The Syracuse Orange visit Beaver Stadium to take on the No. 5/7 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions for the first time since 1990. The two schools used to be big rivals, as the two will meet for the 70th time on Saturday at noon. Penn State holds the all-time series advantage 41-23-5.

Last week Penn State (1-0) scored 31 first-half points to defeat Akron 31-7. Syracuse (0-1) lost at home to Minnesota 23-20 in overtime.

Daryll Clark won Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors for his 29-40, 353 yard performance. His 254 passing yards in the first half broke a school record and he also tossed three touchdowns.

His unproven receiving core looked solid. In his first career start, sophomore Derek Moye caught six balls for 138 yards and a touchdown. Chaz Powell led the Nittnay Lions with seven receptions. He had 65 yards and a touchdown.

Graham Zug posted five catches for 62 yards and one touchdown as well. Look for the wide receivers to keep improving.

The inexperienced offensive line pass blocked relatively well, but their run blocking needs improvement. Evan Royster could only muscle out 61 yards on 14 carries and Stephfon Green was ineffective.

The run game will have to be a lot better in the future and the Syracuse game is a good test to see if it has progressed in a week.

The defense was superb, especially in the first half when they did not allow a single first down. For the game they allowed 186 yards and only 28 rushing yards. The defense had four sacks, and 13 tackles for loss.

The unit looked strong up front with Jared Odrick and Ollie Ogbu wrecking havoc. Nate Stupar made a career-high 12 tackes when he was forced into more playing time with Navarro Bowman going out with a groin injury.

It will be interesting to see if the defense can perform in a similar way against a Big East opponent. Also it will be interesting to see if Bowman plays and how much.

Doug Marrone almost won his Syracuse coaching debut, but the Golden Gophers came from behind to win in overtime inside the Carrier Dome Saturday. Greg Paulus also made his Syracuse debut at quarterback. His interception in OT was costly but he played well overall, considering he hadn’t played since high school.

He was 19-31 with one touchdown and one interception. The noise of Beaver Stadium will provide a tough test for Paulus, but he is used to playing in rowdy environments when he was playing basketball in the ACC at Duke.

Syracuse only managed 2.6 yards per rush last week, so they should find it touch sledding in the trenches again.

Mike Williams caught seven passes for 94 yards and a touchdown and showed good timing with Paulus. This combination will challenge a still unproven Penn State secondary.

The Syracuse defense held a good passing team in Minnesota to 248 yards and below a 50 percent completion rate.

An interesting side note is that neither team scored a single point in the second half of their week one game. Will that change on Saturday?

Also, will this game look a lot like the 2008 meeting when Penn State decimated the Orange 55-13 in the Carrier Dome?