Penn State to Host Illinois in Top-20 Matchup at Beaver Stadium

The Nittany Lions move up one spot in the AP Top 25 and will entertain ranked Illinois in a Big Ten duel.

Penn State football players sing their alma mater following their win over Kent State at Beaver Stadium. / Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Penn State moved up one spot in the AP Top 25 through Week 4 and will host Illinois for a top-20 Big Ten matchup at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. Following their 56-0 win over Kent State, the Nittany Lions improved to No. 9 in the AP Top 25 and remained at No. 8 in the College Football Coaches Poll.

Penn State (3-0) has been a top-10 team through the season's first month, while Illinois (4-0) debuted in the AP Top 25 last week. The Illini made one of the biggest leaps in this week's AP poll, jumping five spots to No. 19 following their overtime win over Nebraska. Illinois joined the Coaches Poll this week at No. 21.

Though Saturday's game pairs top-20 teams, Penn State is an 18-point favorite over Illinois. The Nittany Lions have been double-digit favorites three times this season. Penn State will host Illinois for a 7:30 p.m. ET game on NBC's Big Ten Saturday Night broadcast.

Penn State set a school record with 718 yards of offense against Kent State, rolling up a record 40 first downs and scoring touchdowns on nine of their 12 series. Quarterback Drew Allar went 17-for-21 for 309 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for another. Tight end Tyler Warren caught and threw touchdown passes.

"It's interesting, because you play this type of opponent, and everybody thinks it's just going to be easy, right? You know, they still got scholarship athletes," Penn State coach James Franklin said after the game. "And I know they've had some struggles this year, but they came out here and fought, and we started out a little bit slower than I would have liked. But overall, I thought we took a really good step. We went on the road and won in a tough environment [at West Virginia in Week 1]. We played well enough to win [against Bowling Green in Week 2] but probably not up to our standard, which I'll admit. And then I thought this week we did what we needed to do.

"So we’ve got to take all three of those different experiences and learn from them, and then get better this week, and we’ve got a really good opponent coming in. I’ve got ton of respect for them. It's going to be a heck of a game, but, I do think we've done what we needed to do up to this point. It hasn't always been perfect, but there's a lot of places in the country right now that would love to be 1-0 this
week, and 3-0 for the season. So, I'm happy with that, but there'll be a ton of things that we're still going to have to get cleaned up for next week."

Franklin added a request for fans attending the Penn State-Illinois game.

"We're obviously going to enjoy this for a couple hours and then get into next week," he said. "The last thing I'll say for the fans, we need this place rocking next week, I'm calling for 'White Out' energy. Everybody got me? ... So that's going to be big next week. We need this place rocking.

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3 things we learned from Penn State's win over Kent State

Penn State report card: Kent State edition

Penn State on SI is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on X (or Twitter) @MarkWogenrich.