W2WF: Penn State (1983)

Foxborough, Massachusetts is as understated and underrated as it comes in New England.

The town is located approximately halfway between Boston and Providence. Its main stretch of roadway is Route 1, a highway better recognized as the Automile in nearby Norwood. It's a sleepy area of a sleepy part of the country, a place where the leaves are picturesque in the fall and snow coats quaint churches and houses as commuters buzz through the area.

Everything changes in Foxborough, though, on a dozen or so weekends each year. That's when anywhere between 40,000 and 50,000 locals from the region pack into the concrete edifice rising from the dirt. They go to celebrate the region's local football culture and parade through turnstiles to watch a moribound franchise with exactly one division championship.

The New England Patriots aren't much to brag or talk about, but their stadium is still a place for heroes and legends. It's our installment into the highest levels of football, and succeeding on its artificial turf carpet etches memories that last a lifetime.

This week, Boston College offers its players a chance to feel like professional rockstars when it plays the defending national champion Penn State in its first game at Sullivan Stadium since 1975. The monumental lights, literally and figuratively in a late-afternoon start on national television, is a watershed moment for the team and its players, most of which grew up in the Patriots' post-merger success of the late-1970s.

"Each day, this game gets bigger and bigger," quarterback Doug Flutie said. "First it's moved to Sullivan Stadium, and then Penn State wins a couple of big games. Now it's on ABC. This is the biggest game I've played in my three years here. It's bigger than the Tangerine Bowl was last year. It might be bigger than anything they've ever seen here (at BC), even the Sugar Bowl in the '40s."

The game itself offers a unique proving ground for the No. 19 Eagles against the Nittany Lions. Penn State entered this year with experts predicting a potential repeat, but Nebraska's opening day blowout all but ended those chances. The team immediately slipped from No. 4 to No. 20 before dropping out of the rankings altogether after a 14-3 loss to Cincinnati.

Penn State recovered more than nicely from that start by beating both No. 3 Alabama and No. 4 West Virginia, but that early struggle really drove a wedge in the team's present reputation. That means BC, which lost to West Virginia earlier this season, has another opportunity to entrench itself as the resident bad dog in the Northeast.

"A lot of times you can't look at the points," offensive coordinator Tom Coughlin said. "Even the West Virginia game. The way the game started, you were forced to put the ball in his hands almost every time."

Penn State and BC play annually in one of the region's biggest rivalries. Last year, the No. 8 Nittany Lions smoked the Eagles, 52-17, despite Flutie's 520 yards passing. It was Penn State's 11th consecutive win over BC in a rivalry dating back to college football's ancient era and kept the Eagles winless in the series.

"If we lose, the sun's still going to come up," head coach Jack Bicknell said. "But it's going to be more difficult. We've been given a second chance to do something."

Here's what to watch for when the Eagles "host" Penn State on the big stage:

****
Weekly Storylines

Karma Chameleon

Doug Flutie is already a magician for the way he engineered Boston College's football renaissance. The local kid went virtually unrecruited in comparison to more heralded high school players, and he started his career in Chestnut Hill as one of the lowest quarterbacks on the depth charts. He earned his chance and staked a claim to BC on the national stage, but his resume is completely lacking in one specific area.

The Boston Globe outlined it as much the other day: Flutie struggles to win the big game. He lost three straight games against big time opponents last year, and he developed a pretty bad propensity for throwing interceptions against West Virginia, Penn State, and Auburn. The yardage against the Nittany Lions aside, Flutie threw eight interceptions over those three games, including four in a 20-13 loss to the Mountaineers. Two of those games, including the Tangerine Bowl against Auburn, would've wound up as victories without his turnovers.

Every single one of those quarterbacks from the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft had a signature win on their resumes. Elway was an All-American who finished second in the Heisman balloting. Todd Blackledge won the Davey O'Brien Award and won a national championship. Jim Kelly turned Miami into an upper-tier program before spurring the NFL for the USFL.

