2009 Penn State Nittany Lions Betting Recap
Online betting specialists have to marvel at Penn State’s Joe Paterno. In his 44th season coaching Penn State, the 83-year-old Paterno lead his team to a double-digit win season and a New Year’s Day bowl win.
Lead by dual-threat QB Darryl Clark, the Nittany Lions posted a 6-2 Big Ten record and yet another 10-win season. The season began with wins over Akron, Syracuse and Temple. The Nittany Lions were brought back down to earth with a 21-10 home loss to Iowa, in a game Penn State entered as 9-point favorites. The Nittany Lions rebounded, though, and showed off their quality by reeling off five straight wins including road triumphs over Illinois, Michigan and Northwestern. Then, they were held to a season-low 210 yards and 7 points in a tough home loss to Ohio State. Though favorites (-5) going in, they were stymied by a ferocious Buckeye defense. They finished with victories over Indiana and Michigan State that put them in position for an upper-tier bowl bid.
Led by defensive tackle and eventual first round draft pick Jared Odrick, the Nittany Lions put an exclamation point on the 2009 season with a dominating defensive effort against LSU in the Capital One Bowl. The Penn State defense helped out sports betting players who had the under in the Capital One Bowl – the gang of eleven in blue jerseys held LSU to a staggering minus-41 yards rushing. Due to utterly rain-soaked conditions, the Nittany Lions were unable to produce much offensively themselves, but with the game on the line, senior QB Darryl Clark lead the team on a game winning drive with under a minute to play as kicker Collin Wagner’s 21-yard field goal gave them a 19-17 win. One of the big stories of that Capital One Bowl was the quagmire-like condition of a torn-up field at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando. It’s fortunate that no Penn State player (and LSU player, for that matter) suffered a significant career-threatening injury in that game. The playing surface was so chewed up, clumpy, and generally unreliable that the City of Orlando moved to replace the natural-grass at the Citrus Bowl stadium with field turf for the 2011 edition of the Capital One Bowl (plus the 2010 edition of the lower-tier sister bowl game played at the same stadium, the Champs Sports Bowl).
2010 Preview To Bet Penn State Nittany Lions
Given his unmatched record of success even as he has surpassed 80 years of age, Joe Paterno – and NCAA football betting experts know this – will field a tough, talented and successful team year in and year out. He and his staff will put a solid product on the field, now that they’ve worked through a rough patch in the earlier part of the past decade. The year 2010 should be no different in Happy Valley.
Offensively, senior leader and play-maker QB Darryl Clark is lost to graduation. Clark was a natural in Penn State’s “spread HD” offense. Sophomore Kevin Newsome enters fall as the likely starter. Newsome is green (11 career pass attempts), however, he’s mobile enough to produce in Penn State’s spread attack and was a highly rated prospect out of high school. If Newsome falters, freshmen QBs Paul Jones and Robert Bolden could see duty. Returning are leading rushers Evan Royster and Stephfon Green, leading receivers Derek Moye and Graham Zug, and three starters along the offensive line. Whoever the QB, he’ll have help.
The defense loses its backbone in DT Jared Odrick, as well as all three starting linebackers. However, all is not lost. Both safeties and corner D’Anton Lynn return. The defense may not be quite so stifling and the experienced secondary will be the key in 2010
Penn State faces 3 BCS bowl winners from last season, all on the road. After opening with Youngstown St., the Nittany Lions travel to defending national champion Alabama. Three weeks later, they travel to Iowa, who returns 14 starters from last year. To top it off, they travel to Columbus on Nov. 13 in a game that could be for a share of the Big Ten title. Asking a team with an inexperienced QB and new pieces in the front seven to win 11 games again would be too much. But, if Penn State finds a way to beat Iowa early in the season, it could be unbeaten in Big Ten play when the square off against Ohio State. So, while the dip won’t be too dramatic in 2010, a season anywhere from 8-4 to 10-2 should be viewed as a success for Joe Paterno and Penn State.