- OPENING KICK: No. 5 Penn State and No. 13 Minnesota will put their unblemished records on the line when the Nittany Lions and Golden Gophers meet for the first time in three years Saturday in TCF Bank Stadium. Kickoff is set for noon (ET) on ABC.
- A LOT HAS CHANGED: In 2016, Penn State was 2-2 following a disappointing loss at Michigan before it earned an overtime win over Minnesota. That win proved to be the first of nine-straight victories that would lead Penn State to the Rose Bowl. Now, Penn State looks to extend its current winning streak to nine when it faces a Minnesota team looking to reach nine wins for the first time since 2016.
- ANOTHER TROPHY GAME: Penn State is playing its second consecutive trophy game, as the Governor's Victory Bell will be up for grabs. The Nittany Lions have held it since defeating Minnesota in 2016. Penn State reclaimed the Land Grant Trophy from Michigan State for the first time since 2016 in its last outing.
- MAGNIFICENT SEVEN: Penn State is one of seven undefeated teams remaining in FBS. The Lions are 8-0 for the first time since 2008 and the fourth time in their Big Ten era (since 1993).
- TOP FIVE: Penn State rose to No. 5 in both the Associated Press and Amway Coaches Polls, marking the its highest ranking since reaching No. 2 in Weeks 8 & 9 in 2017.
- THIS DEFENSE: Penn State (9.6 ppg) ranks second nationally in scoring defense and ninth in total defense (280.0 ypg), led by a stingy rushing defense allowing just 68.1 yards per game (2nd FBS) and an FBS-best 1.99 yards per rush. Penn State has 30 sacks through eight games to average 3.75 sacks per game (7th in FBS). The Nittany Lions also rank ninth in the country with 8.4 tackles for loss per game.
- THE OPPOSITION: Minnesota is ranked No. 13 in both the AP and Amway Coaches polls for its highest ranking since also reaching No. 13 in the AP Poll in 2004. The Gophers are on a 10-game winning streak that dates back to last season and is tied for the third-longest active winning streak in FBS. Minnesota is 8-0 overall for the first time since 1941 and 5-0 in the Big Ten for the first time since 1961.
RING THE BELL
- The Governor's Victory Bell is awarded to the victor of the Penn State-Minnesota contest.
- Instituted in 1993 by Governor Robert Casey of Pennsylvania and Governor Arne Carlson of Minnesota when the Nittany Lions began Big Ten play, the Bell is joined by the Land Grant Trophy (Michigan State) as Penn State's two trophy contests.
- Minnesota provided the opposition for Penn State's first Big Ten game on Sept. 4, 1993.
- Then-acting Governor Mark Singel of Pennsylvania and Carlson presented an artist's conception of the Governor's Victory Bell on that day prior to kickoff.
HEAD COACH P.J. FLECK
- P.J. Fleck is in his third season as head coach at Minnesota.
- In 2018, Fleck led Minnesota to a 7-6 record and a win over Georgia Tech, 34-10, in the Quick Lane Bowl.
- Fleck was previously the head coach at Western Michigan for four seasons. The Broncos were 1-11 in his first year in 2013, but ended the 2016 season with a No. 12 ranking, a 13-1 record, a conference championship and a berth in the Cotton Bowl.
- Fleck played receiver at Northern Illinois from 1999-2003 before going on to the NFL. He and Michigan's Jim Harbaugh are the only Power Five conference coaches who both played and coached in the NFL.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN GOPHERS
- The Gophers are strong on both sides of the ball ranking third in the Big Ten in both total (429.5 ypg) and scoring (38.4 ppg) offense and sixth in both total (283.8 ypg) and scoring (20.0 ppg) defense.
- Minnesota leads the Big Ten and ranks ninth in FBS with 11 interceptions, led by Antoine Winfield Jr. with five to lead the Big Ten and rank second in FBS.
- Quarterback Tanner Morgan is among the Big Ten leaders in multiple categories, highlighted by an average of 15.6 yards per completion to lead the Big Ten and rank fifth in FBS.
- Running back Rodney Smith ranks 12th in FBS and third in the Big Ten with 111.1 rushing yards per game.
- The offense boasts a 50 percent conversion rate on third down that ranks eighth in FBS and second only to Ohio State in the Big Ten.
WINNING THE WEST
- Penn State has won its last 12 games against Big Ten West Division opponents, dating back to an overtime win over Minnesota on Oct. 1, 2016.
- Penn State's last loss to a Big Ten West team was at Northwestern in 2015 (23-21).
- The streak includes Penn State's Big Ten Championship Game victory over Wisconsin in 2016.
