Spartans a worthy rival, er, season-ending opponent

There's a segment in the Mirror Gameday section, you've probably all seen it, called "Bleeding Blue and White," that features memories of Penn State fans.

Under the "my favorite rivalry" category, Michigan State is almost never the answer.

And it probably never will be.

The most frequent responses are Pitt, although the teams have played just four times since 1992, and Ohio State or Michigan.

Even if Penn State and Michigan State play another hundred years, they'll never evolve into the rivalry of the Pitt series because of geography.

And the Buckeyes and Wolverines are spoken for, thank you.

But absent of the restoration of the Pitt series as an annual post-Thanksgiving event that will likely never happen as long as the teams remain in separate leagues - another story for another day - Michigan State is about as good of a regular-season finale as the Lions can get.

And a very tough out, especially in East Lansing.

Joe Paterno acknowledged as much this week.

"Michigan State plays well against us at home," he said. "We [coaching staff] just talked about that this morning, how tough they've been out there in Lansing for us. How is the rivalry? It depends on the year."

It's not a rivalry until the other guy wins, and Michigan State has won its share.

In the 16 meetings since Penn State joined the Big Ten, the Nits are 12-4 against MSU, but they're only 4-4 at Spartan Stadium, where they've lost two of their three most recent visits.

That includes the last trip, in 2007 when the Lions blew a 24-7 second-half lead and lost 35-31.

This series has had a little bit of everything. Of PSU's four wins in East Lansing, only one has been by more than a touchdown and two, in 1993 and '95, needed late comebacks.

The Lions have also been crushed a couple of times in Spartyland, where Michigan State has scored more than 30 points five times in the last six meetings.

Today's game would appear to have the makings of another close one.

Michigan State is trying to take another positive step in the third year under Mark Dantonio, and Penn State remains in the hunt for a BCS berth.

Plus though he denied it after the game last year, Dantonio wasn't pleased that PSU threw a 59-yard touchdown pass to take a 49-7 lead in the fourth quarter of last year's 49-18 rout.

He made his point by calling timeout twice with 10 seconds remaining.

Don't be surprised if that extra incentive helps the Spartans put their best foot forward against a Penn State team that has started slowly and sputtered since beating Michigan a month ago.

Whether the Lions are good enough to withstand that will add another chapter to this entertaining series - one Penn State fans should appreciate.

After all, if not Michigan State, the Lions could be winding up with Minnesota or Indiana.

Or, perish the thought, Iowa.

Rudel can be reached at 946-7527 or nrudel@altoonamirror.com.