EVANSTON, Ill. — Penn State’s first Big Ten road game of a season has produced just about everything during the Nittany Lions’ 34 years in the conference.
There have been blowouts in both directions, last-minute escapes, overtime thrillers and victories that helped launch championship seasons.
Friday night’s matchup against Northwestern adds another chapter and a unique one.
Penn State enters its first Big Ten road game of 2026 coming off a 24-20 loss to Wisconsin in its conference opener. The Nittany Lions blew a 17-0 lead against the Badgers, who scored the game’s final 17 points.
Now Penn State heads to Evanston for the first game at the rebuilt Ryan Field, where the Nittany Lions will attempt to continue a history of success in their first conference road game of the season.
Since joining the Big Ten in 1993, Penn State is 20-13 in its first Big Ten road game of a season.
The history begins with one of Penn State’s best teams.
After officially entering the conference in 1993, Penn State’s first Big Ten road game came at Iowa. The Nittany Lions won 31-0 at Kinnick Stadium. A year later, the eventual undefeated 1994 team opened its season and Big Ten schedule at Minnesota and destroyed the Golden Gophers, 56-3.
That 53-point win stood as one of Penn State’s most dominant Big Ten road openers until James Franklin’s 2019 team went to Maryland.
Penn State entered College Park ranked No. 12 and left with a 59-0 victory.
Sean Clifford threw for 398 yards and three touchdowns in less than three quarters, KJ Hamler had 108 receiving yards and Penn State accumulated 619 yards of offense. The Nittany Lions led 38-0 at halftime in what remains the largest margin of victory in a Big Ten road opener in program history.
Two of the most memorable wins, however, required considerably more drama.
2005 Northwestern helped change Penn State’s season
The 2005 trip to Northwestern became one of the defining games of Joe Paterno’s final great run.
Penn State trailed 29-27 and faced fourth-and-15 from its own 15 with a little more than a minute remaining. Michael Robinson found Isaac Smolko for 20 yards to keep the season alive.
Robinson eventually connected with freshman Derrick Williams for a 36-yard touchdown with 51 seconds remaining, giving Penn State a 34-29 victory. Robinson finished with 271 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, 60 rushing yards and another score.
Penn State went on to win the Big Ten and Orange Bowl and finished 11-1.
Twelve years later, another conference road opener came down to the final seconds.
No. 4 Penn State went into Kinnick Stadium in 2017 and escaped Iowa, 21-19, when Trace McSorley found Juwan Johnson for a seven-yard touchdown as time expired.
Then came 2021.
Coming off a 4-5 season, Penn State opened at No. 12 Wisconsin and won 16-10. It wasn’t pretty, but the defense made multiple red-zone stands and Jaquan Brisker’s late interception helped secure one of Franklin’s more significant road victories.
Penn State followed it a year later with another escape, this time beating Purdue 35-31 on a Thursday night when Sean Clifford found running back Keyvone Lee on a wheel route for the deciding touchdown with under a minute to go.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.The USC comeback belongs near the top
Penn State’s 2024 trip to Los Angeles wasn’t its Big Ten opener, but it was its first conference road game of the season and arguably one of the best road-openers the Nittany Lions have played.
Penn State trailed USC 20-6 at halftime before rallying for a 33-30 overtime victory at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Tight end Tyler Warren delivered one of the greatest individual performances in school history, catching 17 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Drew Allar threw for 391 yards, Penn State converted two fourth downs on its game-tying fourth-quarter drive and Ryan Barker eventually won it with a 36-yard field goal in overtime.
It pushed Penn State’s Big Ten road-opener record to 20-12.
A year later, the pendulum swung violently in the other direction.
The losses have been ugly
Penn State’s worst Big Ten road openers have rarely been ordinary defeats.
In 2000, Ohio State hammered Penn State 45-6 in Columbus. The 39-point defeat was emblematic of a Penn State team that finished 5-7.
Sixteen years later, Michigan matched that margin.
Penn State entered Ann Arbor in 2016 and was overwhelmed from the beginning due to many injuries at linebacker. Michigan led 28-0 at halftime and rushed for 329 yards and six touchdowns in a 49-10 victory.
Remarkably, that Penn State team recovered. The Nittany Lions didn’t lose another regular-season game, beat Ohio State three weeks later and eventually won the Big Ten championship.
The 2020 opener at Indiana was painful for an entirely different reason.
Penn State appeared to have won in overtime before Indiana quarterback Michael Penix Jr. stretched for the pylon on a two-point conversion. The play survived review, giving Indiana a 36-35 victory and beginning a stunning 0-5 start for Penn State.
Then came perhaps the most shocking result of the group.
Penn State entered UCLA last season ranked No. 7 while the Bruins were 0-4. UCLA raced to a 27-7 halftime lead and held on for a 42-37 upset despite Penn State’s second-half comeback.
Northwestern provides another chance to respond
That makes Friday’s circumstances particularly interesting.
Penn State hasn’t lost consecutive Big Ten road openers since falling at Ohio State in 2015 and Michigan in 2016. The Nittany Lions have won seven of their last nine first conference road games, with Indiana in 2020 and UCLA in 2025 serving as the exceptions.
Northwestern also has a prominent place in this history.
The 2005 thriller there helped propel the Nittany Lions toward a Big Ten championship. Penn State has traditionally played well in Evanston and enters Friday with a 7-3 road record against Northwestern.
Considering the history of these games, getting to 21-13 may be anything but routine.
