the Demon Deacons, but ultimately outplayed themselves, giving up eight offside calls, in addition to numerous other mental mistakes.
"There was great effort," Boston College football coach Tom O'Brien said. "These kids want to be good. We're young in a lot of spots and a lot of young kids played. They made a lot of mistakes that can be corrected and will be with time. Those are kids wanting to be aggressive. It happens once or twice but it can't happen eight times."
