Good topic for Thanksgiving week.

I’ll pick the low-hanging fruit of the Nittany Lions beating Miami in the Fiesta Bowl for the 1986 national championship.

A case can also be made for the 1982 Sugar Bowl win over Georgia, which marked Penn State’s first national title, but I’m going with the 14-10 win over the Hurricanes.

I was fortunate to be present for both games and have long considered the win over Miami as the No. 1 victory in school history, slightly ahead of beating Herschel Walker and the ‘Dawgs on that magical night in New Orleans.

Cory’s selection of the 2016 win over Ohio State is certainly worthy, and I respectfully would put that fourth as it was a springboard to the Big Ten championship, which is fifth on my list.

That leaves No. 3, and I’ll give you one hint — 48-14 — before moving back to my No. 1 memory.

The reason Miami is a cut above beating Georgia in 1982 is there was almost a sense of relief in winning the first national title. Joe Paterno’s teams had been snubbed as unbeatens in 1968 and again in ’69 and also in 1973.

And when they did get a chance to play for the big prize on the field, they were slammed short by Alabama at the goal line of the 1978 Sugar Bowl, the most bitter loss of Paterno’s incredible career.

Meeting Miami in Tempe, Arizona had even more buildup and was actually moved back a day to Friday, Jan. 2 in order to have the TV audience all to itself with No. 1 (Miami) playing No. 2 (Penn State).

The Hurricanes got off their plane wearing combat fatigues, and the pre-game hype took on a life of its own.

Further, everyone knows Miami, loaded with high NFL draft picks like Michael Irvin, was the superior team.

The teams could meet 10 times, and the Hurricanes would have won nine of them.

But Penn State played a defensive game for the ages and intercepted Miami’s Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, Vinny Testaverde, five times — two by Shane Conlan.

The clincher was Pete Giftopoulos’ interception at the goal line on fourth-and-goal with 18 seconds left.

To a man, players and coaches from that PSU team said if Miami would have run the ball in the red zone — because the Lions were dropping eight into coverage – it likely would have won.

And to this day, Jimmy Johnson considers it the most painful loss of his Hall of Fame coaching career.

Miami ran 93 plays to Penn State’s 59 and outgained the Lions 445-162. The Lions won despite having just eight first downs and completing five passes for 53 yards.

Those are unheard of statistics in victory and a reason this was one of the greatest upsets in college football history and Penn State’s No. 1 all-time moment.

Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.