January 1, 1999
TAMPA, Fla. –
Give Joe Paterno a month to find a way to stop anopponent, and usually he can.
Paterno felt the way to beat Kentucky was make Tim Couch think about morethan whether he’s going to turn pro this year.
No. 22 Penn State grounded Couch and Kentucky’s potent passing attack aftera strong start and dominated the final three quarters of the Outback Bowl for a26-14 victory Friday.
Couch, playing perhaps his final college game, threw for two first-quartertouchdowns and finished with 337 yards passing. But he also was interceptedtwice and sacked six times.
“A couple of things we did confused him … We thought if we could make himthink a little, we could get the rush to him,” Paterno said.
“You don’t get any better than they were on their first couple of drives… We made some changes. Some of the things we did early in the game justdidn’t seem right, and we cut them out.”
Paterno, the winningest coach in bowl history, improved his postseasonrecord to 19-9-1. His 29th appearance in 33 seasons at Penn State ties him withBear Bryant for first on the career list.
Kevin Thompson threw a 56-yard TD pass to Joe Nastasi, Chafie Fields scoredon a 19-yard reverse and Travis Forney kicked an Outback Bowl-record four fieldgoals for Penn State (9-3). The Nittany Lions also rushed for 233 yards,including 105 by Eric McCoo.
But the story of the game was the defense, which ranked 12th nationallyduring the regular season and led the Big Ten with 47 sacks. End CourtneyBrown, with seven tackles and two sacks, was voted the game’s most valuableplayer.
“They made some good adjustments in the second half,” Couch said. “Ican’t remember a time in the last two years that we went a whole half withoutscoring.”
The drought actually was three quarters.
“Our persistence was the key,” Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington said.”I think they protected well early on. But we kept coming. Jerry (defensivecoordinator Jerry Sandusky) kept sending us in, and eventually we startedgetting through.”
Kentucky (7-5), playing in a New Year’s Day game for the first time sincethe 1952 Cotton Bowl, had the country’s second-most productive passing attackthis season with Couch throwing for 4,275 yards and 36 touchdowns.
Penn State slowed down the junior by mixing coverages and unleashing arelentless pass rush after falling behind 14-3 on Couch TD passes of 36 yardsto Lance Mickelsen and 16 yards to Anthony White.
“We did a lot of different things with the coverages,” Paterno said.”There’s no way you can keep giving the same look to a quarterback as good asTim, who is as smart as he is and as well-coached as he is.”
The Nittany Lions also blocked a short Kentucky field goal, stopped theWildcats on downs to set up Fields’ fourth-quarter TD, and turned back Couch’smost promising drive of the second half in the closing minutes.
Couch, who threw for 8,159 yards and 73 touchdowns the past two seasons, hasuntil Jan. 8 to decide whether he will skip his senior season and enter the NFLdraft.
The expansion Cleveland Browns have the first pick and Couch has beenmonitoring their search for a coach. He said last week he might not be willingto leave Kentucky unless he’s confident he’ll be selected No. 1 overall.
He softened his stance a little Friday, saying he’d play for “whoever wantsme most.” He stressed, however, that he hasn’t made up his mind.
“It’s 50-50,” he said, adding that he’s torn between leaving to pursue adream and returning to chase goals he and his teammates have set at Kentucky.
“It’s going to come down to how I feel at the time,” said Couch, whocompleted 30 of 48 passes.
“I hope I get to coach him for another season,” said Kentucky’s Hal Mumme,who signed a five-year, $4 million contract Thursday.
Penn State started slowly, missing a field goal after blocking a punt andsettling for three points after a wide open Tony Stewart dropped a pass insidethe Kentucky 15 with nobody between him and the goal line.
An offside penalty also cost the Nittany Lions two points, wiping outBrown’s sack of Couch in the end zone late in the opening quarter.
The play still shifted the game’s momentum.
Thompson threw his long touchdown pass to Nastasi on Penn State’s nextpossession, Anthony King intercepted Couch twice within nine minutes, andForney kicked a 26-yard field goal just before the half, trimming Kentucky’slead to 14-13.
Forney’s third field goal put the Nittany Lions ahead midway through thethird quarter and his fourth made it 19-14 going into the last period. Fieldsscored, putting the game out of reach after Penn State stopped Kentucky ondowns at the Wildcats’ 35 with just over 13 minutes left.
By FRED GOODALL
AP Sports Writer
