After surviving a tense, 12-inning game on the last day of the regular Major League Baseball season season in which the worst team in the majors had to beat one of the best—and did—Nittany Lions fans will actually have a game this Saturday. Penn State (2-2, 1-1 Big Ten) will square off with the Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) at the Metrodome in Minneapolis on Saturday, with the winner being awarded the vaunted Governors’ Victory Bell.

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I want to say something here about the burgeoning practice of planting a flag at the center of a college football opponent’s field after a victory. Have you noticed that this nonsense is generally perpetrated by perennially second-rate teams that get lucky and beat a good team that performed uncharacteristically poorly? Planting the flag is a classless, “in yo’ face” maneuver that, I suppose, provides instant gratification for a group of live-for-the-moment losers who will go on to lose the next week. Grab the glory while you can, idiots, because it will be short-lived.

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UNIVERSITY PARK, PA, Sept. 30 — The Nittany Lions could have sulked following their loss to Ohio State, but they didn’t, and the result was an important victory over Big Ten rival Northwestern. The final score of 33–7 doesn’t reflect the complete dominance of the Lions over all aspects of the game. What’s more important is that some significant problem areas for Penn State showed some signs of resolution during the game.

The standout individual achievement award goes to Deon Butler, who broke O.J. McDuffie’s long-standing record for completion yardage in a single game. McDuffie had 212 yards in 1992 against Boston College; Butler eclipsed that with 11 receptions for 217 yards. The articulate sophomore received a call from McDuffie after the game and later humbly reflected that his great day was partly a result of the maturation of Anthony Morelli.

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