JoePa, Penn State headed to Rose Bowl showdown with USC

Dec 8, 2008 - 4:20 AM PASADENA, California (Ticker) -- Joe Paterno's 43rd season at Penn State will not end with a national title.

Instead, college football's winningest coach will ring in the new year at the sport's oldest bowl game.

Paterno will roam the sidelines at the Rose Bowl for the first time in 14 years when his Nittany Lions take on Pac-10 Conference champion Southern California in the Grandaddy of Them All.

Penn State (11-1), which won its third Big Ten Conference title under Paterno, finished eighth in the final BCS standings, which were released Sunday.

The Nittany Lions won their first nine games before suffering a 24-23 upset to Iowa on November 8, when the Hawkeyes kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired.

So rather than attempting to win his third national championship, the 81-year-old Paterno will make his first trip to Pasadena since guiding the Nittany Lions to a 12-0 record in 1994. The Nittany Lions punctuated that undefeated campaign with a 38-20 rout of Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

"Playing in the Rose Bowl will be a wonderful experience for our team," said Paterno, who has posted a 383-126-3 record at Penn State. "They have worked hard all season and have been a great group."

Penn State's next opponent will be the talented Trojans (11-1), who clinched their seventh straight Pac-10 title with Saturday's 28-7 victory over rival UCLA.

USC, which placed fifth in the final BCS standings, also missed an opportunity to compete for this season's national championship. Boasting the No. 1 ranking at the time, the Trojans dropped a 27-21 decision at Oregon State on September 25.

But thanks to the nation's top-ranked defense, USC won its final nine games and held eight of those opponents to 10 points or less.

"I thought we had a terrific football season," USC coach Pete Carroll said. "I'm really proud of the consistency. I'm proud that we've kept the program at the top of the conference."

The 95th Rose Bowl, which will be played on New Year's Day, will mark the third time that Penn State and USC clash in a postseason game. The storied programs met in the 1923 Rose Bowl, when Penn State posted a 14-3 victory.

The last time Penn State and USC played in a bowl game was the 1982 Fiesta Bowl, when the Trojans rolled to a 26-10 triumph over Paterno's Nittany Lions.

JoePa knows that the Trojans will present his team with another daunting challenge this time.

"It will be a terrific challenge to play Southern Cal, who I think is one of the three best teams in the nation," he said.