Nittany Lions Host Kent State in Saturday’s Opener

UNIVERSITY PARK – Featuring a mix of familiar and new faces, the 2016 Penn State Football season begins within the friendly confines of Beaver Stadium, as the Nittany Lions host Kent State in their season opener Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Storylines abound with big year-over-year changes, most notably on the offensive side of the ball. New offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead has installed an up-tempo offense and has given the keys to sophomore quarterback Trace McSorley. McSorley will be making his first career start, but gave the Lion faithful a preview of his electrifying style in last season’s TaxSlayer Bowl as he rallied the Lions back into contention against Georgia.

McSorley has a supporting cast many college quarterbacks surely must be envious of. Only six other quarterbacks this season will be choosing between handing off to a 1,000-yard rusher or throwing to a 1,000-yard receiver. Much anticipation surrounds running back Saquon Barkley, who set a Penn State freshman rushing record with 1,076 yards in his rookie campaign last season, despite essentially missing three-and-a-half games. Junior wide receiver Chis Godwin made 69 catches for 1,101 yards last season and is expected to lead a deep receiving corps. Both Barkley and Godwin are on the Maxwell Award preseason watch list as potential National Player of the Year candidates.

The matchup between the retooled offense and Kent State’s defense will be intriguing. Defense is the Golden Flashes strength as they return eight starters from a unit that ranked 27th in total defense last season. Returning defensive end Terence Waugh ranked seventh in the nation in 2015 averaging 0.9 sacks per game and is on the Ted Hendricks Award preseason watch list, while returning safety Nate Holley ranked fourth in the nation averaging 11.8 tackles per game and enters on the Bednarik watch list as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate.

Penn State’s defense is under a different direction as Brent Pry was promoted to defensive coordinator, but the Linebacker U tradition remains strong with Jason Cabinda and the return of Nyeem Wartman-White drawing preseason accolades. Garrett Sickels is the lone returning starter on a defensive line that is reloading after consensus All-AmericanCarl Nassib, Anthony Zettel and Austin Johnson departed for the NFL.

Penn State Season Openers

• The 2016 season marks the 130th in Penn State history, with the Nittany Lions owning a record of 106-21-2 in opening games.
• The 2016 opener will be the first at home since 2012. It is the first of four consecutive season openers at home: 2016, Kent State; 2017, Akron; 2018, Appalachian State; and 2019, Idaho.
• The Lions have won 12 of their last 14 season openers.
• Penn State’s longest streaks of winning their season openers are: 12 (1919-30), 11 (1893-1903), 10 (1973-82; 2002-11), 9 (1909-17), 7 (1942-48).
• Penn State has only lost consecutive season openers twice in school history; 1964-65, 1989-90, 2000-01.
• The Nittany Lions went unbeaten from 1909-30, winning 20-of-21 season openers. They tied Wissahickon Barracks, 6-6, in 1918 and the streak was stopped by Waynesburg, a 7-0 setback, in 1931.

Home Opener History

• Penn State’s all-time record in home openers is 115-13-1 and 47-9 in Beaver Stadium.
• Penn State has won 13 out of its last 14 home openers and its last three consecutively, defeating Buffalo last season, 27-14, Akron in 2014, 21-3, and Eastern Michigan in 2013, 45-7.
• This is the fifth consecutive home opener against a MAC opponent. Ohio opened the 2012 season.

Versus Ohio Schools

• Penn State has a 40-21 record against teams from the state of Ohio.
• The Nittany Lions have played Ohio State more than any other Ohio school (31 games), with the two border rivals meeting every year since Penn State began Big Ten play in 1993.
• Penn State vs. teams from Ohio: Kent State (4-0), Ohio State (13-18), Akron (5-0), Bowling Green (2-0), Cincinnati (8-1), Oberlin (1-0), Ohio (5-1), Toledo (0-1) and Youngstown State (2-0).

