The Big Ten’s days of three yards and a cloud of dust are history.
Saturday night, when Penn State and Ohio State play the unofficial conference championship, the final Big Ten unbeatens often will line up in spread offenses, featuring athletic quarterbacks who can make plays at will.
For Ohio State, it’ll be freshman Terrelle Pryor. For Penn State, Daryll Clark.
And it’ll be a duel with huge implications.
The Buckeyes are the sternest challenge standing between Penn State (No. 3 in the BCS) and a likely shot at the national title game. A win for Ohio State (No. 9), and it will not only knock out Penn State, but propel the Buckeyes back into BCS Championship contention.
The previous time the Buckeyes were on national television in prime time, they were embarrassed by USC, 35-3. But a lot has changed, with stud running back Beanie Wells recovered from a toe injury that kept him out of the USC game and Pryor taking over the offense full time.
Ohio State alum Cris Carter is confident his school will not face a similar fate to the one it was dealt in Southern California six weeks ago.
“First off, Penn State is not USC,” said Carter, now an NFL analyst for ESPN. “And now Beanie Wells is healthy. There is more at stake for Ohio State in this game because they want to keep a stranglehold on the Big Ten. When Ohio State is healthy, they should be able to beat anyone in the Big Ten, especially at home.
“And Pryor is a weapon who can run and throw the ball. His throwing right now is behind his running, but it is hard to defend a guy like him in the spread offense.”
What USC did to Ohio State, Penn State has been doing to anyone that has stepped onto the field with it this season. Joe Paterno’s team has put up an un-Penn-State-like 45 points per game in rolling to an 8-0 start. Former Nittany Lion quarterback Todd Blackledge said the man who plays his former position deserves the credit.
“Daryll Clark is giving something that they haven’t had the last couple of years – he is managing the game, but he is also making plays with his arms and his legs,” said Blackledge, who calls college football games for ESPN.
“The one thing they have going for them that Ohio State lacks, until maybe their last game, is the suddenness and explosion on offense. If they get into a game where they really have to outscore a team, they have that more than Ohio State does at this point.”
Don’t put Carter in the group of Happy Valley believers.
“They’ve looked a level above the teams that they have played, but they haven’t played the toughest teams in the conference yet,” Carter said.
For Penn State, a loss this late in the season could end its BCS Championship hopes. Ohio State did the conference no favors by getting blown out by SEC powers Florida and LSU in the previous two title games.
Voters may not be so eager to put another Big Ten program that does not face the week-in, week-out challenges of SEC and Big 12 teams back in the national title game.
“That would definitely be the end for Ohio State and the same could be said for Penn State at this juncture,” Blackledge said.