Tony Eason took Illinois to its first bowl game in almost 20 years. Ken O'Brien was arguably the best quarterback in Division II. Marino went 33-3 in his first three seasons before inexplicably struggling last year to the second-to-last pick in the first round (still not really sure what happened there).

If Flutie wants to join that crowd, he needs to win a big game. Penn State is on the verge of breaking back into a potential big time bowl game, and a win over BC would seal the Eagles' fate in comparison. That makes this a big game, and it's why Flutie, simply put, has to do something he's struggled to do - win.

A Dozier of Medicine

BC fans everywhere breathed a sigh of relief when Curt Warner finally graduated. The No. 3 overall pick in the NFL draft helped pave a 300-yard road through the Eagle defense in last year's game as part of his second consecutive 1,000-yard season, and he left the program as one of the most heralded runners in the sport's history. A two-time All-American, he's now one of the professional league's most respected runners as a rookie.

Unfortunately, Warner's departure opened the door for D.J. Dozier, an incoming freshman running back who immediately grabbed the torch. The newcomer enters this game with a rushing average well over six yards per carry, and he now provides the team with a two-headed attack alongside Jon Williams. Again, pointing to this week's Boston Globe, a full-length feature of the back told the story of just how good he is.

"Warner did everything," Jack Bicknell said, "and D.J. is the same. Warner could catch the football, run it, run the screen, and block. That's what this kid does. There are a lot of similarities to Warner."

Dozier is one of those freak, once-in-a-lifetime athletes. The Detroit Tigers drafted him in the 18th round of this year's MLB Entry Draft, but he turned down the opportunity to play football. He's likely going to earn Heisman Trophy consideration at some point, and he is already drawing comparisons to Bo Jackson, who was drafted by the New York Yankees in the second round in 1982 but chose to attend Auburn instead.

There's still plenty to fear outside of the running game. Todd Blackledge is gone to the NFL, but quarterback Doug Strang is starting to find his footwork in the Penn State offense. His 1,200 yards and 13 touchdowns make him a formidable quarterback, and split ends Kevin Baugh and Kenny Jackson are capable receivers. Fullbacks Skeeter Nichols and Tony Mumford are both options as well, and the offense itself will keep BC on its toes defensively.

Home Field Advantage

Sullivan Stadium is not exactly the most glamorous location. It's nothing like Arrowhead Stadium or Rich Stadium, and it's devoid of almost all character. Its location is suspect, and the parking lot areas are dirt. Getting in and out of the stadium requires a couple of extra hours in either direction, and my dad told me stories of games that I honestly can't repeat in public. Let's just say it involves severe inebriation of the fan base.

But the stadium is ours. Playing in that stadium still means something because it means a BC home game outgrew the undersized capacity of Alumni Stadium. It hasn't happened since a 1975 game against Notre Dame, but this is an indication that the Eagles are starting to trend in the right direction on the local radar.

That's a big deal. There's a rumor that the Eagles are pushing the capacity limits of the 60,000-seat stadium. The Patriots haven't drawn anywhere near that in the last couple of seasons, though it's worth noting last year's strike-shortened season probably didn't help. The prospect of a sold-out stadium, deliriously rooting on the Maroon and Gold against a longtime rival, is tantalizing to think about.

Having that kind of home field advantage puts the Eagles on the same playing field as the rest of college football. It doesn't replace home games on campus, especially against rival opponents like Holy Cross, but a win at Sullivan Stadium could mean the beginning of a new, lucrative relationship. That effect ultimately has an impact on everything in a region with a proud tradition often overlooked by the blue-bloods of the South.

*****
Scoreboard Watching

I kind of want to just hand the Heisman Trophy to Brigham Young quarterback Steve Young. The southpaw thrower is a descendant of Brigham Young himself, and it might have something to do with his performances. He has 2,600 yards already this season, and he's coming off of a 497-yard performance against San Diego State. This week, the Cougars host Utah State while searching for their seventh consecutive win after losing their opening game to Baylor.

