Illinois @ Penn State preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 3, 2009 ) Penn State 35, Illinois 17

Joe Paterno and his Penn State Nittany Lions find themselves in an unaccustomed position heading into homecoming weekend.

The unranked Nittany Lions entertain Illinois at Beaver Stadium in their 91st homecoming contest and 2010 Big Ten Conference home opener.

Penn State (3-2, 0-1 Big Ten) was beaten 24-3 at Iowa last week and dropped out of the USA Today rankings for the first time in 38 weeks. That streak was tied with Alabama for the fourth longest active streak in the nation.

Scoring has been a problem all season for Penn State, which starts only four seniors on offense and has been hurt by a young and erratic offensive line. The Lions are averaging 19.2 points and have scored just six points combined against Alabama and Iowa.

The line hasn’t been able to provide senior Evan Royster any room to run. Other than a career-high 189 yards against Temple, Royster has run for only 164 yards in the other four games. However, he is still just 127 yards away from the school record of 3,398 yards held by Curt Warner.

Although true-freshman quarterback Rob Bolden has thrown for 200 yards in four of five games and is completing 58.7 percent of his passes, he couldn’t engineer a touchdown drive in Penn State’s two biggest games. Six combined trips to the red zone netted just a pair of Collin Wagner field goals. The Lions’ defense yielded four touchdowns and two field goals in the red zone in those games.

Penn State has won 36 of their last 40 at Beaver Stadium. Illinois is 0-6 alltime at Penn State. But Illinois (2-2, 0-1) is coming off a solid defensive effort in a 24-13 loss against No.2 Ohio State last week, which should give them some confidence.

Under new coordinator Vic Koenning, Illinois has surrendered just 18 points per game - 12 points better than 2009. The Illini yielded 47 points in games against Ohio State and Missouri, teams that are a combined 9-0 and have averaged 46 points per game against their other opponents this season.

Illinois had an early lead against the Buckeyes and was within 17-13 with four minutes remaining, before Heisman-hopeful Terrelle Pryor marched the Buckeyes for a game-clinching touchdown.

The Illini were limited to 251 yards, including just 80 yards rushing by Mikel Leshoure, who had his school record-tying streak of four consecutive 100-yard rushing games snapped.

With a quarterback making just his fifth start in a stadium that will be packed with over 100,000 fans, Illinois will use a steady dose of Leshoure against Penn State. Nathan Scheelhaase, the third redshirt freshman ever to start a season opener at quarterback for Illinois, could hurt Penn State more with his legs than his arm. He has rushed for 216 yards on 51 carries but is completing just 54.4 percent of his passes for 499 yards. He’s thrown three touchdowns and four picks.

Penn State leads the all-time series 14-3 and is 65-20-5 on homecoming.