LOOKING AHEAD
Penn State vs. Indiana, 3:30 p.m., Saturday, Memorial Stadium, Bloomington, Ind. Penn State is making its first appearance in Bloomington since 1996. The game in 2000 was at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
NOTEBOOK
Defensive end Michael Haynes had another big day. He had three more sacks, giving him 12 1/2 for the season. He needs three more to set the Penn State single season record set by Larry Kubin in 1979. He also forced his sixth fumble of the season in the fourth quarter. He leads the Big Ten Conference in forced fumbles.
“He’s a good player,” Coach Joe Paterno said. “We had two or three kids who didn’t know how good they were, and Michael was one of them. Once he understood what he needed to do, he’s been playing really well.”
Penn State broke an NCAA record for total attendance (home and road games). The 108,698 fans in attendance yesterday boosted the season total to 1,045,164. In nine of 10 games this season, the Nittany Lions have played before at least 100,000 fans. The previous record was held by Michigan, which played before 1,044,370 fans in 1997.
Third-string quarterback Chris Ganter scored his first career touchdown, a 30-yard run off a fake field on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Junior walk-on Andy Ryland, a 6-foot-1, 237-pounder from State College High School, starter at inside linebacker for Gino Capone, whose neck was injured in practice last week.
Wide receiver Bryant Johnson moved into fifth place on the school’s list for receiving yards with 1,868. He moved past Jack Curry yesterday and needs 27 yards to pass Joe Jurevicus for fourth place.
Bryant Johnson and Tony Johnson have each caught passes in 20 consecutive games.
A 44-yard touchdown run by tailback Larry Johnson was called back because of an illegal block in the back by Bryant Johnson. It was the second time in as many weeks Johnson has had a touchdown called back because of a penalty. An 84-yard run against Illinois was called back.
Representatives for the Outback Bowl and Capital One Bowl were in attendance yesterday.
Larry Johnson broke the school record for all-purpose yards with 251, boosting his season total to 1,959 yards. He broke O.J. McDuffie’s record, which was set in 1992. Johnson moved closer to Lydell Mitchell’s school record for rushing yards in a season. Johnson, who has 1,409 yards, needs 159 yards to set the record. Mitchell had 1,567 yards in 1971.
Virginia Coach Al Groh said the outcome of the game was decided by Penn State’s power running game. “That’s why coaches are looking for big linemen,” Groh said. “When you have that kind of team, you can pound it. When you have those types of players, you can dictate the line of scrimmage, and I thought that was the case out there today. From a power standpoint, they just showed more power than we did.”
The Penn State held its seventh opponent to fewer than 100 yards rushing. Virginia managed 30 yards on the ground. The Lions have allowed only one running back (Fred Russell) to gain 100 yards against them this season.
Safety Shawn Mayer had eight tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery.
Penn State had some time management issues in the second quarter. Quarterback Zack Mills called consecutive timeouts after incompleted passes with about four minutes to go in the half. The Lions were at the Virginia 25 when they called their final timeout with 58 seconds remaining. On second-and-13, the coaches took Mills out of the game and had Michael Robinson run a quarterback draw. Robinson gained 9 yards, but the clock kept ticking. There was some indecision on the sideline about the next play call, and Mills came back into the game and threw an incomplete pass to fullback Paul Jefferson in the flat. Robbie Gould kicked a 33-yard field goal for a 10-7 lead with 16 seconds left.
Virginia tight end Heath Miller caught his eighth touchdown pass of the season, which tied an Atlantic Coast Conference record for a tight end.
Virginia linebacker Darryl Blackstock had a sack and now has nine for the season, which is an ACC record for freshmen.
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