No. 21/20 Penn State hosts a rematch of the 2016 Big Ten Championship Game when Wisconsin visits Beaver Stadium Saturday at noon on ABC.
The Nittany Lions and Badgers are meeting for the first time since Penn State rallied from a 21-point deficit to win the 2016 Big Ten Championship and advance to the Rose Bowl. Penn State wants to extend a three-game winning streak against Wisconsin, which started with an overtime victory in 2012, and a nine-game winning streak against Big Ten West Division opponents.
Penn State looks to bounce back from an uncharacteristic outing at Michigan. The Nittany Lions were within striking distance until turnovers helped Michigan put the game out of reach in the final 16 minutes of the contest. It was the Lions' first double-digit loss since 2016.
Notable Nittany Lions include quarterback Trace McSorley, who became the 14th Big Ten quarterback to surpass 9,000 career passing yards and still ranks second in the Big Ten this season with 14.0 points responsible for per game. Sophomore defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos ranks second in the Big Ten in tackles for loss (1.5 per game) and is third in the conference in sacks (0.78 per game). Gross-Matos has made 23 tackles, 7.0 tackles for loss and 5.0 sacks in the last three weeks after making 17 tackles, 6.5 TFLs and 2.0 sacks the previous six weeks.
Wisconsin is led by running back Jonathan Taylor, who leads the country with 1,363 rushing yards. The Badgers average 273.0 rushing yards per game to lead FBS.
It will be THON Day to celebrate the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. Penn State will wear "THON" stickers on its helmets and the Penn State student section will wear yellow. THON has raised more than $147,000,000 in its history to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund.
HEAD COACH PAUL CHRYST
- Paul Chryst is in his fourth season as head coach at his alma mater. He is a former Wisconsin player and assistant coach and a Madison, Wisconsin, native.
- Chryst is a back-to-back Big Ten Coach of the Year selection and has guided the Badgers to a 34-7 (.829) record and two Big Ten West Division championships over his first three seasons.
- Chryst is the third coach in modern Big Ten history (1946-present) to win at least 40 of his first 50 career games at a league school (40-10), joining Urban Meyer (44-6; Ohio State) and Bo Schembechler (47-3; Michigan).
- Chryst was the head coach at Pitt for three seasons (2012-14) and led the Panthers to bowl games in each.
- Prior to his stint at Pitt, Chryst was the Badgers' offensive coordinator for seven years. During those seven seasons, Wisconsin claimed a pair of Big Ten titles and compiled a 70-22 (.761) record, winning at least 10 games five times.
- Chryst was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oregon State in 2003-04. That followed his first stint at Wisconsin in 2002, as tight ends coach.
SCOUTING THE BADGERS
- Wisconsin is tied for second in the Big Ten West Division with a 4-2 conference record and 6-3 overall record.
- Wisconsin has won 19 of its last 21 regular-season league games, dating back to the 2016 season.
- The Badgers are 1-1 against the Big Ten East, falling to Michigan, 38-13, and defeating Rutgers last week, 31-17.
- The Badgers rank in the top five in the conference in both total offense (4th; 447.2 ypg) and total defense (5th; 352.8 ypg).
- Wisconsin is led by its prolific rushing attack, which leads the Big Ten and ranks fourth in FBS averaging 273.0 yards per game.
- Running back Jonathan Taylor leads FBS with 1,363 rushing yards and 151.4 rushing yards per game. He also has a Big Ten-best 11 rushing touchdowns.
- Quarterback Alex Hornibrook ranks second in the Big Ten to Penn State's Trace McSorley (13.47 yds) in yards per completion, averaging 13.43.
WINNING THE WEST
- Penn State has won its last nine games against Big Ten West Division opponents, dating back to an overtime win over Minnesota on Oct. 1, 2016.
- The streak includes Penn State's Big Ten Championship Game victory over Wisconsin in 2016 and three wins over Iowa.
- Wisconsin is Penn State's third and final scheduled West Division opponent this season.