Nittany Lions from Ohio

Penn State has four from Ohio on its roster. With the exception of Chance Sorrell, all are true freshmen.
• OL Alex Gellerstedt – Dublin/Dublin Coffman
• CB T.J. Johnson – Cleveland/Euclid
• DT Antonio Sheltion – Westerville/Westerville-North
• T Chance Sorrell – Middletown/Middletown

Penn State-Kent State Connections

• Penn State freshman DE Shane Simmons and sophomore RB Mark Allen and Kent State sophomore CB Darryl Marshall all played together at DeMatha Catholic (Md.) High School.
• Penn State senior OL Wendy Laurent was at The Hun School (N.J.) when Kent State defensive line coach Colin Ferrell was on staff.
• Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead and Kent State special teams coordinator and tight ends coach Dave McMichael coached together for the 2009 and 2010 seasons at Connecticut. Moorhead was the offensive coordinator and McMichael was the tight ends coach. The pair helped lead UConn to a Big East Championship and a berth in the Fiesta Bowl.
• Moorhead was also a graduate assistant at Pitt for the final two years of Kent State cornerbacks coach Hank Poteat’s playing career. In the final year for both at Pitt in 1999, Moorhead served as a defensive graduate assistant. Poteat played in the NFL for 10 seasons after getting selected in the third round of the 2000 draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• Kent State head coach Paul Haynes is no stranger to the Big Ten, servng as co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State in 2011 after serving as the Buckeyes’ secondary coach from 2005-10.
• Penn State offensive line coach Matt Limegrover faced Kent State last season when he served as Minnesota’s assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
• Kent State offensive coordinator Don Treadwell coached against the Nittany Lions when he served as the OC at Michigan State from 2007-10 after serving as the school’s wide receiver coach from 2000-02.

Taking on the Neighbors

• For the second consecutive year, Penn State is playing five FBS teams that are within a 250-mile drive (based on Google Maps from stadium to stadium). Prior to last season, Penn State had not played five FBS teams within the 250-mile radius since 1992, the season prior to joining the Big Ten.
• The only FBS teams Penn State has not played since 2012 within the radius are Pitt and West Virginia. Pitt is Penn State’s next opponent and the Mountaineers are on Penn State’s schedule in 2023 and 2024.
• The last time Penn State did not play any of its nearest neighbors was 2005.
• Since joining the Big Ten in 1993, Penn State is 32-3 against FBS teams within 250 miles.
• All-time, Penn State is 279-110-17 against its current FBS regional foes.
• Penn State will play four nearby teams in each of the next three seasons.
• Penn State is facing Pitt and Temple in the same season for the first time since 1997.

Penn State vs. MAC

• Penn State owns a 23-3 mark against the 2016 football alignment of the Mid-American Conference.
• The Nittany Lions have played 10 of the 13 members of the MAC, playing their first MAC opponent, Buffalo, on Nov. 29, 1900. The Lions lost, 10-0, that day on the road.
• Recently, the Nittany Lions defeated Eastern Michigan, 45-7, and Kent State, 34-0, in 2013, Akron, 21-3, in 2014 and Buffalo, 27-14, in 2015.
• PSU has played a MAC school every year since 2009.
• Kent State is the lone MAC opponent Penn State will face this season.

Forty Letterwinners Return

• Penn State returns 40 lettermen from last year’s TaxSlayer Bowl squad — 19 on defense, 16 on offense, and five on special teams.
• Of the 40, 31 have starting experience — 12 on defense, 14 on offense and five on special teams.
• The Nittany Lions lost the services of 19 lettermen — nine on defense and 10 on offense.

Sixteen Starters Returning

• The Nittany Lions return 16 starters — eight on offense, five on defense and three on special teams.
• Fifteen additional Penn Staters have starting experience — six on offense, seven on defense and two on special teams.
• Among the returning starters are Freshman All-American running back Saquon Barkley, All-Big Ten second team selection Chris Godwin and All-Big Ten honorable mention choices Marcus Allen, Jason Cabinda, Grant Haley and DaeSean Hamilton.

Barkley Breaks 1,000

• Despite missing 2.5 games to injury and only receiving one carry in the season opener, Saquon Barkley led the Lions with 1,076 rushing yards in 11 games played, a Penn State freshman record.
• Barkley turned in his fifth 100-yard rushing performance of the season at Michigan State with 103 yards to break D.J. Dozier’s freshman season record of 1,002 set in 1983.
• Barkley is the 43rd Nittany Lion to break 1,000 career yards rushing.
• He finished 16th on Penn State’s season rushing yardage list and is 41st on the career rushing chart.
• Barkley is 19 yards shy of breaking into the top-40 in career rushing at Penn State, while a 100-yard effort would move him up to 35th.

