Brandon Beachum was highly recruited out of Youngstown, Ohio, but he never showed much interest in that scarlet and gray power that so many of his friends liked.

"I like the atmosphere, I really like Coach [Jim] Tressel, but the city atmosphere never really interested me in downtown Columbus," Beachum said of Ohio State. "That was never really a setting that I wanted to be in, where I chose my college, but I did give them consideration."

Beachum and his Nittany Lion teammates will face the Buckeyes at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Beaver Stadium, and he is expecting to hear it from his community back home.

"It's really exciting because I have a lot of friends and family who are like, 'We're gonna root for you to do well, but we still want Ohio State to win,' " Beachum said. "I think that really just presents a challenge to me to go out and do well."

Beachum, a running back, was also a standout at linebacker for Cardinal Mooney High School. He said different schools wanted him to play each position, and he never decided on a set spot until committing to Penn State.

"They were actually one of the schools that came around late because I had been to Penn State a couple of times and I think Zordich got the offer before me," Beachum said, referring to high school teammate and Penn State fullback Mike Zordich, who made the switch from linebacker this season.

With Stephfon Green's status still up in the air for this weekend, Beachum may get more opportunities to create both joy and disappointment in his hometown.

"Although they don't root for Penn State, they root for me to do well in the game, which I can't ask for much more than that," Beachum said. "Obviously if you guys are fans of Ohio State, then by all means root for them, but the fact that they would even consider me, wish me success in the game, is really thoughtful I think."

Ohio State has just one player from Cardinal Mooney on its roster -- freshman defensive lineman John Simon -- but the Buckeyes bring a team loaded with local talent.

The chance to make a statement weighs more on Beachum's mind this week than in others.

"Yeah [it] definitely means a little bit more," Beachum said. "Anytime you have a chance to beat up on people from your home state, play with guys that you played with in high school or played against in high school or got recruited with, that whole thing, it's really special and you wanna do well.

"You wanna win the game first and foremost, and it's a really competitive atmosphere because there's gonna be talking, family's gonna root for you, a lot of people are gonna be watching."