Lion Tales: USC

USC will make the journey to Beaver Stadium for the first time in more than 30 years on Saturday night for the annual White Out.

Today's Lion Tales goes back to that trip – September 10, 1994.

One can never write or think about that 1994 team too often, but a little context headed into that Saturday afternoon.

The Nittany Lions were ranked No. 8 coming off a season-opening rout of Minnesota at the Metrodome. Meanwhile, USC had earned a ranked win it its opener, outlasting Washington at the Memorial Coliseum.

The Trojans were ranked No. 14 and were led by quarterback Rob Johnson, viewed by some as a Heisman contender.

His early gaffe paved the way for Penn State's explosive offense to put this one soon after it started. Penn State marched for an early scoring drive, capped by Ki-Jana Carter racing to give the Lions the 7-0 lead. Johnson fumbled a snap on USC's first drive. Offensive coordinator Fran Ganter went right for the kill, calling a deep pass down the right sideline from Kerry Collins to Freddie Scott.

The junior wide receiver made an acrobatic catch, Penn State led 14-0 with 12:55 to go in the first quarter and USC coach John Robinson knew his team was in trouble.

Penn State added another score in the first quarter and two more in the second to lead 35-0 at the break. Carter finished with 119 yards rushing, 67 of those in the first quarter. For the game, Penn State ran for nearly 300 yards.

USC's first score came on a rare Kerry Collins mistake. He had an interception returned for a touchdown as the Trojans made things look a little closer by outscoring the Penn State backups 14-3 in the second half.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that Penn State's sometimes maligned 1994 defense sacked Johnson six times and came away with the turnover. USC was playing without top wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, but Rob Johnson completed just 18-of-30 passes for 221 yards.

The Penn State win completed a four-year home-and-home series with the Trojans. Penn State and USC had played just twice before that four year stretch of 1990-1994. USC won both games in the Coliseum, including a 1991 win against a Penn State that wound up No. 3 in the country. Meanwhile, the Lions had snuck out a win early in 1993 at Beaver Stadium before the shellacking that happened in September 1994.

The Nittany Lions famously wound up going 12-0, but being uncrowned despite their prolific offense and mostly running roughshod through the Big Ten. In one of those weird 2026 anomalies, 11 of Penn State's 12 games were played against teams that are currently in the Big Ten.

The Trojans didn't miss out on a rematch with Penn State in Pasadena by much. A late season loss at UCLA cost USC a share of the Pac 10 title. However, Oregon would still have won the tiebreak. So, it was the Ducks who were dominated in the latter half of that year's Rose Bowl by the Lions.

Meanwhile, USC wound up finishing 8-3-1 and they were ranked No. 13 in the season's final AP poll. They dominated Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl. A year later, behind the efforts of Keyshawn Johnson, they would win the Rose Bowl over upstart Northwestern.