Dateline—Evanston, Ill.
Penn State's Joe Paterno tied Alabama's Bear Bryant on Saturday for most Division I football victories: 323. With a win at home against Ohio State next week, Paterno would become the all-time winningest coach.
Penn State entered the game against Northwestern averaging just eight points a contest; it also had the nation's worst rushing offense. But the Nittany Lions came out of their slumber on this Saturday afternoon. Penn State, 1–4 overall and 1–3 in the Big Ten, accumulated 501 yards of total offense against a porous Northwestern defense, including a season-high 213 rushing. Paterno's team had scored only 31 points in its previous four games.
The Nittany Lions came from behind five times during the afternoon, scoring the winning touchdown with 22 seconds left in the contest. The final score was 38–35. Northwestern, 4–2 overall and 2–2 in the Big Ten, had entered the game ranked No. 22.
Zack Mills, a redshirt freshman, was the hero. He came off the bench with 1:39 remaining and led Penn State to its winning score after junior Matt Senneca, the starting quarterback who was enjoying his best collegiate game ever, was knocked out on a jarring tackle.
The drive, with Senneca at the controls, had started at the Penn State 31 yard line. Mills entered the game with the ball on the Penn State 48, and his team was facing second-and-10.
Direct quotation from Paterno: "This is the kind of game you love. I'm going to go home and get in trouble with a good stiff bourbon. Then I'm going to take a nap and get out some Ohio State tapes."
Paterno is 74 years old. His record stands at 323–94–3 in 36 seasons at Penn State. Bryant was
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323–85–17 in 38 seasons at Maryland, Texas A&M and Alabama. Florida State's Bobby Bowden was going for his 319th victory Saturday night against Virginia.
Direct quotation from Paterno: "The thing that's special for me is I've been able to coach that long. Not many guys get to coach 300 games. I've coached a lot and I've enjoyed it."
The winning score came on a 4-yard pass from Mills to Eric McCoo.
Paterno said after the game that he had not even thought about the record until asked about it. Deflecting the credit and focus to his players is a Paterno characteristic.
Penn State never led in the game until Robbie Gould kicked a 24-yard field goal with 3:36 left to put the Nittany Lions up by 31–28.
Northwestern quickly marched down the field behind quarterback Zak Kustok. He ran for his third touchdown of the game with 2:03 left to put the Wildcats on top, 35–31.
Mills was brilliant during his brief time on the field. He completed 5 of 8 passes during the drive, including the game winner to McCoo. The touchdown pass came on first down.
Direct quotation from Paterno: "I thought it was great the way Zack went in cold. He's a very cool and poised kid."
Senneca had played well before being knocked out of the game. He had career-best totals of 20-of-39 passing for 234 yards, threw a 16-yard touchdown to McCoo and had the first two rushing touchdowns of his career, each from 1-yard out.
Kustok, the Big Ten leader in total offense, also had a great day. He was 23 of 40 passing for 298 yards and a touchdown to Sam Simmons. Kustok also rushed 21 times for 115 yards. Simmons had a big day receiving, grabbing seven passes for 168 yards.
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Exercise 23.2
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2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education