PENN STATE-MINNESOTA CONNECTIONS
- Penn State sophomore WR KJ Hamler and freshmen RB Noah Cain and CB Makai Self and Minnesota junior WR Brock Annexstad, sophomores QB Zack Annexstad and OL Daniel Faalele, redshirt freshman OL Curtis Dunlap Jr. all attended IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Cain, Zack Annexstad, Faalele and Dunlap were on the 2017 team, and Hamler and Brock Annexstad joined those four in 2016.
- Minnesota cornerbacks coach Rod Chance was on Penn State head coach James Franklin's Vanderbilt staff in 2013 as a quality control assistant. Other current Penn State coaches on Vanderbilt's staff at the time were Brent Pry, Ricky Rahne, Sean Spencer and Dwight Galt.
- Penn State offensive line coach Matt Limegrover served as the offensive coordinator and line coach at Minnesota from 2011-15, and was also the assistant head coach from 2014-15.
- Limegrover coached with Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck at Northern Illinois from 2008-09. Limegrover was the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, while Fleck was the wide receivers coach.
- Limegrover and Fleck coached current Minnesota wide receivers/passing game coordinator Matt Simon in 2008 when he was a wide receiver for Northern Illinois. Simon joined Limegrover on Northern Illinois' staff in 2010 as offensive quality control assistant.
- Fleck has faced Penn State once before, as he was a graduate assistant at Ohio State in 2006.
- Penn State Assistant Athletics Director, Performance Enhancement Dwight Galt coached with Minnesota defensive line coach Jim Panagos at Maryland in 1993. Galt was the assistant strength and conditioning coach and Panagos was a defensive line assistant.
PSU ON ABC
- Penn State is appearing on ABC for its fifth time this season, fourth consecutive game and 185th time all-time, the most of any other network.
- Penn State is 109-75-1 all-time playing on ABC.
IT'S BEEN AWHILE
- Penn State has not played at Minnesota since Nov. 9 2013, but it's only the second-longest current gap in between Big Ten visits for the Nittany Lions.
- Penn State has not visited Nebraska since Nov. 10, 2012, but will do so Nov. 7, 2020.
- Penn State has not visited Wisconsin since Nov. 24, 2013, but will do so in the 2021 season-opener and again in 2024.
COMING OFF A BYE
- Penn State was successful coming off its first bye week of the season (Sept. 21), earning a 59-0 win at Maryland, and is now coming off its second of the year.
- The last time Penn State had two bye weeks in a season was during 2013 and 2014. The Nittany Lions went 0-4 following those bye weeks, coming up short against Indiana (Oct. 5) and Ohio State (Oct. 26) in 2013 and Michigan (Oct. 11) and Ohio State (Oct. 25) in 2014.
- Penn State has a 18-15 record after a bye week since starting Big Ten competition in 1993.
EIGHT OUT OF THE GATE
- Penn State is 8-0 to start the season for the first time since 2008 and the fourth time since joining the Big Ten in 1993.
- Penn State has reached 9-0 each time in its Big Ten era, going undefeated with a Rose Bowl win in 1994.
- The last time Penn State was 8-0 and played another 8-0 team was in 1978, defeating No. 5 Maryland.
- Per @ESPNStatsInfo, it will be the first time in the AP Poll era that two games between 8-0 teams are being played on the same day. 8-0 Alabama is hosting 8-0 LSU Saturday.
- Penn State's eight-game winning streak is tied for the sixth-longest active streak in FBS.
BLACKLEDGE ON ABC BROADCAST TEAM
- Former Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge will be calling Saturday's game.
- Blackledge led Penn State to an 11-1 record and its first National Championship with a 27-23 victory over previously unbeaten Georgia in the 1983 Sugar Bowl. He earned the Davey O'Brien Award as the nation's top quarterback in 1982, was sixth in balloting for the Heisman Trophy and concluded his collegiate career with 26 school records.
- A three-year starter, Blackledge directed the Nittany Lions to a 29-4 record, including 13 comeback victories, from 1980-82, including two Fiesta Bowl wins and one Sugar Bowl victory.
- Blackledge began his national broadcasting career in 1994 with ABC Sports, serving as a studio and game analyst. He then served as a game analyst for ESPN (1997-98) before joining CBS in 1999. He returned to ESPN/ABC in 2006.
- Blackledge received the University's prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009.
- Blackledge earned a B.A. in speech communication in 1983, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a 3.80 grade point average. A first-team Academic All-American, he also was presented the Eric Walker Award, given to the Penn State senior who has most "enhanced the esteem and recognition of the University." In 1997, Blackledge was inducted into the prestigious Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
TRIO IN RUNNING FOR NATIONAL AWARDS
- WR KJ Hamler has been selected as a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award, DE Yetur Gross-Matos and LB Micah Parsons were named semifinalists for the Bednarik Award, while Parsons was also named a Butkus Award semifinalist and Gross-Matos was also named a Lott IMPACT Trophy quarterfinalist.
