Nittany Lions clash with Indiana at FedExField

The game, which is scheduled for a noon kickoff, will air on the Big Ten Network, the Penn State Sports Network and www.GoPSUsports.com. Washington Redskins officials have said a crowd of 75,000-plus is expected.
 

Home of the NFL’s Redskins, FedExField, which opened in 1997, has the largest seating capacity (91,704) of a facility used by a professional sports team in the United States. FedExField will be the 66th different facility Joe Paterno has led the Nittany Lions into as head coach and the seventh stadium in which Penn State has played that a current NFL team calls home.

Indiana (4-6, 0-6), which is the home team in the match-up with the Nittany Lions, will be seeking its first Big Ten victory of the season and its first win versus Penn State on Saturday. The Hoosiers have dropped four straight games overall.

Penn State (6-4, 3-3) leads the series with Indiana, 13-0, including last season’s 31-20 victory in Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions and the Hoosiers will be in the same Big Ten division starting next year and will meet in Bloomington on Oct. 1, 2011 in the conference opener.

The Penn State-Indiana match-ups typically have been high scoring, with the teams combining to score 776 points, an average of 59.7 per contest. The Nittany Lions have scored 499 points (38.4 ppg) and the Hoosiers have 277 (21.3 ppg) in the 13 meetings.

The Nittany Lions’ previous neutral site Big Ten game also was against Indiana, as the teams met on Oct. 28, 2000 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. Penn State earned a 27-24 win, as Ryan Primanti connected on a 39-yard field goal with 18 seconds to play.

The Big Ten has not had a neutral site conference game since 2000, but will have two on Saturday, as Illinois and Northwestern are meeting at Wrigley Field at 3:30 p.m.

Fifteen Nittany Lions hail from metropolitan Washington, D.C. with 11 players from Maryland and four from Virginia:

Nittany Lions from Maryland: RB Andre Dupree (Waldorf), LB Bani Gbadyu (Gaithersburg), CB Shelton McCullough (Randallstown), CB Stephon Morris (Greenbelt), WR Brandon Moseby-Felder (Fort Washington), KS John Rohrbaugh (Ellicott City), WR Devon Smith (White Plains), DE Sean Stanley (Rockville), CB Mike Wallace (Silver Spring), Saf Malcolm Willis (Marbury), RB Zach Zwinak (Frederick).

Nittany Lions from Virginia: OL Khamrone Kolb (Burke), QB Kevin Newsome (Portsmouth), T ChimA Okoli (Virginia Beach), TB Evan Royster (Fairfax).

Recent Nittany Lions from metro Washington, D.C. include: LB Navorro Bowman (District Heights, Md.), WR Deon Butler (Woodbridge, Va.), TB Tony Hunt (Alexandria, Va.), P Jeremy Kapinos (Springfield, Va.), DE Aaron Maybin (Ellicott City, Md.), CB A.J. Wallace (Waldorf, Md.) and WR Derrick Williams (Greenbelt, Md.)

Bowman, Butler, Kapinos, Maybin and Williams are on current NFL rosters.

Indiana senior quarterback Ben Chappell triggers the Big Ten’s top ranked passing offense, which averages 287.4 yards per game. He has has thrown for a conference-high 2,730 yards, completing 63.5 percent of his passes with 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Chappell’s favorite target is the Big Ten’s leader in receptions (68), Damarlo Belcher. The junior wide receiver is No. 2 in the conference in receiving yards (736) and leads IU with four touchdowns. Terrance Turner (49-513-2 TDs) and Tandon Doss (48-552-3 TDs) are also threats in the passing game.

The Indiana defense is headlined by redshirt junior linebacker Jeff Thomas, senior safety Mitchell Evans, and redshirt junior defensive Darius Johnson. Thomas, a first-year junior college transfer, leads the Hoosiers in solo (36) and total tackles (67). Evans, who converted from wide receiver to defensive back in the spring, has recorded a team-high three interceptions and ranks third on the team in tackles with 57. Johnson has a team-best 4.5 sacks.