A Lionized Defense

The sports columnist of the Penn State Daily Collegian, forgive him his youth, took Penn State's classy fans to task last week. Penn State's classy fans sometimes cheer as if they were at the opera, and are known to garnish their pregame tailgate parties with platters of prosciutto, thinly sliced and rolled, and imported champagne. But the Collegian's editorialist didn't give the fans credit for that. He said they were "humdrum" and "mellow" (maybe it's the champagne) and so "passive" that they complain when somebody stands up for the kickoff.

He asked, "When was the last time you saw anything resembling a standing ovation when the defense came off the field? It's only No. 1 [in the country] against the rush, that's all."

He said it was time they woke up.

He said it was time "for this place to start to rock."

Well, the Penn State fans stood up for the defense last week. They stood up 78,019 strong, those among that record number not pulling for Maryland, and rocked Beaver Stadium as the defense stuffed the Maryland offense like a sausage. And they stood up for the offense, too, as it riddled the Maryland defense, rated fourth best in the country, for 444 yards, or about twice its usual yield.

And they stood up waving signs that said SOONERS OR LATER, WE'RE GONNA GET YOU and threw oranges (for playing Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, get it?) onto the field whenever the offense riddled or the defense stuffed. If a body didn't have The Daily Collegian to tell him how blas� they are, one would have to say it looked suspiciously like the Penn State fans had been saving themselves.

For now it is November, and the promise that budded in early fall is coming close to fruition. Because, for sure, the wide-awake Penn State football team is casting a lengthening shadow as it arrives on the threshold of what could be its first national championship, whether Joe Paterno admits it or not.

(You remember Joe, of course, Penn State's brilliant but low-pitched coach who wouldn't say "national championship" even if it were the password out of a Siberian labor camp. Joe will now admit, however, that this is the best Penn State team he ever had and it is "in a good position for all the marbles." Marbles are what you have lost if you don't think Joe would like that. Just for fun.)

On a day so perfect for football—crisp blue skies, clattering russet leaves among the smorgasbords in the parking lots—that it cleared your sinuses just walking into it, the No. 2 Lions walloped No. 5 Maryland, 27-3. Thus they got their 17th straight win but, more important, Penn State slammed the ball into No. 1 Oklahoma's court.

Oklahoma, the only other undefeated major college team, plays No. 4 Nebraska this week in Lincoln. If Oklahoma wins, it virtually clinches the Big Eight championship and an Orange Bowl trip as the host team. That would result in a showdown with Penn State, providing the Lions do not clutch against North Carolina State this Saturday, or Pittsburgh on Nov. 25. An Oklahoma loss would only multiply Penn State's bowl possibilities, assuming the Lions then move up to No. 1 (and why not?). This prospect brought scouts from five bowls to State College, Pa., mingling like angleworms in a jar and eyeing each other warily.