Penn State is hoping to foil Irish this time

Last year, Notre Dame rolled to a 41-17 win over the
Nittany Lions.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Thinking about last year’s loss to Notre Dame made Penn State’s Dan Connor cringe.

The 41-17 score was bad enough for the linebacker, but the way the Nittany Lions flubbed their way to the team’s worst loss of the 2006 season stuck out even more when Connor watched film of the game over the summer.

Finally, the 14th-ranked Nittany Lions (1-0) get their shot at redemption Saturday, when Notre Dame visits Beaver Stadium.

“That stuck with the defense,” Connor said Tuesday. “We had an ugly game. We weren’t on our assignments. To get another shot at them is something we’ve been looking forward to.”

The talk Tuesday in Happy Valley stopped short, though, of taking advantage of a Notre Dame team embarrassed by a 33-3 home loss to Georgia Tech last week.

Paterno lauds Irish

“Notre Dame was good, solid,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. “When you look at them, don’t look at the scoreboard.”

The Nittany Lions seem to be heeding their 80-year-old coach’s advice about not giving the Irish any bulletin-board fodder for their trip east.

“We’re not going to be very good anyway if we’re that dumb,” said Paterno, in his 42nd year at the Penn State helm. “It’s Notre Dame for crying out loud. They’re not going to come in here with their tail dragging.”

Anxious Penn State fans, though, have been waiting for this rematch for months. Fumbles, missed assignments and a botched field-goal attempt doomed Penn State last year against the Brady Quinn-led Irish.

“Beat Notre Dame” T-shirts are hot sellers in State College. People on eBay are trying to sell their tickets for as much as $500 per seat. The makeshift tent city called “Paternoville” has already sprouted on the sidewalk outside Beaver Stadium, filled with excited students.

Weis will start Clausen at QB

And if there weren’t enough hype in Happy Valley, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis on Tuesday said heralded freshman Jimmy Clausen would make the first start of his collegiate career on Saturday in hopes of sprucing up a struggling offense.