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Paterno prays for rain against Florida’s speed
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Penn State coach Joe Paterno answers a question during his weekly NCAA college football news conference on Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010 in State College, Pa. Penn State hosts Michigan State on Saturday.
Associated Press
STATE COLLEGE, Pa.
Big Ten brawn vs. SEC speed.
About the only way that Penn State coach Joe Paterno thinks his Nittany Lions can keep up with the Florida Gators’ speed in the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day is if Mother Nature intervenes.
A bowl game between two of college football’s high-profile programs may again test whether the relatively plodding Big Ten can keep up with 40 yard-dash champs from the South.
“The one thing that comes at you is their speed. I don’t think we can match their speed,” Paterno said Monday. “Obviously we have to be in good position, we can’t miss tackles ... We’ve got to play a good, solid football game.”
Now, if by chance rain were to bog down the Raymond James Stadium field before the game, that may even things out somewhat in Paterno’s mind. Rain was a huge factor in Penn State’s bowl game last season, when torrential morning downpours turned the Capital One Bowl field in Orlando into muddy mosh pit.
The Nittany Lions emerged from the muck with an exciting 19-17 victory over another SEC team, LSU, for Paterno’s record 24th bowl win.
“The same thing worried me in the football game, and the good Lord took care of us. It rained like the dickens,” Paterno said. “Now can I get it to rain [this year], and the field will be nice and sloppy? Maybe that speed won’t be quite as prominent a factor.”
Weather worries aside, the trip to Tampa for a Jan. 1 bowl game is a nice landing spot for a 7-5 Penn State team that lost its four marquee matchups of the regular season — to Alabama, Iowa, Ohio State and Michigan State — plus a disappointing homecoming weekend defeat to Illinois.
Penn State, Illinois and Iowa each finished with identical 4-4 conference records. The Outback Bowl, which gets the next pick of Big Ten non-BCS teams after the Capital One, went with the Nittany Lions and set up a marquee coaching matchup against Florida’s Urban Meyer.
Each coach has won two national titles at their respective schools.