NITTANY LION FROM WISCONSIN
- DT Robert Windsor – Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac
PENN STATE-WISCONSIN CONNECTIONS
- PSU senior RB Mark Allen and sophomore DE Shane Simmons and Wisconsin running back Taiwan Deal played together at DeMatha Catholic High School in Maryland.
- PSU sophomore OL Alex Gellerstedt and Wisconsin sophomore OLB Griffin Grady played together at Dublin Coffman High School in Ohio.
- PSU redshirt freshman QB Sean Clifford and Wisconsin freshman QB Chase Wolf both attended Saint Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.
- PSU freshmen DT PJ Mustipher and OL Will Knutsson and Wisconsin sophomore S Eric Burrell played together at McDonogh School in Maryland.
- Wisconsin junior QB Alex Hornibrook is the younger brother of former Penn State women's swimming & diving captain Mackenzie Hornibrook.
- Penn State special teams coordinator, Phil Galiano, and Wisconsin inside linebackers coach, Bob Bostad, were both on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaching staff during the 2012-13 football season.
THON DAY
- Penn State is celebrating THON, the largest student-run philanthropy in the world.
- Penn State will wear "THON" stickers on its helmets and the Penn State student section will turn yellow.
- Football alum Devon Still and his daughter, Leah, who fought and defeated pediatric cancer, will serve as the honorary game captains.
- THON has raised more than $147,000,000 in its history to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund.
PENN STATE IN THE RANKINGS
- Penn State is ranked No. 20 in the Amway Coaches Poll and No. 21 in the Associated Press poll.
- Penn State was ranked No. 14 in the initial 2018 College Football Playoff Rankings.
- Penn State's 35-straight weeks in the AP Top 25 is the fifth-longest active streak in FBS.
- Penn State has been ranked in the last 12 CFP rankings, dating back to its first-ever appearance in the first poll of the 2016 season.
BOWLING AGAIN
- Penn State became bowl eligible when it defeated Iowa for its sixth win of the season.
- The Lions have appeared in 48 bowl games in program history, tied for ninth-highest among FBS schools at the start of the season.
FRANKLIN SET TO BOWL AGAIN
- Head coach James Franklin has guided his teams to bowl appearances in each of his eight seasons as a head coach (3 at Vanderbilt; 5 at Penn State).
- He is one of seven active head coaches who have earned bowl eligibility in their first eight or more consecutive seasons on the job.
MILESTONE WATCH
- Trace McSorley is 2 TDs shy of 100 career touchdowns responsible for.
- ... 127 yards shy of the PSU career QB rushing record of 1,637 yards held by Michael Robinson (2002-05).
- ... 195 yards shy of the PSU career QB season record of 806 held by Michael Robinson (2005).
- ... 289 yards shy of 2,000 passing yards on the season.
- ... 45 completions shy of 700 career completions.
- ... 389 yards shy of 1,000 rushing yards this season.
- Juwan Johnson is 23 receptions shy of 100 career receptions.
- Miles Sanders is 152 yards shy of 1,000 rushing yards on the season.
- Tommy Stevens is 54 yards shy of 500 career rushing yards.
McSORLEY A MAXWELL SEMIFINALIST
- QB Trace McSorley is among 20 semifinalists for The Maxwell Award.
- The Maxwell Award has been given to America's College Player of the Year since 1937.
- Penn State is tied for the national lead among all schools with its seven Maxwell Award winners.
MILESTONES ACHIEVED
- Trace McSorley surpassed 9,000 career passing yards with 83 at Michigan.
- ... 10,000 career yards of total offense with 327 at Indiana.
- ... 1,000 career passing attempts with 32 against Michigan State.
- ... 1,000 career rushing yards with 54 yards against Kent State.
- ... 600 career completions with 16 against Ohio State.
- Head coach James Franklin coached his 100th career game against Iowa.
- Juwan Johnson surpassed 1,000 career receiving yards with 72 at Indiana.