I'm also very intrigued on the local radar by Holy Cross. The Crusaders throttled Brown, 31-10, in their last game, and enter this week's game against Columbia with an undefeated, 7-0 record. Ironically, this is actually Holy Cross' last game at Fitton Field for the season since they head to Harvard and Delaware before wrapping up the season in the annual rivalry game against Boston College. I don't see Holy Cross necessarily holding its own against BC right now, but an undefeated record going into that game would at least steal some headlines.

There's a whole bunch of noteworthy football this week in the Yankee Conference, where every team is weirdly within a game of each other. Boston University puts its 4-3 record on the line at home against Cornell while UMass hosts UConn with identical 3-4 records. Maine heads to Northeastern, another team that's 4-3 (though the Huskies aren't in the conference). URI is the outlier at 5-2, hosting a 4-3 New Hampshire team.

Nationally, Nebraska is still rolling after dropping 69 points on Colorado. The Cornhuskers head to Kansas State this week while staring down a national championship showdown with Oklahoma, which hasn't lost since Texas won earlier this month.

Texas is almost a shoo-in to win the SWC this year after beating SMU, 15-13, and hosts Texas Tech. The Mustangs, who lost for the first time in that game, are at Texas A&M.

It's all part of a really good national slate of games that's going on, the last of which is obviously the BC-Penn State game.

*****
Around the Sports World

I'm not really sure what to think about the Patriots this season. They're 4-4 entering this weekend's game in Atlanta, and Steve Grogan sure looked like he had plenty of gas in the tank in last week's blowout in Buffalo. He threw for 251 yards and two touchdowns while Tony Collins steamrolled for 147 yards and an additional score in a 31-0 win. It was an exceptional performance punctuated by 24 fourth-quarter points and a 50-yard run to glory by Collins.

It was a gratifying division win for a team two years removed from a 2-14 season. Last year's strike season notwithstanding, the Patriots look like they're starting to turn a corner. The offense cranked out 68 points in the last two weeks and are nothing like the team swept by Baltimore in the first month of the season; Grogan in particular is undergoing a renaissance with four 200-yard games in the last five weeks.

I just feel like there's a shadow hanging over this season. Ron Meyer drafted Tony Eason in the first round for a reason, and the rookie looked pretty good in his debut relief appearance against Miami. Granted, the Patriots never play well against the Dolphins, let alone on the road, but Eason's 4-for-4 performance sparkled while Miami's first round pick, Dan Marino, sat on the bench.

Marino earned his first snaps against the Raiders and is now the undisputed starter for the Dolphins. He'll be coming up to Foxborough in a couple of weeks, a lifetime in this NFL. Grogan needs to do more of what he did last week against Buffalo in the coming weeks, including a rematch at home against the Bills, or there will be quick pressure to put Eason back into action.

The bottom line is that I'm looking ahead to a possible Eason-Marino matchup already, and I don't like anything about that. I'd rather see Meyer roll with Grogan since the Patriots, by then, might be in the hunt for the division crown.

*****
Pregame Quote and Prediction

E.T. phone home. -E.T.

I expect almost everyone will be dressed up in the stands for the annual Halloween game, and I'm assuming everyone will don E.T. costumes. That was my pick for the Best Picture at this year's Academy Awards, and even though it lost out to Gandhi (which was also excellent), I'm all in on E.T. being the soup du jour for the costumed night.

But if you're not eating Reese's Pieces by kickoff, then at least settle in for a big game of football. There's a different feel to this game than in previous years; BC feels a little bit like a favorite in comparison to Penn State, and the memory of last year's loss is still very fresh. I believe that plays a role in how a team prepares, almost like the aura of losing to Penn State last year removed something for this year. BC got a little bit better, and Penn State clearly got a little bit worse. That regression to the mean opens the door for some fireworks.

All quotes originally printed in the Boston Globe.

Related Videos