Penn State’s Border Wars in the Big Ten

By

Jay Paterno

–

October 23, 2014 – 8:15 am

This week AND next Penn State football players face two border wars against teams that will for the foreseeable future be division foes in the Big Ten.

While Penn State’s season slogan is “Unrivaled” there is a deeper truth in that.

Since joining the Big Ten as a football playing member in 1993 the Penn State fan base has been searching for that everyday/all-consuming/program-defining “We hate you as much as you hate us” rivalry.

Penn State fans dislike Ohio State and Michigan and they do not like us. But ultimately they will always hate each other more than they hate Penn State. There are no clocks in the Ohio State or Michigan locker rooms that countdown all year long to the Penn State game.

Penn State and the Big Ten tried instituting trophy games with Minnesota and Michigan State that never really took off. The Land Grant trophy is so cumbersome and ugly that we often joked that the losing team should be burdened with looking at it for a year.

Those games lacked what the greatest college football rivalries also have; an element of geographic proximity and recruiting territory crossover. Name some of the best rivalries in college football Alabama-Auburn, Ohio State-Michigan, Florida-Florida State, USC-UCLA, Texas-Oklahoma and Army-Navy.

The other element of a great rivalry is mutual disdain based on a competitive back and forth between the two schools. In college some friends and I road-tripped to Syracuse wearing Penn State sweatshirts.

A drunk Syracuse student came over to me and yelled “Penn State? We hate you guys.”

I turned to her and responded calmly “You guys aren’t good enough for us to hate.”

To be sure, it was a smart aleck response, but also based in fact. Penn State had won 19 of the previous 22 meetings so it was seen as a gimme more than a rivalry, like the kid brother you always beat in checkers.

From the Penn State side we felt a little bit the same way for what was our biggest rivalry before joining the Big Ten — Pitt. Across the last 31 Penn State-Pitt games Penn Stated was 23-7-1 so even that rivalry heavily tilted towards Penn State in the modern era.

In the absence of an all-encompassing rivalry the Border Wars will have to do. The Big Ten added Rutgers and Maryland — schools in bordering states that really dislike Penn State. Anyone at the Rutgers game got a sense of that a few weeks ago.

They have good reason for their deep resentment. Penn State is now 23-2 all-time versus Rutgers (one of those wins coming in 1918) and 35-1-1 versus Maryland; the lone Maryland win coming in 1961. Penn State-Maryland is the country’s most lopsided college football series. Combined, Penn State is 58-3-1 all-time (94.4% win rate) versus the two new schools. Throw in tens of thousands of Penn State alums living in DC, Maryland and New Jersey and that familiarity/proximity breed contempt.

Penn State hasn’t played Maryland since 1993. Back then Maryland fans were so tired of losing to Penn State that when they managed a 13-13 tie in 1989 they tore down the goalposts at Baltimore’s old Memorial Stadium. I know. I was on the sidelines for that game and we felt we’d lost. How much did that tie mean to Maryland? Four year later while I was coaching at UConn I was in the office of Athletic Director Lew Perkins who had come there from Maryland. Placed prominently in his office was a game ball from that tie (game balls are traditionally given out only after wins).

As if to illustrate that the tie was an aberration, Penn State won the next and last four meetings by a combined score of 190-37 (average score 47.5-9.3).

So in light of the fact that Penn State is currently “Unrivaled” the school will have “Border Wars” to get them amped up. Two years ago there was only Ohio State—now we have three border skirmishes.

Saturday night get ready to be loud for the Buckeyes. Get ready to make as much noise as possible to see if the Buckeyes’ phenomenal freshman quarterback can handle a true road test in front of a hostile crowd of wild-eyed believers.

Get there early, be loud, be proud but be classy.

I know there are stories many have concerning less-than-welcoming fans at other schools, but we should pride ourselves in taking the high road.

Big games like Penn State-Ohio State bring out the best in the teams and should also be that way for the fans. In 2011 that was truly the case in Columbus. It was the first road-game for us after the events of early November.

The restraint and even support the Ohio State fans showed to Penn State, and to me personally, is something that I will never forget; making an impression on me that was so strong that I included it in my book. That night remains with me because we won, but also because of the class of Ohio State fans. They resisted the urge society has to “pile on” those young men and Penn State.

Saturday night will be a great showcase in what has become a fierce Border War — but in paraphrasing the immortal words of Ron Burgundy “You Stay Classy Penn State” … classy, but a loud and intimidating wall of sound.

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