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Penn State predictions on target

PASADENA, CALIF. — For weeks, all Penn State heard was that it was just another overrated Big Ten team that could not compete with NFL-caliber Southern Cal.

The Nittany Lions were told to come to California, check out the beach and maybe try some celebrity spying, but not to expect to enter the Rose Bowl and contend with the mighty Trojans on their home turf.

The Lions insisted that their critics were wrong.

Unfortunately for Penn State, every prediction hit its target on Thursday. Looking national championship-worthy, USC blindsided the Lions, 38-24, in a lopsided Rose Bowl that was nowhere near as close as the final score.

The No. 5 Trojans improved to 12-1 with their fifth straight Rose Bowl win over a Big Ten opponent. In those victories, USC won by an average score of 37-18. The loss by No. 6 Penn State (11-2) dropped the Big Ten to 1-5 in bowl games this season. The Pacific Ten is 5-0.

The defeat was the Lions’ first in a bowl game since 2002, when they fell to Auburn, 13-9, in the Capital One Bowl. After his record 35th bowl game, coach Joe Paterno’s mark fell to 23-11-1 in the postseason. The 82-year-old coach, still recovering from hip-replacement surgery, directed his team from the press box, as he did for the final seven games of the regular season.

For Penn State’s senior class, the ending was bitter despite a successful four years that saw the program return to prominence. The group came to State College when the football in Happy Valley was dismal. But the seniors leave with two Big Ten titles and a four-year mark of 40-11.