- Miles Sanders surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards with 162 against Michigan State.
- DeAndre Thompkins surpassed 1,000 career receiving yards with 101 against Kent State.
- ... surpassed 500 career punt return yards with a 29-yard return against App State.
STREAKING
- Penn State has won its last nine games against Big Ten West Division opponents.
- Redshirt freshman WR KJ Hamler has a reception in all nine games of his career.
- True freshman TE Pat Freiermuth has a reception in his last eight games.
- True freshman K Jake Pinegar has made his last six field goals.
- Sophomore DE Yetur Gross-Matos has at least a half-sack in each of his last four games.
WINNING WAYS
- Penn State is 26-6 in its last 32 games, the best span since going 26-6 from the start of the 2008 season to the first five games of 2010.
- Penn State is 28-8 over the past three seasons (2016-18), for the 11th-best record in FBS.
- Dating back to 2015, Penn State has won 23 of its last 26 home games.
- Penn State's 42 wins over the last five years (2014-18) rank tied for 15th in FBS and third in the Big Ten (Ohio State, 57; Wisconsin, 51; Michigan State 42).
- Penn State's 84 wins over the last 10 years (2009-18) rank tied for 18th in FBS and fourth in the Big Ten (Wisconsin, 100; Ohio State, 98; Michigan State, 90).
- Penn State's 128 wins over the last 15 years rank tied for 16th in FBS and third in the Big Ten (Ohio State, 149; Wisconsin, 147).
- Penn State and Wisconsin are the only Big Ten teams to have posted a winning season in the last 13 consecutive years.
- Penn State is one of eight teams (USC, LSU, Florida State, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Oregon, Virginia Tech) in the Autonomy Five to have a winning record each of the last 13 years.
- Overall in the FBS, Penn State is one of nine teams with a winning record in each of the last 13 years (Boise State).
SECOND-HALF TEAM
- Penn State is third in FBS in scoring offense in the second half, averaging 21.56 points. Clemson leads averaging 24.22 points.
- Penn State is also second in FBS in fourth-quarter scoring, averaging 13.00 points. Houston leads averaging 14.33 points.
- For the season, Penn State is outscoring opponents 181-111 in the second half. The plus-8.44 points per game margin in the second half ranks tied for eighth in FBS. (Per Coaches by the Numbers)
McSORLEY MAKES HIS MARK
- QB Trace McSorley owns Penn State career records for passing yards (9,080), 300-yard passing games (10), 200-yard passing games (26), rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (27), passing touchdowns (71), total offense (10,590) and touchdowns responsible for (98).
- McSorley also presently holds Penn State's career passing efficiency records (146.3).
- McSorley is the first Penn State quarterback to throw for 9,000 career yards and the 14th in Big Ten history.
- McSorley has 1,098 career passing attempts to rank second on Penn State's career list. Next on the list is Christian Hackenberg with 1,235 attempts (2013-15).
McSORLEY EARNS NFF SCHOLAR HONORS
- QB Trace McSorley has been selected to the 2018 National Football Foundation's (NFF) Scholar-Athlete Class for his performance on the field, in the classroom and in the community. He is now one of 13 finalists for the 2018 William V. Campbell Trophy®, which annually recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation.
- McSorley is the 18th Nittany Lion to be selected as an NFF Scholar-Athlete, joining Dave Joyner (1971), Bruce Bannon (1972), Mark Markovich (1973), Jack Baiorunos (1974), Chuck Correal (1978), John Walsh (1980), Carmen Masciantonio (1984), Lance Hamilton (1985), Brian Siverling (1986), Matt Johnson (1987), Tony Pittman (1994), Jeff Hartings (1995), Wally Richardson (1996), Aaron Collins (1997), Paul Posluszny (2006), Stefen Wisniewski (2010) and John Urschel (2013).
- Urschel won the Campbell Trophy in 2013.
- The 18 selections for the Nittany Lions are tied for third all-time with Notre Dame.
