No. 13 Penn State hopes to shake off Michigan ‘hex’

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — Penn State defensive end Jerome Hayes doesn’t like thinking about the last-second loss to Michigan in 2005.

Then-Wolverine receiver Mario Manningham’s touchdown catch as time expired spoiled Penn State’s dreams of an undefeated season — one of five straight painful losses the Nittany Lions have endured at Michigan Stadium since 1996.

Which brings No. 13 Penn State (6-1, 2-1 Big Ten) to its next visit this weekend to its maize-and-blue house of horrors to face Michigan (5-2, 1-2).

The party line in Happy Valley, from coach Joe Paterno to the scout team walk-on, is to forget the past. Hayes was in his redshirt freshman season in 2005, and there aren’t too many other players left from that team.

“In ’05 ... I don’t really talk about ’05,” Hayes said Wednesday when asked why Ann Arbor has been so tough on the Nittany Lions. “That last second thing to Manningham was a heartbreaker.”

To their credit, the last three games of the series at Michigan have been close, with the Wolverines winning by a combined margin of 10 points. Michigan is 5-2 all-time against Penn State at the Big House, but Paterno doesn’t consider the Wolverines’ home that tough a venue.

“I don’t think it’s particularly a tough place to play if you’re ready to go and you’ve got some kids that look forward to playing in places where there are 100,000 people there to watch you,” Paterno said.

At least Penn State heads into the weekend having broken a nine-game skid overall to Michigan after a 46-17 victory over the Wolverines at Beaver Stadium last year.

Still, the Nittany Lions’ last win at Michigan came on Nov. 16, 1996 — when most of Paterno’s current players were in grade school.

“I don’t think it takes extra motivation, or do we think about what happened there before,” Paterno said “We got to forget about it.”

Penn State heads to Michigan on a three-game roll, fresh off a 20-0 homecoming drubbing of Minnesota. The offense overcame a slow start and a slew of penalties to provide more than enough cushion to a defense playing perhaps its finest ball of the year.

That sets up a classic Big Ten contest Saturday between the Nittany Lions’ league-leading run defense (75 yards per game) against Michigan, which leads the Big Ten in rushing at 235 yards per game.

Despite the gaudy statistics, questions still linger about Penn State. Each of their six victories have come by at least 18 points against either subpar non-conference foes or middle-of-the-pack or lower Big Ten teams (Illinois and Minnesota).