Blue White Illustrated

Northwestern Pregame

Penn State Sports Magazine

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P R E G A M E R E P O R T P E N N S T A T E @ N O R T H W E S T E R N N O O N , N O V . 7 E S P N U NORTHWESTERN FACTS COACH Pat Fitzgerald (North- western, '97) COACH'S RECORD 66-55 in his 10th season with the Wildcats 2015 RECORD 6-2, 2-2 Big Ten Conference - West RECORD VS. PSU The Nittany Lions lead the all-time series, 13-4 MOST RECENT MEETING Two fourth-quarter turnovers, includ- ing an interception that was re- turned for a touchdown, dashed the hopes of a Penn State come- back on Homecoming as North- western prevailed, 29-6, in Beaver Stadium Sept. 27, 2014. GOOD NEWS The Wildcats are penalized less than any other team in the Big Ten, averaging only 4.5 penalties per game. The Nittany Lions, meanwhile, rank third in that cat- egory with only 4.78. BAD NEWS Statistically, Northwestern has the league's least-productive of- fense. It averages just 4.56 yards per play and 331.8 total per game, while running more plays (582) than the majority of the teams in the conference. DID YOU KNOW? According to NCAA.com, North- western has played the eighth- toughest schedule in college football this season, with its pre- vious opponents recording a com- bined record of 32-16 through nine weeks. The Wildcats and Southern Cal are the only two teams in the top eight that have achieved a winning record. | UNDER PRESSURE Hackenberg faced a consistent North- western pass rush in 2014. He was sacked four times. Photo by Steve Manuel RUNNING WILD After pounding PSU last year, Northwestern aims to do it again Some might look back at Northwestern's 29- 6 win against Penn State last year and see it as a signature victory for head coach Pat Fitzger- ald. It was the ,rst time in six games that he'd beaten the Nittany Lions, a-er all, and the 23-point margin of victory was not only larger than in any of Northwestern's three previous wins over PSU, it was also the largest of the entire 2014 season. When Fitzgerald looks back, however, he sees room for progress, and swears that the box score of last year's game doesn't paint the full picture. He points to linebacker Anthony Walker as an example. Walker was the redshirt freshman who stepped in front of a Christian Hacken- berg pass at the start of the fourth quarter and returned it 49 yards for a touch- down. It gave Northwestern a two-possession lead and, ulti- mately, the necessary momen- tum in order to beat PSU for the ,rst time since 2004. Walker also led the team in tackles, but those storyline statistics aren't what Fitzgerald focused on at his press confer- ence this week. Instead, he detailed Walker's

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