No. 8 Ohio State Survives Early Upset Bid By Penn State, Rolls 38-14

McGloin offers a little bit more assuredness than Bolden, and in viewing portions of his play the last few weeks, that’s clearly the biggest difference between the two. Bolden demonstrates more raw ability than McGloin, but his hesitancy in passing the ball can, at times, lead to poor results and stagnancy for the Penn State offense.

I am still unsold on McGloin’s ability to perform against a defense the level of Ohio State’s, but I believe that he offers a better chance of victory for Penn State this weekend than they would have with Robert Bolden at quarterback. While he does not have any wow factor about him, McGloin also does not turn the ball over, and generally makes good decisions through his progressions and reads. He is not a particularly impressive passer in terms of arm strength and velocity, but he displays solid accuracy and a mean ball skills on the play-action pass. It may seem cliche, yet the concept of veteran savvy really fits McGloin. He does the little things well, even though he lacks the big-time talent.

SB Nation’s Black Shoe Diaries reviews the gory, storied history of the Buckeyes-Nittany Lions rivalry:

The year was 1912. Penn State was coming off of an 8-0-1 season in 1911, their greatest record to date. They had made the jump from a respectable team to an eastern power that was beating traditional eastern powers like Pitt, Penn, and Cornell. Under the direction of head coach Bill Hollenback Penn State was facing unprecedented success. But Hollenback had bigger ambitions. He wanted to take Penn State from being an eastern power to a national power. To do that, he looked west.

Ohio State was set to join the Western Conference (which would later become the Big Ten Conference) starting the following year. While they had enjoyed several successful years in the Ohio Athletic Conference, many questioned their worthiness to join the Western Conference due to the poor level of competition. Ohio State coach John Richards felt that a win over an eastern team would give his team more prestige and quiet their critics.

So on November 16, 1912 the two schools of Penn State and Ohio State met for the first time in Columbus, Ohio not realizing how intense this rivalry would become nearly 100 years later.

(Sports Network) Following a break in the action, the eighth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes get back to business this weekend as they welcome the Penn State Nittany Lions to Columbus for a Big Ten Conference showdown.

Despite being idle last weekend, the Buckeyes actually gained some ground in the BCS rankings, moving up from the 11th spot to number nine, while they remained stationary in the AP poll. Ohio State is working on a two-game win streak at the moment, following its lone loss of the season versus Wisconsin back on October 16th by a final of 31-18. Since then the team has dominated the Purdue Boilermakers (49-0) and Minnesota Golden Gophers (52-10), but at 4-1 in conference the team trails Michigan State in the standings as the Spartans show a 5-1 mark heading into play this week.