Lion Tales: Wisconsin

The fun of this series is that I can throw out a “classic” Penn State football season and you’ll immediately remember a game or two that made that year.

I say 2016 and the blocked kick against Ohio State and the Big Ten title game rally against Wisconsin come right to mind.

Just last week, I wrote a lot about 1994 and you’ll remember the Michigan game or the Illinois rally or Ki-Jana’s run in the Rose Bowl.

Well, today I get to write about my personal favorite Penn State team ever: the 2005 edition.

From that year, of course you remember the thrilling last-second rally at Northwestern. Of course the game from that year was the defense-dominated 17-10 win against Ohio State in front of a huge Saturday night Beaver Stadium crowd. The lone loss, to Michigan on the last play of the game, is infamous in its own right, while the season was capped with a No. 3 ranking and an Orange Bowl win.

But on a warm November afternoon in Happy Valley, Penn State put itself in position for its second-ever Big Ten title with a 35-14 romp of Wisconsin that is today’s Lions Tale focus.

Both Penn State and Wisconsin entered November with a chance at the Big Ten title and both had single losses on their resumes. I’ve already mentioned the No. 10 Lions’ lone loss that came after 60:02 of hard-fought football. Meanwhile, No. 14 Wisconsin’s only blemish was a wild 51-48 loss to Northwestern in Evanston.

While Ohio State had a lone conference loss, the Penn State/Wisconsin matchup was going to decide who kept alive hopes of also finishing 7-1 in the league.

The 2005 Badgers didn’t have their typical stout defense and instead were relying on an offense that was averaging about 40 points per game.

Against Penn State, it simply never got going as Wisconsin didn’t dent the scoreboard until a few minutes into the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Michael Robinson was simply special in his Beaver Stadium finale. Less than two minutes into the game, he hit Deon Butler on a long touchdown strike to put Penn State up 7-0. He then engineered a pair of 80-plus yard scoring drives that were capped by Tony Hunt and BranDon Snow respectively. The Lions led 21-0 at the half and the celebration was on for much of the second half.

The first Wisconsin touchdown did cut it to 21-7 early in the fourth, but Robinson hit Butler for another long scoring strike and Penn State was safe again. Hunt added a second touchdown run late in the game.

Overall, Robinson played one of his best games of his special senior season, passing for 238 yards and rushing for 124 on just 17 attempts. Butler caught five passes for 125 yards and the two scores, while Hunt also had two touchdowns among his 24 carries for 151 yards.

Tamba Hali led that Lion defense with nine tackles and four sacks. Alan Zemaitis and Calvin Lowry each intercepted passes, too. All three were part of a special senior group that Joe Paterno lauded after the game.

“I was just glad to see them practice hard all week,” he said. “These guys have been through some stuff and they have stayed together.”

With an odd scheduling quirk, Penn State had its lone bye week of the year after the Wisconsin win and ahead of its game at Michigan State. The Lions ultimately won that one and climbed up to No. 3 in the nation ahead of its eventual bowl game against Florida State.