1,000 by Ground & in the Air

• Wide receiver Chris Godwin and running back Saquon Barkley combined to accomplish a feat that only two other duos have in program history as they each surpassed the 1,000-yard marks in their respective positions.
• The pair is the third Nittany Lion tandem to have 1,000 yards receiving and 1,000 yards rushing in Penn State history, joiningAllen Robinson and Zach Zwinak (2012) and Bobby Engram and Ki-Jana Carter (1994).
• Godwin had 69 catches for 1,101 yards, while Barkley rushed 182 times for 1,076 yards.
• Only two teams in the Big Ten (Penn State and Indiana) and 20 squads nationally touted a 1,000-yard receiver and a 1,000-yard rusher in 2015.
• Only seven schools are returning their 1,000-yard rusher and receiver, and Penn State, Virginia Tech and Indiana are the only schools to do it with both underclassmen.

New Signal Caller

• Sophomore Trace McSorley has been named Penn State’s starting quarterback.
• McSorley saw his first career extended action last sesaon after Christian Hackenberg left the TaxSlayer Bowl in the second quarter due to injury. He completed 14-of-27 passes for 142 yards and two touchdown passes and was selected as Penn State’s TaxSlayer Bowl MVP.
• With the departure of all-time passing leader Christian Hackenberg, Penn State is one of 10 teams that does not have an FBS start at quarterback on its roster.
• The other teams are Arizona State, Arkansas, North Carolina, NC State, Rice, USC, Utah, UMass and Big Ten foe Wisconsin.
• Hackenberg started every Penn State game the past three seasons. He did not miss multiple snaps due to injury until his final game (TaxSlayer Bowl).

Linebacker U Expected to Thrive

• Expectations remain high for Penn State’s long tradition of success at linebacker, as Jason Cabinda and Nyeem Wartman-White were both named to the 2016 Butkus Award Watch List. The award, named in honor of legendary linebacker Dick Butkus, annually recognizes the nation’s top collegiate linebacker.
• Cabinda and Wartman-White will be vying to become the first Nittany Lion to earn the honor since Paul Posluszny in 2005.LaVar Arrington also won the award in 1999, and five have previously been named finalists: Shane Conlan (1986), Andre Collins (1989), Brandon Short (1999), Posluszny (2006) and Dan Connor (2007).
• Cabinda garnered All-Big Ten honorable mention accolades and was an ECAC first team All-Star as a sophomore. Starting all 13 games, Cabinda led the team and was 15th in the Big Ten with 7.7 tackles per game. He had three games with 10 or more tackles last season after entering 2015 with a career high of eight tackles during his freshman season in 2014.
• Wartman-White missed most of the 2015 season after suffering an injury in the second quarter of the season opener at Temple, but was second on the team in tackles in 2014. In his last complete game, he piled up a team- and career-best 11 stops vs. Boston College in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. His 75 tackles in 2014 more than doubled his previous career high, with his 6.2 stops per game ranking 28th in the conference.

O-Line Leads Among Career Starts

• Penn State returns 91 career starts along the offensive line in 2016, ranking the unit as the 17th most experienced in FBS, and the second most experienced in the Big Ten (Michigan, 115).
• Brian Gaia leads the unit and is tied with wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton for most career starts on the Nittany Lions at 25, but could see action at center for the first time in his career.
• Tackles Andrew Nelson (21) and Brendan Mahon (20) also boast at least 20 starts each.
• Entering 2015, Nelson and Angelo Mangiro led a unit with a combined 51 starts with just 13 starts apiece.
• The only other Nittany Lions entering the season with more than 20 starts are linebackers Brandon Bell (22) and Nyeem Wartman-White (21).

Small Group of Seniors

• Penn State will once again be among schools with the fewest number of senior-eligible players.
• The Lions’ 12 seniors rank tied for the second-fewest in FBS with Baylor. Only Kentucky has fewer with 11.
• The Lions had 13 seniors on last year’s team, which ranked as the ninth fewest.