- Penn State is tied for the national lead among all colleges and universities with its seven Maxwell Award winners. The Nittany Lions' four Bednarik Award recipients are the most of any school in the nation.
- The Maxwell Award, named in honor of Robert W. "Tiny" Maxwell, has been given to America's College Player of the Year since 1937. Maxwell's contributions to the game of football were extensive, including time as a player, a sportswriter and an official.
- The Bednarik Award has been presented to the College Defensive Player of the Year since 1995.
- The Butkus Award, in its 35th year, honors the nation's top linebacker.
- The Lott IMPACT Trophy honors the top defensive player in college football who makes the biggest impact for his team, both on and off the field. The award is given to a distinguished young man who represents the qualities embodied by Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott – Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity.
MORE B1G HONORS
- P Blake Gillikin and DE Jayson Oweh each claimed Big Ten weekly honors after stellar performances at Michigan State.
- Gillikin garnered his second Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week accolade of the season and Oweh earned his first Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week honor.
- The awards marked the third-straight week a Nittany Lion had claimed conference honors with Gillikin claiming Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week Oct. 14 and Hamler earning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week Oct. 21.
- Gillikin averaged 44.2 yards on eight punts. Of his eight punts, five landed inside the Michigan State 20, including three inside the 10. The eight punts tied a career high, and Gillikin hit a 58-yard punt in the first quarter.
- Two weeks earlier at Iowa, Gillikin averaged 42.1 yards per punt on seven punts, placing five inside the 20 and a career-high-matching three inside the 10. He also hit a 62-yard punt in the third quarter.
- Oweh had three total tackles, including a pair of strip-sacks, against the Spartans. The redshirt freshman took down Brian Lewerke for a 7-yard loss to end the first half and seal Penn State's third first-half shutout of the season. As the Spartans were driving early in the fourth quarter, Oweh posted a 7-yard strip-sack of Lewerke, which was recovered by Ellis Brooks to halt the drive.
DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY
- Three of Penn State's four remaining opponents are nationally ranked (No. 13 Minnesota and No. 3 Ohio State) or receiving significant votes (Indiana), and they boast a combined 23-2 record.
- PSU's four remaining opponents in the regular season are a combined 25-9 with a .735 winning percentage, ranking 10th in FBS.
- Penn State defeated ranked opponents in back-to-back games (No. 17 Iowa, 17-12; No. 16 Michigan, 28-21) for the first time since 2005 when the Nittany Lions topped No. 18 Minnesota (44-14) and No. 6 Ohio State (17-10) in consecutive weeks.
- At Iowa, Penn State defeated a ranked opponent in a true road game for the first time since a 31-24 victory at No. 14 Wisconsin in 2013.
PILING UP THE POINTS
- PSU ranks 12th in FBS averaging 38.5 points per game.
- QB Sean Clifford ranks 12th in FBS and second in the Big Ten averaging 17.5 points responsible for per game.
- Penn State has scored 40 points 18 times since 2016. By comparison, from 2008 until 2015, the Nittany Lions had 18 40-point outings.
Scoring Benchmarks Since 2016 (48 games)
| Pts. | # | Last |
| 50+ | 10 | Sept. 27, 2019; at Maryland (W, 59-0) |
| 40+ | 18 | Sept. 27, 2019; at Maryland (W, 59-0) |
| 30+ | 33 | Oct. 5, 2019; Purdue (W, 35-7) |
| 20+ | 43 | Oct. 26, 2019; Michigan State (W, 28-7) |
- Of the five games Penn State has scored less than 20 points in since 2016, Penn State has won two this season (Pitt & Iowa). Two of the games were losses at Michigan (2017 & 2018) and the other was a loss to Michigan State last season.
- Penn State had a high-scoring season-opener, scoring 79 points for its highest single-game total since an 81-0 win over Cincinnati in the 1991 home opener. The 79 points are tied for the most in FBS this season with Maryland (79 vs. Howard).
- The 72-point margin of victory over the Vandals is tied for the 10th-biggest in Penn State history and is the largest since the 1991 Cincinnati game (81).
GREEN LIGHT IN THE RED ZONE
- Dating back to 2017, Penn State has scored on 107 of its last 116 red zone trips, including 89 touchdowns.
- This season, Penn State is 29-for-31 in the red zone with 24 touchdowns.
- The lone non-scoring drives were the result of a missed field goal against Purdue and a decision to run out the clock to close out the Michigan State win.
- Penn State is sixth in red zone scoring over the last three years (2017-19) with a scoring rate of 90.54 percent.
RECORD PASSING TD PACE
- QB Sean Clifford is the second Penn State quarterback to throw 20 touchdown passes in the first eight games of a season, matching Todd Blackledge's 20 touchdown passes in the first eight games of the 1982 season.
