- Penn State-Akron Notes and Records
- Joe Paterno Post-Game Quotes
- Penn State Player Quotes
- Akron Head Coach J.D. Brookhart Postgame Quotes
- Akron Player Post-Game Quotes
- Game Photos
- Statistics
- Penn State Football Story Airtimes
| Joe Paterno weathered constant rain from Tropical Storm Ernesto and started his 41st year at Penn State with a victory. |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa; September 2, 2006 ?C The Anthony Morelli era began with a 42-yard touchdown to Deon Butler, on his very first pass as a starting quarterback. The junior signal caller completed seven of his first 10 passes for 111 yards, two touchdowns and 17 total points on Penn State's first three drives.
??I was just having a good time and having fun,?? said Morelli after the contest. ??That first pass felt great and Deon made a great play.??
Remnants of Hurricane Ernesto forced the cancellation of Football Eve, washed out tailgates, soaked Beaver Stadium and in general made a sloppy mess out of Happy Valley.
The weather, however, was not enough to ground the Penn State attack. The Nittany Lions opened the 2006 season with a 34-16 win over Akron in front of 106,505 soggy fans and the game wasn??t as close as the final score might indicate.
Morelli completed 16 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns, Jordan Norwood pulled in a career-high seven catches for 61 yards, one for a touchdown (a career first), and Tony Hunt capped off Penn State??s scoring with a five-yard scamper in the fourth quarter.
??It felt good to get that first TD under my belt,?? said a smiling Norwood after the game. ??My dad (safeties coach Brian Norwood) just said he was proud ?C but he would have said that if I dropped it anyway, so it didn??t really matter.??
The Lion defense held the Akron offense to just 225 total yards; Dan Connor made a career-best two sacks, Tim Shaw tied a career-high with two sacks and Anthony Scirrotto and Nolan McCready each intercepted Zips quarterback Luke Getsy in the win.
Paterno, as is his wont, was not completely satisfied with the performance. ??Overall it was a good first game. We started out well but then made too many mistakes especially with the kicking game,?? he said. ??We didn??t run the ball well and certainly didn??t block well.??
| Deon Butler caught two passes for 50 yards, including this 42-yard touchdown on Anthony Morelli's first throw as a starter. |
During the week, Ernesto moved inland and up the east coast and its hurricane-force winds petered out. The storm became a cluster of smaller storms and began to move slowly, so the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical depression.
Other than that, there was no depression at Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions looked efficient - if not spectacular - in their first game since the epic, triple overtime win over Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Penn State now owns a 15-2 record against teams from the Mid-American Conference and the Lions improve to 3-0 all-time against Akron.
Paterno was asked during his weekly teleconference if he thought Morelli had enough moxie to lead the Nittany Lions in the post-Michael Robinson era. Paterno simply said, ??I think Anthony will be fine.?? He was right.
If there was any doubt about Morelli??s moxie, it evaporated in the first quarter. His opening throw to a leaping, double-covered Deon Butler gave the Lions a 7-0 lead.
On his second possession, Morelli drove the Lions 43 yards in 11 plays for another score. As time expired in the first quarter, Kevin Kelly drilled his first field goal of 2006, a 39-yarder, to give the Nittany Lions a 10-0 lead.
Four minutes into the second quarter, Morelli had the offense moving again. Jordan Norwood??s first catch of the season went for 14 yards and the first touchdown of his career. Kevin Kelly??s extra point gave Penn State a quick, comfortable, 17-0 lead.
Each team stalled until Akron put together a scoring drive midway through the third quarter. The Zips drove 50 yards in 11 plays and Dennis Kennedy capped the drive with a four-yard touchdown run. Zips kicker Matt Domonkos missed the extra point and Penn State led 17-9.
| Tony Hunt got a great block from Matt Hahn and scored an insurance touchdown in the fourth quarter. |
The Lions answered right away: true freshman A.J. Wallace returned the ensuing kickoff 54 yards to set up another Penn State score. Perhaps sensing the eight-point gap between the two teams was a little too close for comfort, Morelli came through with a 40-yard drive, highlighted by a 20-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Williams that made the score 24-9 with 7:10 left in the third quarter.
Tony Hunt??s touchdown run early in the fourth quarter gave the Nittany Lions all the insurance they would need. His five-yard scoring jaunt capped a seven-play, 30-yard drive and made the score 31-9. Just for good measure, Kevin Kelly added a 42-yard field goal with just over six minutes to play to make the score 34-9.
Akron??s David Harvey tacked on another score for the Zips in the waning moments, collecting a 27-yard pass from Getsy for a touchdown.
With the win, Joe Paterno??s coaching record improves to 355-117-3 in his 41 years.
His longevity put him in rare company today; Paterno joins Amos Alonzo Stagg as the only other coach to serve at least 41 seasons at an institution. Since he became head coach in 1966, there have been 775 head coaching changes in Division I-A, an average of more than six changes per school.
When asked if he would be watching the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game, Paterno responded, ??It depends on how many relatives I have over at my house tonight. But I might have someone tape it for me.??
The Lions face six bowl teams in the first seven games of the season, including a visit to South Bend next Saturday for a showdown with the Fighting Irish.