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2020 RECORD 4-3, 3-3 Big Ten COACH Paul Chryst (56-19 in six sea- sons at Wisconsin; career record: 75-38) SERIES HISTORY The Nittany Lions have won the past four meetings and lead the series, 10-9. MOST RECENT MEETING Miles Sanders rushed for 159 yards and Jake Pinegar kicked 2eld goals of 49, 42 and 23 yards, as Penn State defeated the visiting Badgers, 22-10, on Nov. 10, 2018. OFFENSE With Jack Coan off to Notre Dame, Wisconsin's offense is firmly in the hands of Graham Mertz. His red- shirt freshman season could hardly have started better, as he completed 20 of 21 passes for 248 yards and five touchdowns in a 45-7 win over Illinois. But Mertz tested positive for COVID the next day, and while he returned to action after two canceled games, the rest of his season was more of a mixed bag. He will be looking this fall to re- capture some of the magic of that opener, and the good news for the Badgers is that he'll have plenty of help. Receivers Danny Davis and Kendric Pryor are set to return after missing most of last season with concussions, and tight end Jake Ferguson is back, too. Injuries at wideout were part of the problem last year, but if everyone stays healthy Wisconsin appears to have the won't be favored to leave Madison with a win. The Badgers may be coming off a 2020 season in which they struggled with COVID-related cancelations, but they still managed to go 4-3, their 26th win- ning season in the past 28 years. Mean- while, the Lions, while weathering the COVID crisis as well as any program in the country, got off to the worst start in school history, finished with their first losing record since 2004 and announced after their regular-season finale that they wouldn't accept a bowl bid if one were to be offered. So while they will head to Wisconsin seeking to extend the four- game winning streak they carried into the off-season, there's some inevitable skep- ticism to be overcome. The Lions are well aware that they have plenty of work ahead as they look to put together a bounce-back season. If the early-September trip to Madison didn't make that clear, there's also a home game against Auburn in week three, and in be- tween those matchups against two his- torically strong Power Five teams is a not-to-be-taken-lightly game against defending Mid-American Conference champion Ball State. Then, when the Lions resume their Big Ten season on Oct. 2, it'll be against the team that sent them into a tailspin last year, Indiana, and the following week they'll travel to Iowa City to face the Hawkeyes, the last team to beat them. All told, the six opponents that Penn State will face prior to its bye week on Oct. 16 went a combined 31-15 last sea- son. So the Nittany Lions have got a lot on their plate even before they get to the games that fans and media will be fixated on weeks ahead of time – the trip to Ohio State on Oct. 30 and the home game on Nov. 13 against what is sure to be a revenge-minded Michigan team. Heading into the 2021 season, it's hard to know how much stock to put in last year's results or figure out what they portend about the coming season. The constant changeover that has always been a part of college football has been accelerated by the NCAA's removal of barriers that had discouraged transfers between Football Bowl Subdivision schools, giving teams the ability to make quick fixes that would have been impos- sible in years past. What's more, the 2021 season was played in stadiums that were mostly or entirely empty, hindering teams that would normally be able to bank on a sizeable home field advantage. Urban Meyer once called Beaver Stadium "the toughest environment in the country" for opposing teams, noting that it was worth about 10 points per game. The Lions didn't have that last year, and while it would be hard to pin their 2-3 home record on any single factor, the absence of fans certainly didn't help. But with PSU expecting to have full at- tendance at its home games this fall, the coming season is all but certain to feel more normal than the 2020 season did. At the very least, it's unlikely that the Big Ten will need two scheduling do- overs to get a playable slate. This year's schedule underwent some minor revi- sions over the winter, as the dates of some games were shifted. But the oppo- nents and locations are the same as they were when the schedule was originally released. As of this writing, all five of Penn State's road opponents this year – Wis- consin, Iowa, Ohio State, Maryland and Michigan State – were planning for full- capacity attendance at their games. But regardless of how full those stadiums turn out to be this fall, the Lions are fo- cused on the factors that are within their control. Offensive line coach Phil Trautwein talked about that in the spring. He said his approach to the off- season was to zero in on finding his best starting five and let everything else take care of itself. "What you're going to see vs. Wiscon- sin is that the best five will go out there," Trautwein said. "During that game, I'm going to play the guys who are ready. You might see 10 guys out on that field when it's all said and done. And you're going to see us be 1-0." ■ WEEK 1 WISCONSIN N O O N | S E P T . 4 | C A M P R A N D A L L S T A D I U M | M A D I S O N , W I S . >>

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