Morelli OnLion: A Dream Matchup

Another week, another win for the Penn State football team.

In today's edition of Morelli OnLion, we'll take a closer look at the muddled bowl picture, look back at Saturday's win over Northwestern and look ahead to Saturday's showdown with Ohio State.

Dave Wannstedt and the Pitt Panthers could wind up playing Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).

A Dream Matchup
With the bowl season right around the corner, Nittany Nation is eyeing a BCS bowl game, which appears to be well within reach.

While the 21-10 upset loss to Iowa back on Sept. 26 derailed Penn State’s chances for a national championship, hopes for a major bowl game are still very much in play.

But let’s face facts: Until collegiate football changes the way it goes about its business, these bowl games mean very little.

In fact, unless you’re playing in the BCS Championship Game, they mean nothing.
Except money, of course.

So fans hope for a good matchup between two teams they don’t normally get to see play.

That’s why Penn State fans were rooting wildly for USC to make it to the Rose Bowl last season. Had USC made the national championship game, Penn State would have more than likely faced Oregon State, a team it laid to waste in week two, 45-14.

This season, there are a number of BCS possibilities for the Nittany Lions, including the Rose, Orange and Fiesta Bowls.

And there’s a intriguing matchup that could very well happen.

The date? Jan. 3, 2010. The game? Fiesta Bowl. The opponent: The Pitt Panthers.

Yes, it could happen.

A number of things have to fall into place for the dream matchup to take place.
First of all, the Nittany Lions have to win out. There are home games against Ohio State and Indiana remaining, as well as a season finale road date at Michigan State. All those games are very winnable for the 8-1 Nittany Lions.

Pitt also has to take care of business. The Panthers’ schedule is a bit more daunting, though. They have home dates with Syracuse, Notre Dame and unbeaten Cincinnati. There’s also a Backyard Brawl showdown with West Virginia.
If both the Nittany Lions and Panthers finish 11-1, then a date in the Fiesta Bowl is quite possible. However, there are some things that need to happen for the dream matchup to occur.

In addition to Penn State winning its final three games, it would need the hated Iowa Hawkeyes to run the table and go to the Rose Bowl and face off against USC. That would give the Lions an at-large bid. The bowls would have their pick with the Orange first, followed by the Fiesta and then Sugar. Since the Orange Bowl hosted the Nittany Lions not all that long ago (2005), we’re guessing the committee would pass on bringing the Nits to South Beach.

To earn their Fiesta Bowl bid, the Panthers would have to win out and claim the Big East title. While that may seem unlikely, keep in mind that undefeated Cincinnati hasn’t been tested yet and Pitt took out a much better WVU team last season.

A Penn State-Pitt matchup would be a long time in the making. The teams have not played since 2000, and a bowl matchup would be a first. While Pitt fans aren’t known for traveling well, we’re guessing a matchup with the Nittany Lions would get the Panther supporters out. Certainly, Nittany Nation would travel better to Tempe if Penn State were playing Pitt instead of say, TCU or Boise State.

A Fiesta Bowl invitation to play Pitt would be too good for even coach Joe Paterno to turn down.

And the matchup would be a good one, for sure. At press time, Penn State and Pitt were separated by just three points in the BCS standings. On paper, the offensive matchups are certainly intriguing. Daryll Clark vs. Bill Stull? Evan Royster vs. Dion Lewis? Derek Moye vs. Jonathan Baldwin? It appears as if the Nittany Lions would have the edge in all those matchups.

There are also interesting sidebars, like Sean Lee and countless other Lions who hail from western Pennsylvania.

The folks at the Fiesta Bowl would love it. In addition to a packed stadium, plenty of former players would make the trip to Tempe. Former Penn State and Pitt legends like Curt Warner, Kenny Jackson, Ki-Jana Carter, Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett would be roaming the sidelines.

For those watching the game, well, they’d feel like they’d been transported in time. Back to an era where true rivals played to close out a season.

Just thinking about the matchup reminds me of James Earl Jones’ speech in “Field of Dreams.”

And they’ll watch the game, and it'll be as if they’d dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

Yes, I know it was baseball, but you get the idea.

This just sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

In BCS land, it probably is.

Looking Back: Northwestern
On Halloween, Penn State fans got a scare from an unlikely source — the Northwestern Wildcats. Pat Fitzgerald's Wildcats were able to hang with the Nittany Lions for three quarters. It was 13-13 before the Lions exploded for three touchdowns in 3:40.

All the experts said that the contest could have been a trap game for the Lions. And while it appeared that way, you just had to know that QB Daryll Clark would rally his troops.

Perhaps the Lions were looking ahead. Whatever the case, a win is a win and the team got it done when it had to.

If Saturday's game comes down to quarterback play, Daryll Clark has the edge.
(Photo courtesy of Blue White Illustrated).

Looking ahead: Ohio State
This is the week Penn State fans have been waiting for. The hated Ohio State Buckeyes come to town to face the Nittany Lions in the battle for second place in the Big Ten.

The story here is Daryll Clark vs. Terrelle Pryor. Pryor is the former No. 1 recruit in the nation and Penn State heavily recruited him. In the end, Pryor chose Ohio State over Penn State and Michigan.

Both teams are playing extremely well right now. But this one will come down to quarterback play and Penn State has the better QB.

Gantdaily.com prediction: Penn State 24, Ohio State 20.

Chris Morelli is the award-winning editor of Blue White Illustrated, a weekly publication devoted to Penn State athletics. He is also a regular on “Sports Central,” which airs on ESPN Radio in Altoona and State College. E-mail him at morellionlion@gmail.com. This column does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of BWI’s writers or publisher.

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