COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Some history will be made Saturday at 3:30 p.m. when the Buckeyes play Penn State's Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium in Happy Valley.
It will mark the first regular season matchup between coaches who total more than 600 career wins between them, regardless of division.
Joe Paterno is 391-128-3 in 44 seasons, all at Penn State. Jim Tressel is 225-78-2 in 24 years as a head coach. He's 90-21 in nine years at Ohio State, and was 135-57-2 in 15 years before that at Division I-AA (now the Football Championship Subdivision) Youngstown State.
When Florida State's Bobby Bowden (377 wins at that time) and Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer (214) met last Oct. 25, they combined for 591 career wins between the coaches.
LINE OF THE WEEK: Tressel was asked how 26-year-old K Devin Barclay ended up on the roster. He explained that Barclay had played in Major League Soccer and then had gotten to know an Ohio State kicker or two, including a 29-year-old former pro rugby player.
"(Devin) may have liked the fact that we were senior citizen friendly," Tressel cracked.
THREE-AND-OUTS: According to stats provided by Ohio State, the Buckeyes are averaging more three-and-outs (permitting the offense to run just three plays without a first down before punting) than any other Football Bowl Subdivision school.
The Buckeyes are averaging 5.77 three-and-outs a game to 4.75 by Florida, 5.6 by both Texas and Mississippi and 5.5 by TCU.
DEXTER DUE: DL Dexter Larimore is back after missing four games with a knee sprain. His teammates welcomed him aboard.
"It's huge," LB Austin Spitler said of his return. "He's a physical presence in the middle. He keeps the guys off the linebackers up front. We really like that. He's a great player and we really need him this week."
SOUND EFFECTS: In case you've never been to Beaver Stadium, Penn State facilities people play the sound of a mountain lion - sort of a (and this isn't easy to spell) "raaaawwwrrrrr" - all the time. For those who are not Nittany Lions fans, the repetition can be, let us say, a bit annoying.
Apparently it's no big deal for visiting players.
"That lion thing? You don't even really notice it after a while," S Anderson Russell said. "They usually play it a lot on offense, so hopefully we'll be able to keep that thing from roaring too much during the game."
HE'S HONORED: The honorary captain for the game at Penn State is Doug Plank (safety, 1972-74), who is an assistant coach with the New York Jets.
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