- The 13 finalists, selected from 179 semifinalists from NCAA Division I, II, III and the NAIA programs, will each receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 60th NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class, and they will travel to New York City for the 61st NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Tuesday, Dec. 4, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. At the event, one member of the class will be declared the winner of the 29th William V. Campbell Trophy® and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000. The event, which will take place at the New York Hilton Midtown, will be live streamed on ESPN3, starting at 8:30 p.m.
MOVING THE BALL
- Penn State is the first and only FBS team to record two 90-plus yard plays from scrimmage this season.
- Penn State is third in the Big Ten in "big play" (15 or more passing yards and 12 or more rushing yards) percentage (15.79% of plays; 17th in FBS) and is fourth in the Big Ten in 12 or more-yard run percentage (13.43% of plays; 20th in FBS). (Per Coaches by the Numbers)
- Penn State ranks tied for ninth in FBS with 11 scoring drives of less than one minute.
- The Nittany Lions had 1,234 yards of total offense over the Kent State (643) and Illinois (591) games, which is the highest two-game total since posting 1,266 against Temple (605) an Rutgers (661) in 1995.
- Penn State's 591 yards of total offense at Illinois rank fifth in program history in Big Ten games and are the fourth-best outing of James Franklin's tenure.
- Penn State had 31 first downs against the Illini, the second-highest total under Franklin and the fourth-best total in the program's Big Ten history.
- Penn State's 643 total yards of offense against Kent State were the most by the Nittany Lions since having 661 yards of total offense at Rutgers in 1995.
GREEN LIGHT IN THE RED ZONE
- Penn State has scored on 61 of its last 64 red zone trips, including 52 touchdowns.
- Penn State had scored on 26-straight trips to the red zone (including 24 touchdown drives) before missing a field goal in the third quarter against Michigan State.
- This season, Penn State ranks eighth in FBS and second in the Big Ten with a 94.6 percent success rate in the red zone.
- Penn State's 91.67 percent scoring rate score over the last two seasons is tied for fifth in FBS.
- Penn State leads the FBS in red zone touchdown rate over the last two years, reaching the end zone on 79.17 percent of red zone trips.
SANDERS & HAMLER ALL-PURPOSE
- WR/KR KJ Hamler (124.22) and RB Miles Sanders (107.67) rank fourth and eighth, respectively, in the Big Ten in all-purpose yardage per game. Hamler ranks 26th nationally.
- Sanders is averaging 94.2 yards per game rushing and 13.4 yards per game receiving.
- Hamler is averaging 57.4 yards per game receiving, 63.2 yards per game on returns and 3.6 yards per game on rushes.
LIMITED ACCESS
- Penn State ranks tied for 22nd in FBS and tied for second in the Big Ten (Michigan) behind Iowa (4.44) averaging 4.11 three-and-outs per game.
- Penn State's 1.29 points per possession ranks 19th in FBS and third in the Big Ten behind Michigan and Michigan State. (Per Coaches by the Numbers)
- Penn State's 1.19 points per possession over the last two years is fourth in FBS. (Per Coaches by the Numbers)
- The Penn State defense owns three second half shutouts this season: at Pitt, Kent State and Iowa.
- Indiana ran 100 offensive plays against the Nittany Lions, the most by a Penn State opponent in program history, but was held to 1.75 points per possession.
- Penn State broke up 15 passes against Michigan State, which was the most for the team since breaking up 16 passes against Purdue in 2000.
- Penn State was the first team to hold Ohio State under 100 yards of offense in a half since Oklahoma did it last year in the first half of their 2017 meeting.
- Penn State allowed just 221 total yards to Kent State, the sixth-fewest yards allowed under James Franklin, tied with 221 yards allowed at Indiana in 2014.
- The 221 total yards allowed vs. Kent State are the fewest since allowing 200 vs. Rutgers in 2017.
- Penn State held Pitt to just six points, marking the fewest points allowed by Penn State since holding Maryland to three points in the 2017 regular season finale.