- Clifford's 20 touchdown passes rank 15th in FBS and second in the Big Ten.
- Clifford has already surpassed Trace McSorley's 2018 season (18 TD passes) and currently ranks in a tie for eighth place with Christian Hackenberg (2013) on Penn State's single-season ledger.
- Clifford needs nine more passing touchdowns this season to equal the single-season record of 29 set by McSorley in 2016.
- If Clifford reaches 25 passing touchdowns this season, the three highest single-season passing touchdowns totals in Penn State history will have come in the last four seasons.
- Clifford's season passing touchdown percentage of 9.26 currently ranks first all-time at Penn State.
- Clifford's 22 career touchdown passes rank tied for 15th in Penn State history with Tom Shuman (1972-74) and Mike McQueary (1995-97).
- Clifford's career passing touchdown percentage of 9.86 currently ranks first all-time at Penn State.
- Clifford has five games of three or more touchdown passes this season.
- Clifford has six multi-touchdown pass games this season.
- Clifford has thrown three touchdowns in a half four times this year: 2nd half vs. Buffalo, 1st half vs. Maryland, 1st half vs. Purdue, 1st half vs. Michigan State.
- Clifford has five multi-touchdown pass quarters this year: 2nd quarter vs. Idaho; 3rd quarter vs. Buffalo; 2nd quarter vs. Maryland; 1st quarter vs. Purdue; 2nd quarter vs. Michigan State.
- Clifford became the first Penn State quarterback to open a season with six touchdown passes in the first two games since Daryll Clark did the same in 2009.
STOPPING THE RUN
- Penn State is allowing just 68.4 yards rushing per game to rank second in FBS and lead the Big Ten.
- Penn State is allowing 1.99 yards per rush to lead FBS.
- Penn State has held six of eight opponents this season to less than 100 yards rushing.
- Penn State is one of six teams (Utah, Georgia, Michigan, San Diego State, Wisconsin) to have held opponents to 70 or fewer rushing yards in five or more games this season. Utah has done it seven times.
- Penn State held Purdue to minus-19 yards rushing, the fewest rushing yards allowed by a Nittany Lion defense since holding Maryland to minus-32 in 1978.
- The minus-19 yards rushing allowed is the second-lowest rushing yards allowed in an FBS game this season, trailing the minus-73 yards allowed by Michigan State against Tulsa in the season opener.
- The minus-19 yards rushing is the fewest allowed by Penn State in a Big Ten game. The previous low was minus-12 yards rushing allowed to Purdue in 1998.
- The minus-19 yards rushing allowed is the fifth-fewest rushing yards allowed by Penn State since 1947.
- The minus-19 yards rushing allowed are the seventh-fewest given up by a Big Ten team since 2000.
- Three of the five lowest rushing yard allowed totals under Franklin have been established this season, with minus-19 yards allowed to Purdue, 4 yards allowed to Idaho and 24 yards allowed to Pitt.
TOTAL DEFENSE
- Penn State ranks ninth in FBS and fifth in the Big Ten averaging just 280.0 yards allowed per game.
- Penn State is among the leaders in turnover margin with 14 takeaways to seven turnovers, ranking 10th in FBS.
- Penn State has held three opponents under 150 yards of total offense this season (145, Idaho; 128, Maryland; 104, Purdue). It's the first time since at least 1971 that the Nittany Lions have held three opponents to less than 150 yards in a season.
- Penn State, Indiana and Wisconsin are the only three teams in FBS to have three games with less than 150 yards of total offense allowed this season. Since 2000, Michigan (2015) and Ohio State (2007) are the only other Big Ten teams to accomplish the feat.
- The Nittany Lions are the first team in FBS to have held three opponents to 150 total yards or less in a single season since Boston College did so against four opponents in 2016.
- The 104 yards allowed by Penn State against Purdue are the second-fewest given up by the Lions in a Big Ten game and the fewest since giving up 87 to Rutgers in 2016.
BLOCKED KICKS
- Penn State has blocked four kicks, including three punts (2 vs. Idaho; 1 vs. Buffalo) and a field goal (1 at Michigan State) to rank third in FBS this season.
- Penn State's three blocked punts are tied for the national lead with Houston and Nebraska.
- DE Shaka Toney blocked his first career kick on 46-yard field goal at Michigan State.
- The blocked field goal is the first for Penn State since Nick Scott blocked an attempt at Michigan in 2018.
- Journey Brown earned his first career block against Buffalo.
- Jonathan Sutherland blocked two punts against Idaho for the first blocked punts of his career. He is tied for the national lead in blocked kicks with seven others.
- The last time Penn State was credited with two blocked punts in the same game was against Louisiana Tech in 2000.