University Park, Pa. — Coach Joe Paterno and a trio of standout football student-athletes will represent Penn State at the 40th Annual Big Ten Kickoff Luncheon Festivities, July 28-29 in Chicago.
Pre-season All-Big Ten honorees Michael Mauti (Mandeville, La.) and Derek Moye (Rochester) and senior running back Joe Suhey (Deerfield, Ill.) will join Paterno at the prestigious event. Activities will be held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago as the Big Ten prepares for its 116th season of football competition.
The Kickoff activities will include news conferences with every Big Ten head coach and players from each squad. Interviews with print and electronic media will take place on both days. The Kickoff Luncheon is July 29, with a crowd of approximately 2,000 expected to attend.
The Big Ten Network will provide extensive coverage of Big Ten Kickoff activities. The network is available to 80 million households on 300 cable and satellite providers in the United States and Canada, but is not available on Adams, Blue Ridge and MetroCast cable in Pennsylvania and Armstrong Cable in western Pennsylvania and the Medina and Youngstown, Ohio areas.
Penn State’s 19th season of Big Ten Conference competition will see significant changes. The University of Nebraska officially joined the Big Ten on July 1 and begins football play this fall, with the 12 institutions split into the Leaders and Legends Divisions. The Nittany Lions are in the Leaders Division with Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin and will play their division foes every season, as well as protected crossover opponent Nebraska. The Cornhuskers visit Beaver Stadium for Senior Day on November 12.
The winners of the Leaders and Legends Divisions will play in the inaugural Big Ten Championship Game in primetime on Saturday, Dec. 3 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis
The Nittany Lions have earned one of the nation’s top records since the start of the 2005 season, posting a 58-19 (75.3) mark, tied with Oregon for No. 12 nationally. The Nittany Lions earned their 12th New Year’s or Bowl Championship Series berth last year since starting Big Ten play in 1993 and are a conference-best 10-4 in bowl games as Big Ten members.
In his 46th season as head coach of the Nittany Lions, Paterno owns a 401-135-3 (74.7) career record. In his 62nd year in Happy Valley, the Hall of Fame coach is the all-time victories leader among major college coaches and is seven wins away from tying Grambling’s Eddie Robinson (408) for second place in career wins among coaches from all NCAA divisions. Paterno has led Penn State to two national championships (1982, ’86), five unbeaten and untied seasons (1968, ’69, ’73, ’86, ’94) and is the all-time leader in bowl appearances (37) and wins (24-12-1). He has guided the Nittany Lions to a 17-8 record in New Year’s bowl games.
Paterno has produced more than 350 NFL players, 78 first team All-Americans, 47 Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 16 National Football Foundation Hall of Fame Scholar Athletes and 18 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners during his illustrious career. He has been selected the AFCA Coach of the Year an unprecedented five times, including 2005, when he led the Lions to an 11-1 record and the Big Ten and FedEx Orange Bowl titles. Paterno has been named Big Ten Dave McClain Coach of the Year three times, including 2008, when he led the Nittany Lions to an 11-2 mark, the Big Ten title and a berth in the Rose Bowl.
In December 2010, the Big Ten announced the winning team in the Big Ten Football Championship Game will earn the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy.
A senior wide receiver, Moye is earning pre-season first team All-Big Ten notice. A Biletnikoff Award candidate, he led the Nittany Lions in 2010 with 53 catches for 885 yards and eight touchdowns, catching at least one scoring strike in seven of the last eight games. Moye was named 2010 honorable mention all-conference after averaging 16.7 yards per catch, which was second highest in the Big Ten. His 68.1-yard per game was good for fifth in the league.
Moye enters the season ranked 11th in Penn State annals with 104 receptions and 1,741 receiving yards. The former Rochester High School all-stater needs 22 catches and 266 yards to move into the top five in each category. The 6-5 Moye is on schedule to graduate in December.
A redshirt junior linebacker, Mauti will be a leader for the defense, which returns seven starters. Despite missing all or parts of four games last year with injuries, he finished fifth on the team with 67 tackles. Also earning 2011 pre-season first-team All-Big Ten recognition, the "Linebacker U." standout started seven games last year, recording 5.5 tackles for loss and two sacks.
A Nagurski Trophy candidate, Mauti recorded a career-high 11 tackles, with 3.0 TFL, in the historic comeback win over Northwestern to earn Big Ten Co-Defensive Player of the Week accolades. The former Mandeville High School All-American broke his career-high in tackles in three consecutive games last season, topped by the effort against the Wildcats in Coach Joe Paterno’s 400th win.
A senior, Suhey made seven starts last season while playing in every game on offense and special teams. He was seventh on the team with 15 receptions for 154 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown catch vs. Michigan State. Suhey started five straight games from Alabama through Illinois and has nine career starts. He played a big role in the historic 35-21 comeback win over Northwestern, making a career-high six receptions for 67 yards.
Suhey was a standout at Loyola Academy in suburban Chicago. He earned Academic All-Big Ten honors last fall and graduated in May.
The Nittany Lions return 41 letterwinners and 15 starters for the 2011 season, (7 offense, 7 defense, 1 specialist), as well as 17 players that have starting experience. Penn State opens its 125th season Sept. 3 vs. Indiana State in Beaver Stadium and Alabama visits Happy Valley on Sept. 10 (3:30 p.m. kick) for the first time since 1989. All Penn State fans are encouraged to wear white to the Alabama game.
Penn State Football season tickets are available. Ticket information is available online at www.GoPSUsports.com/tickets or fans can call Penn State Athletics Customer Relations at 1-800-NITTANY (648-8269) Monday through Friday from 9 a.m-5 p.m.