CAUSING CHAOS BEHIND THE LINE
- Penn State leads the Big Ten in both sacks (3.2) and tackles for loss (7.4) per game. Nationally, Penn State ranks ninth and 20th, respectively.
- Penn State is continuing to bring a balanced pass rush, as 14 different Nittany Lions have contributed to the team's 26 sacks for the season.
- DE Yetur Gross-Matos has recorded at least a half-sack in each of the last four games. He tallied a sack at Michigan to extend the streak and has 5.5 sacks during the span.
- Gross-Matos tallied a career-high 4.0 tackles for loss against Iowa and tied his career high with 2.0 sacks, marking the second-straight week he posted 2.0 sacks. He was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week following the Iowa game.
- Gross-Matos ranks second in the Big Ten and 17th in FBS with 1.5 TFLs per game. He also ranks third in the Big Ten and 19th in FBS with 0.78 sacks per game.
- Gross-Matos had a career-high 10 tackles, including six solo stops at Indiana, the most by a Penn State defensive lineman since Austin Johnson had 10 stops at Northwestern in 2015. Gross-Matos' 10 stops are the most by a Penn State defensive end since Carl Nassib had 10 tackles at Temple in 2015.
- DE Shaka Toney recorded 4.0 sacks at Indiana, all coming in the fourth quarter, doubling his previous career high of 2.0 against Northwestern in 2017.
- Toney's 4.0 sacks tied the Penn State single-game record, equaling the mark held by three others – Terry Killens vs. Indiana, 1995; Jimmy Kennedy at Wisconsin, 2002; Tamba Hali vs. Wisconsin, 2005.
- Penn State has 29 sacks in 2018. The Nittany Lions totaled 42 sacks in 13 games in 2017. Following totals of 46 sacks in 2015 and 40 sacks in 2016, Penn State posted back-to-back-to-back 40-sack seasons for the first time since it posted three-consecutive 40-sack seasons in 2005 (41), 2006 (40) and 2007 (46).
STEPPING UP ON D
- Penn State's top six tacklers this season do not include any returning starters from last season.
- True freshman LB Micah Parsons and LB Jan Johnson has lead the team with 51 tackles each.
- Parsons has not started a game yet and Johnson was put on scholarship Oct. 18.
- At Michigan, Johnson had his second career double-digit tackle performance with 10 stops, including seven solo and Parsons tied his career high with eight tackles.
- S Garrett Taylor follows with 49 tackles, LB Cam Brown has 48, S Nick Scott has 47 and CB Amani Oruwariye has 41.
RETURN GAME LEADERS
- Returners KJ Hamler and DeAndre Thompkins both rank in the top 30 nationally in kickoff and punt returns, respectively.
- Hamler is averaging 26.9 yards per kickoff return to rank 15th in FBS and third in the Big Ten. The average presently ranks as the 14th best single-season mark in Penn State history. It also presently ranks him tied for fifth on Penn State's career list with Gary Hayman (1972-73).
- Hamler has also returned 10 punts for 85 yards, giving him 569 combined return yards this season, which ranks eighth in FBS and first in the Big Ten.
- Hamler had a career-long 67-yard kick return against Iowa.
- Hamler's return prowess and success on offense rank him with the fourth-highest all-purpose yards average (124.22) in the Big Ten.
- Thompkins ranks third in the Big Ten and 26th in FBS averaging 10.1 yards per punt return.
- Thompkins' 671 career punt return yards rank him tied for seventh all-time at Penn State with Kevin Baugh (1980-83).
- Thompkins returned a punt 39 yards for a touchdown at Pitt for his second career punt return touchdown. He also scored on a punt return against Akron last season.
- With two career punt returns for a touchdown, Thompkins is tied for fourth on Penn State's all-time list with 10 other players (most recently: Larry Johnson, 1998-2002.
- Penn State has been strong on punt return defense, yielding an average of just 4.05 yards to rank fourth in the Big Ten and 22nd in FBS.