I guess I wasn’t the only one who honestly felt that the pass interference call that went our way in the Minnesota game’s overtime period was bogus. The Big Ten has apparently apologized to Minnesota. Mike of Black Shoes Diaries has the story. Hey, no one apologized to us for giving Carr two seconds last year, or for any blown call that I can remember. For once, one of those goes our way and they’ve got to spoil it by apologizing? Sheesh!

Everybody except possibly head coach Joe Paterno wants revenge for last year’s last second loss to Michigan. Joe just wants to win. Or so he says, anyhow. Today, we’ll look at the possibilities of that happening this Saturday at Beaver Stadium.

Of one thing you can be assured: Beaver Stadium will be rocking. A “white-out” declaration ensures that the student section will be a sea of white and a Friday night pep rally at Rec Hall will work them to a preliminary frenzy, which will be augmented by the bars of State College. A “Paternoville” tent city will appear outside the gates of the stadium, although the administration recently ruled that tents would not be pitched until Thursday morning. (I guess the party atmosphere that prevailed at last year’s Paternoville was too much for them.) When game time arrives, Beaver Stadium will be loud, proud, and ready.

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MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Oct. 7 — The Penn State Nittany Lions (4-2, 2-1 Big Ten) escaped with an overtime win by the slimmest of possible margins over the Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-4, 0-3 Big Ten). The final score was 28–27, and in this case it really was that close. The Lions were able to capitalize on gifts of a missed extra point and a questionable pass interference call after Minnesota had easily scored a touchdown in the overtime period.

It appeared as if Minnesota had the win when in its overtime series, Penn State could not move the ball, leading to a 4th and 9 at the 24 yard-line. Morelli threw a desperation pass to Deon Butler, which looked like it was cleanly broken up by Trumaine Banks, but Banks was called for pass interference. Looking at the replay, I couldn’t see how Banks could be flagged. And so, Gift #2 for Penn State, this one at the behest of the officials, led to a first down at the 12. The Lions got the touchdown and Kelly kicked the extra point for the winning margin. And we got out of this one by the skin of our teeth.

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